Flavored spirits are not a new invention in the history of alcoholic beverages. As early as the mid-18th century, whiskeys in the north were added with a variety of herbs, spicy plants and fruits to achieve the purpose of concealing flavor, because new wines are strong and difficult to drink directly. By the end of the 18th century, whiskey had become a straight-drinking colorless spirit, but southern grape pomace distilled spirits were still a short way away from being a straight-drinking colorless spirit. In the history of Italian grape marc distilled spirits, the first bottle of colorless grappa was not officially released until the 1980s. The flavored liqueur based on grape pomace brandy continues to survive as a historical relic. In addition to pure drinking, it has also become a recipe for various cocktails such as aperitifs and after-dinner wines, and even used in cooking or baking. wine for seasoning.
Distilling grape dregs to make wine is a reflection of poverty in the past, and the quality of early dregs distilled was generally lower than that of wine spirits. You can even read in literary works that novelists use the characters in the story to prefer distilled brandy to distilled brandy as a metaphor for taste and identity. With the changes of the times and the evolution of technology, the quality and reputation of various distilled spirits including those from Italy and France have gradually been established, and adding sugar for flavoring is no longer a necessary operation process. As for wine distilled brandy, sugar is usually added after barrel aging to balance the astringency. This tradition still exists today, but the amount of added sugar is gradually decreasing.
By the beginning of the 20th century, the American brandy industry was about to take off. In 1918, after the First World War, drinking a glass of brandy felt particularly peaceful because Prohibition was about to be enacted in 1920. Unexpectedly, this policy to prevent and control the harm of alcohol in the name of moral justice has had unexpected counter-effects. This storm, which had a huge impact on the country's economy, social security and people's tastes, finally ended in 1933. The American brandy industry truly came back to life 40 years after Prohibition was lifted.
Speaking of alcohol prohibition, it actually created endless business opportunities for smuggling. In legal trading areas outside the US border, including Canada, Cuba, and Bermuda, the currency of alcohol increased by 400 times in a few years. Underground trading is highly profitable, the incentives are powerful and hard to guard against. Small bills are smuggled, tied to the thighs, hidden in boots, and brought into the United States by road; those with large bills do not hesitate to confront the U.S. Coast Guard. Smugglers come prepared and well-equipped, and often succeed in seizing the beach. Prohibition of alcohol in the United States resulted in rampant smuggling and the rise of underground taverns, which could neither be managed nor taxed, and indirectly fed gang groups.
During Prohibition, brandy producers in the United States were forced out of business. However, in the United States, cognac has always been regarded as a medicinal product, so French cognac was allowed to be imported during this period, but general brandy was not so lucky. During Prohibition in the United States, people still tried their best to drink alcohol. Many families even began to use crude equipment to collect fruits and distill brandy by themselves.
In the 1930s, California experienced a glut of grape production in several years. Under the policy of stabilizing prices, the government required each producer to distill nearly half of the grape harvest into brandy and mature it through Liang Ning to maintain a balance between supply and demand. During World War II, these brandies were just right for sale. California brandy has gradually gained fame in the European market and is considered to be a special style, particularly light and refreshing, different from traditional European brandy. After the war, California brandy also continued this style line.
For wine producers, the advantage of entering the brandy distillation industry was that fortified wine was popular at that time, and brandy was originally needed as a raw material for production. The emergence of brandy distillers and wholesalers during this period also promoted the vigorous development of the wine distillation and brandy industry in California, USA. By the mid-20th century, nearly 20 well-known brands had been produced, including E&J Gallo, Christian Brother, Korbel and Paul Masson.
In the 1960s, brandy consumption in the United States quadrupled, of which more than 70% was California brandy. At this point, California brandy not only established its style line, but also established its leading position in the American brandy industry. After 1970, the scale of production became larger and larger, and the quality became more stable.
However, the brandy market in the United States was booming at that time, and the product was in short supply. Many manufacturers simply sent the newly distilled spirits to Kentucky for cultivation, because the bourbon whiskey industry could provide a large number of oak barrels. When manufacturers market California brandy, they usually emphasize barrel aging, but people may not know that it was not barrel aged in California. At the same time, manufacturers began to use large-scale column continuous distillation equipment to make wine to meet the expanding market demand. Although the quality was not comparable to that of early pot still wines, because consumers could not tell the difference, a general phenomenon of quality deterioration immediately formed. At the same time, young people began to reject local brandy as something belonging to the previous generation. As citizens' overseas travel experience increased, foreign high-quality products also began to take a share of the American brandy market. By the 1980s, California brandy's image had hit rock bottom.
Spain was once a colonial empire. It completely lost its American colonies at the end of the 19th century. In the first half of the 20th century, it experienced the Spanish Civil War and World War II. After Spain stopped importing rum from Central America, regions that originally relied on imported spirits, such as Brandy del Penedes in Catalonia in northeastern Spain has truly developed a local wine distillation industry to meet local demand, and has become one of the youngest brandy regions in the world.
