We know they’re both delicious, but what are they and are they the same thing?
Brandy is a classic bar cart staple – its versatility means you can sip it neat, use it as an ingredient in your favourite Christmas pudding, as well as mix classic cocktails like the Brandy Alexander. If you’ve ever had a hunch that brandy and Cognac are similar and wondered what exactly the difference between the two is, you’re not alone.
Just as there are different types of wine, there are also types of brandy. Cognac is a type of brandy produced with grapes from the Cognac region of France. You might notice ‘AOC’ or ‘appellation d'origine contrôlée’ printed on bottles of Cognac. This refers to the ‘controlled designation of origin’ which is a type of certification to authenticate the geographic region from which the product originates. In this case, it’s a way for producers of Cognac to indicate that their product is from the Cognac region of France. If it’s not from the Cognac region, it can’t take the name ‘Cognac’.
So similarly to how all Champagne is sparkling wine, but not all sparkling wine is Champagne, so too all Cognac is brandy… but not all brandy is Cognac. Ready to dive deeper?
Before we get into the specifics of Cognac, it’s worth knowing who’s who in the wider brandy scene, and brandy has a history that’s as long as it is widespread. It was ‘discovered’, in a commercial sense, during the 16th century after a Dutch merchant distilled French wine in order to transport more of the concentrated liquid back to the Netherlands. His plan was to add water to the casks on arrival, but everyone decided that the distilled spirit was actually a little bit of alright. The Dutch named it ‘brandewijn’, or ‘burnt wine’, which was eventually shortened to brandy.
Brandy is quite a loose classification. Although the first brandy was made from grapes, it can refer to any distilled spirit made from fruit. Hungarian palinka, for example, is made from a variety of fruits common to the region including apricots, plums and apples. Peru’s pisco – the base of a delicious pisco sour – is made from grapes, while Calvados, from France’s Normandy region, is the result of fermented apples. Ever experienced an eye-watering shot of Italian grappa? That’s brandy too, made from the skins, pulp, seeds and stems of grapes, olives and whatever other fruit is available.
