Fruit brandy


Fruit brandy or fruit spirit is a distilled beverage produced from mash, juice, wine or residues of edible fruits. The term covers a broad class of spirits produced across the world, and typically excludes beverages made from grapes, which are referred to as plain brandy or pomace brandy. Apples, pears, apricots, plums and cherries are the most commonly used fruits.

Definition

According to a legal definition in the United States, a "fruit brandy" is distilled "solely from the fermented juice or mash of whole, sound, ripe fruit, or from standard grape, citrus, or other fruit wine, with or without the addition of not more than 20 percent by weight of the pomace of such juice or wine, or 30 percent by volume of the lees of such wine, or both."
In the European Union, fruit brandies may not be labeled as "fruit brandy"; instead, the legal English denomination is fruit spirit, which is "produced exclusively by the alcoholic fermentation and distillation of fleshy fruit or must of such fruit, berries or vegetables, with or without stones". A great number of European fruit brandies have a protected designation of origin, and are labeled with their respective protected names instead of "fruit spirit". Cider spirit and perry spirit form a separate legal category. Some fruit spirits may be labeled with alternative names such as kirsch or slivovitz regardless their country of origin.
In British usage, "fruit brandy" may also refer to liqueurs obtained by maceration of whole fruits, juice or flavoring in a distilled beverage, and such liqueurs are legally labeled as "cherry brandy", "apricot brandy" etc. all across the European Union. Such beverages are used similar to cordials, and as an ingredient in cocktails and cakes. Fruit brandies obtained by distillation are often referred by the French term eau de vie.
Fruit brandy usually contains 40% to 45% ABV. It is often colourless. Fruit brandy is customarily drunk chilled or over ice, but is occasionally mixed.

Types

Including some of the above, there are about 80 different kinds of fruit brandies in the European Union, registered with protected designations of origin from Germany, France, Italy, Portugal, Luxembourg, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania and Spain. Most of these fruit brandies are named after their region of origin and base ingredients. For example: Schwarzwälder Kirschwasser, Framboise d'Alsace, Aprikot dell'Alto Adige, etc. They are often regulated more strictly than generic fruit spirits; other than limiting their region of origin, restrictions may include fruit variants, mashing and fermenting technology, distilling apparatus, barrel aging, etc.
Among the better known fruit brandies are: