A History of Brandy de Jerez…

Grape cultivation in Jerez goes back to the Roman era and the Moors who ruled most of Spain from 711 to 1492 were forbidden by Islam from drinking wine. Contradictorily, grape cultivation continued in Jerez and distillation was introduced in the 10th Century mainly for uses in cosmetics, essences and antiseptics. Is it to note that the word 'Al-Kohl' is an Arabic word for the fine powder used in cosmetics which was a by-product of distillation.

As the popularity of Jerez wine, Sherry, grew, the distilled spirit was added to fortify them for export. Soon enough, wine producers realised that this distilled spirit could be used to drink instead of using it to age sherry. This was the beginning of Jerez brandy.

During the 19th Century, a new and important export market with the Netherlands developed. It consisted mainly of selling raw grape spirit aged in old Sherry casks that later became known as "Holandas". Once in Holland it was either diluted and sold as "burnt wine", Dutch expression for brandy or it was mixed with other liquors and resold in the market with a different name.

In 1835 the company Gonzalez Byass was founded and in 1844 the first pot stills were made. In 1845 Jerez brandy was first sold and was also the year when a shipment was sent to Ireland. During the next year, Soberano was selected as a brand name due to the close friendship of the Gonzalez family with the monarch from Spain which is "soberano" in Spanish. Its important to note that by the end of the century, the most important export market for Soberano was Britain mainly because of the successful business relationships with agents since 1855.

Today, partly thanks to the increasing number of English people who visit Spain for their holidays each year, brandy sales for this successful company are increasing every year about 10%.

Brandy de Jerez is produced by the sherry manufacturers mostly around the city of Jerez de la Frontera, Spain. Most Brandy de Jerez is actually made from wine produced from all over Spain, mostly from grapes in La Mancha and Extremadura since as the local sherry grapes are too expensive so as to convert them into Brandy.

Today most of the distilling process is done all over Spain using column stills. Then, its delivered to Jerez for aging in used sherry casks for the solera system which is similar to the one used for sherry wine. Solera is large casks each of them holding a somewhat older spirit than the one previous. When brandy is drawn off from the last cask (one third of the volume is taken out) it is refilled with brandy from the next cask in line all the way down the solera line to the first cask in which new brandy is added. This system of refilling the brandy through casks blends together a variety of vintages and this has the result of speeding up of the maturation of the brandy.

Brandy de Jerez Solera must age for a minimum of six months, Reserva for one year and Gran Reserva for a minimum of three years. Actually, the best Reservas and Gran Reservas are aged for 12 to 15 years. The lush, somewhat sweet and fruity found in Brandy de Jerez come from the use of fruit-based flavor concentrates and oak essence.