Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1889-04-18
WHERE BRANDY MADE.
The Principal Commerce Of Cog
nae, France-Destruct Work
ed by PhylloXera.

are associated directly or Indirectly
with brandy, says the English Illus
trated Magazine. If you come upon Z,
grand pile of buildings you may be
assured that they arc brandy ware.
houses; il you see an unusually fine
house it is certain to be the residence
OF brandy merchant; the very atmOs-
| phere is saturated with it, It's deposits
| have impaired u new aspect to every
bit OF masonry its fumes can reach,
and it is impossible to give discrip-
ton OF Cognac without some account CT
that commerce upon which its very
existence depends.
Although distil ,tIon was understood
| by the Arabian alchemists centuries
! before a French physician and al
chemist, Arnauld dc Villeneuve, who
eied in 1860, appears to have been the
first who distilled the famous aqua
! vitae, which the discOyercr proclaimed
TO be a punacea for every i'll that flesh
is heir TO. This water OF life" he
wrote, "is the water OF Immortality.
/ since il lengthens our days, dissipates
unhealthy humOrs, cheers the heart,
and prolongS youth. Such praises
were considered by no mcanes extravi-
giant in that age, and the extraordinary
virtues OF aqua vi.p were universally
! believed; il vas used, however,
rather as "a medicine or cordial
than II beverage. In 1860 1t was
given out to the Hungarian miners rs
n remedy against the cold, unwhole-
some air Of the mines, and twenty years
aftesward the English army in Flanders
was provided with it as protective
against the damp of the climate. That
il was used in this country in Shakes
peare's time is proved by the nurse in
Romeo and Juliet eXclaiming Give
me some aqua vitDm Nantes seems TO
have been the earliest seat OF trade;
thence it was smuggled across the bay
of Biscay TO our southern coast. In ola
plays brandy is frequently spoken Of as
Nantes As early as 1850, however,
there were five or six brandy firms es-
tablished in the little town on the banks
CT the Charente. and one Of these, the
louise Of Angler Frercs, still exists. In
the reign of Louis XVI. the eau-de-vie
of COgnac was considered TO be the bost,
but even in 1879 its merchants number
ed only ten and in 1920 they did not
exceed sixteen. During the next
twenty years, however, the total leaped
10 104, and in 1877 il further rose TO
I34; since then there has been decrease
in consequence OF the repeated failures
of the vintages.
Very little brandy Is distilled in
Cognac, the operation being chiefly
conducted on the brandy farms in the
district where the Crane is grown. The
brandy grape, which very much re-
sembles the champagne, is a small
white berry, the juice OF which previ-
Gus to distillation tastes like very bad,
sour cider. The farmers, as rule,
keep the spirit several years before Of
fering it for sale; it is then purchased
ey the COgnac merchants. When
brought into the warehouses its
strength is about 20 over proof; this is
reduced by adding a certain proportion
Of distilled water. Different vintages
are mingled in huge watts, which some
times stand in an upper part of the
building, and are constantly stirred TO
blend the havors and a preparation Of
burned sugar is added for cOloring. II
is then filtered through q peculiar kind
OF paper pulp and flows into vats on a
lower level. in which it remains from
five TO twenty and even thirty years to
mature. From these receptions it is
drawn off into casks for bottling or for
exploration.
The premises OF some of the princi-
pal brandy merchants are of enormous
extent, the largest and most elaborate
being fitted with all the newest appli-
IL,
ground. The operations of the trade
require large space. To give some idea
OF these we may state that the blend
ing department. once the crypt of the
monastery, contains eighty watts, each
of the capacity of sixty hOgsheads, and
in the llourishing days of the trade this
house has sent out in single year as
many as 6,0OO,000 bottles. besides
casks. When VIC consider that there
is another firm in the town whose BUSH
ness is equally large and several that
nearly approach it, TO say nothing OF
hundred others which have more or
less extensive transactions, some con-
ception may be formed of the impor-
lance and enormous capital embarked
in this branch of commerce.
But brandy is rapidly becoming q
thing of the past, thanks to tiny in
sect whose ravages have been as terri
bic to this part of the country as was
the plague of locusts TO Egypt. 1t was
in 1865 that the phylloXera first appear
ed in France in the valley OF the Rhone;
by the close Of 1874 it had extended
throughout the south, southeast, and
southwest, from Lyons to Bordeaux.
Only eleven years ago the COgnac dis
/ trict had about 10000 acres planted
with vines; of these nearly 5000 have
been utterly destroyed and over 90, 900
seriously injured; since then three
! fourths OF the area have been desolated
and the remainder much affected, and
/ the opinion OF the leading merchants is
that the chances are that in another
generation the true eau-de-vie will be
"a liquor introuvable. Some attempt is
being made at replanting the vineyards,
! though in most cases the pest reappears
upon the young shoots and here and
there experiments are being made with
! American vines, which are said TO be
phylloxera proof, but the prospects Of
cognac can scarcely be said to be i'm
proved to any great extent.
! To-, Tho ,,,ao tho Of1act If fbia