SC - Brandy

[Decker, Terry D.]

>Philippa said:
>>Please remember that Brandy, of a sort, and thus
>>distilling has been around since Roman times. 
>
>I thought Brandy was not known until the 13th century or
>later. What makes you think it was known in Roman times?
>
>What is Brandy distilled from? Is there a drink distilled
>from mead?
>
>Stefan li Rous

Brandy is distilled from wine, any wine.  What we normally call brandy
is distilled from grape wine.  Other fruit brandies are distilled from
fruit wine or fermented juices, peach brandy, black berry brandy,
kirchwasser, etc.

Distillation has long been used to seperate liquids and a simple
distillation will produce about a 40 proof alcohol.  The distillation
process was improved around 800 C.E. by Jabir ibn Hayyan.  

The first modern brandy was distilled in approximately 1300 C.E. at the
Montpellier medical school by Arnaldus de Villa Nova, a French medical
professor.

Dates are courtesy of The Food Chronology and the MS Encyclopedia, which
have exactly the same text.

Bear
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