What is the difference between cognac, armagnac and brandy?

Brandy is category 5 in Regulation (EU) 2019/787: a drink made from wine spirit, with at least 36 per cent alcohol and compulsory ageing in oak.

The regulation requires at least one year of ageing in oak casks of 1,000 litres or more, or six months in smaller oak casks. Adding alcohol is not allowed and colouring is only permitted with caramel. The raw material, wine spirit from category 4, is distilled below 86 per cent.

Cognac goes through an alambic charentais twice, the so-called repasse. Armagnac usually goes through an alambic armagnacais in a single continuous run.

The cognac cahier des charges caps the distillate at 72.4 per cent at 20 degrees and limits the chaudière to 30 hectolitres. For armagnac the distillate lies between 52 and 72.4 per cent. In both appellations distillation must be completed by 31 March after the harvest at the latest.

Cognac comes from the Charente, with geographical names such as Grande Champagne, Petite Champagne, Borderies, Fins Bois and Bons Bois. Armagnac comes from Gascony.

For cognac, permitted varieties include ugni blanc, colombard, folle blanche, semillon and montils, with folignan up to at most 10 per cent of plantings. Armagnac has Bas Armagnac, Armagnac-Tenareze and Haut Armagnac. Baco blanc and ugni blanc are the main varieties there, alongside folle blanche and colombard.

For cognac, VS stands for at least two years of ageing, VSOP for four years, XO for ten years and XXO for fourteen years, counted from the youngest eau-de-vie in the bottle.

The Bureau National Interprofessionnel du Cognac manages that age count. For armagnac, XO and Hors d'Age require a minimum of ten years, and a millésime carries a single harvest year, also with at least ten years of ageing. The ageing of armagnac starts counting on 1 April after the harvest.

No. Cognac and armagnac are protected designations of origin within the wider brandy category. Every cognac is a brandy, but not every brandy may call itself cognac.

A bottle that is simply called brandy need only meet the requirements of category 5. If you want to know the area, grapes and distilling method, read the appellation on the label. Other countries also have their own protected names, such as brandy de Jerez in Spain.