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<strong>The</strong><br />
grape<br />
in high<br />
spirits<br />
By Michael Mavrogordato<br />
One of the reasons many people call Bluffton<br />
home is to escape the cold, but as I write, a<br />
cheerful TV meteorologist is trying to smile her<br />
way through a bone-chilling forecast. According<br />
to her, temperatures will drop to freezing in a few<br />
days, and there is no relief in sight. As your wine<br />
advisor, I could wax eloquent on red wines and how<br />
their food pairings can tame the cold, but frankly, a<br />
quick fix is far more appropriate and brandy comes<br />
immediately to mind.<br />
Brandy (a Dutch word) is an all-encompassing<br />
term for a spirit made from grapes and it is also a<br />
synonym for something that you sip, as opposed<br />
to “chase” down with a shot. Most spirits which<br />
are chased ,such as vodka in Russia (very cold) or<br />
Jagermeister in Germany (tepid), are meant to jolt<br />
the senses, but brandy is another story, because<br />
the good ones caress you on a cold night and don’t<br />
leave you with a hangover. In Bluffton, there are<br />
three types of brandy worth trying: Armagnac,<br />
Cognac and Grappa, the latter being a real stretch<br />
per the definition of a brandy, because it is made<br />
from the stems and detritus of grapes!<br />
Contrary to popular belief, Armagnac is the granddaddy<br />
of them all. In the 13th Century some<br />
enterprising monks (who else!) from Auch (southwest<br />
France) began distilling indigenous white<br />
grapes and aging them in local oak barrels. <strong>The</strong><br />
process involved one distillation and topping off<br />
the barrels on regular basis to replace the “angel’s<br />
share”. Every culture claims to have invented<br />
making booze, but the gentle folk of Auch stake<br />
their claim on customer testimonials, the most<br />
famous of which came from Cardinal Vital du Four,<br />
who in 1313 wrote the encouraging words on the<br />
opposite page!<br />
Need I say more? A very good and obviously<br />
therapeutic Armagnac, Castared VSOP ($39) , can<br />
be found at Bill’s.<br />
Cognac is now the aristocrat of the spirit world.<br />
<strong>The</strong> epicenter of the region, the town of Cognac,<br />
is only 80 miles North of Bordeaux and this helps<br />
explain why their spirit took over the world. Riding<br />
on the insatiable demand for claret ( British for<br />
Bordeaux wines), the English and the Dutch<br />
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