History of brandy

Brandy is a spirit distilled from fermented juice of the grape or other fruit. When war of independence freed the Netherlands from the control of Spain, shortages of distilled alcohol hit Holland, consequently Dutch wine merchants experimented with wine distillation on their own.

The name of brandy is of Dutch origin, a corruption of brandewijn. The wine is heated or ‘burnt’ to separate out the alcohol and so Dutch called ‘burnt wine’ or brandewijn. The term brandewijn itself may cover sprits other than wine based ones.

In most years up to 166o the principle source of supply of sprits to the Baltic was Holland. One of the stories is that some of it, shipped in sherry casks, was held up off the Dutch coast and after a year or two was found to be remarkably good.

English borrowed the word in the early 17th century as brandewine but by the middle of the century this as already being altered to brandy wine and the first recorded use of brandy on its own comes from as early as 1657.

The earliest reference to brandy on a vessel in Bordeaux is in 1513 and on a vessel for Ireland in 1519.

The eighteenth century was the great age of brandy smuggling in England, when huge quantities were slipped ashore from France to satisfy the thirst of the middle and upper classes. 

The production of brandy was set-up on a large scale in the US in the nineteenth century, particularly in California. This American brandy conquered the world, and many languages adopted the word brandy from American English.
History of brandy