Alcohol:Distilling:Stills
Summary
Notes
- Remember: the target is cognac!
- Which is a brandy, distilled twice in batches in a pot still, kept in oak barrels for 2 years.
- From thin, acidic, virtually undrinkable wine made from
- pressed from 90% made from Ugni blanc(ie trebbiano), folle blanche, Colombard and 10% of the grapes used can be Folignan, Jurançon blanc, Meslier St-François (also called Blanc Ramé), Sélect, Montils, or Sémillon
- juice is left to ferment for 2–3 week with local region's yeast
- at which point is about 7/8% alcohol
- This wash is distilled using
- Charentais copper alembic stills
- the wash is poured into the curcubit,
- where it is heated
- collected by the anbix, (or the curcubit & anbix have been combined into a “retort”),
- dribbling down into the receiver
- the resulting distillate is called low-wine with an alcohol content of 25-35%.
- Do it again to produce a 70% alcohol, colourless eau de vie, containing congeners that would not be there if we were talking about neutral spirits developed via a 90%+ rectifier based column still.
- put into caskets, losing 3% to the angels per year, ends up as 45% alcohol.
- Blended by the maître de chai (taster) with other blends to make complexity.
- Transferred to bottles as aged, coloured, 40% alcohol.
- Stops.
- A Column still is a later version of a Pot Still.