{"id":479,"date":"2021-11-10T10:37:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-10T10:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cocktailians.com\/2021\/11\/brandy-trivia-part-2.html"},"modified":"2021-11-10T10:37:00","modified_gmt":"2021-11-10T10:37:00","slug":"brandy-trivia-part-2-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cocktailians.com\/?p=479","title":{"rendered":"Brandy Trivia! Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

As seen here yesterday<\/a>, I recently put together a trivia quiz all about brandy. Here are the next few questions, along with my discussion of the answers. As before, I've obscured the answers by putting them in white text on a white background; just highlight the area between the brackets to see what's there, and click on smaller images to embiggen them.<\/p>\n

4.  American apple brandy is often sold as \u201capplejack\u201d, which these days is a blend of apple brandy and neutral spirits. The largest producer is Laird & Company; the family-owned business claims to have produced spirits since 1698 and once provided their recipe to George Washington at his request. Laird\u2019s distills in Virginia, but their aging, bottling, packaging operations, and headquarters are located in what agricultural state?<\/strong><\/p>\n

[NEW JERSEY<\/span>]<\/p>\n

This question originally sought the company name (with this redacted bottle shot<\/a>), but testers pointed out that it really was deep into YEKIOYD<\/a> territory, so I reworked it at one tester\u2019s suggestion to ask for the state where they\u2019ve been operating since 1698<\/a>. The first federal distillery permit was issued to Laird & Co. in 1780, and the company is currently run by the ninth generation of Lairds<\/a> to make apple spirits. Laird\u2019s bought the former Virginia Fruit Distilling Company distillery<\/a> in North Garden, VA in the 1940s, and wrapped up distilling in the [Garden State<\/span>] in 1972 due to dwindling apple orchards.<\/p>\n

Their facility in Scobeyville<\/a> in [New Jersey<\/span>]\u2019s Monmouth County, just down Laird Road from Bruce Springsteen\u2019s massive horse farm, has aging warehouses and bottling operations as well as the family house that serves as the company\u2019s offices.<\/p>\n

(They sell unaged apple brandy as \u201cJersey<\/span> Lightning<\/a>\u201d; it\u2019s soft and fruity and interesting, though I\u2019m partial to their Bottled in Bond Straight Apple Brandy and their 7 \u00bd Year Old. Try an American Trilogy cocktail<\/a> with the Bottled in Bond.))<\/p>\n

5.  One country\u2019s brandy industry was seriously disrupted during the pandemic when the government imposed four separate bans on the sale of alcohol. Producers affected included KWV and Van Ryn\u2019s, which produce their brandy in the Paarl and Stellenbosch regions respectively. What country is this?<\/strong><\/p>\n

[SOUTH AFRICA<\/span>]<\/p>\n

[South Africa<\/span>] is known for its wine industry, but less so its spirits<\/a>; I think much of its brandy production is enjoyed locally rather than exported. And much of the brandy produced occupies the \u201cvalue\u201d category<\/a> and is often drunk with cola. However, the longer-aged vintage brandies can be very good indeed, holding their own with those from Europe. (I sampled a flight of the Van Ryn\u2019s expressions<\/a> at their distillery, and especially enjoyed the 15 Year Old, and Roger Jorgensen\u2019s 15-year-old Savignac brandy is downright special.)<\/p>\n

The COVID bans really did a number on the country\u2019s spirits industry<\/a>, and I hope that it can recover, and I look forward to greater availability of vintage [South African<\/span>] brandy in the US.<\/p>\n

I mentioned the regions and the producer KWV to clue in oenophiles who may have recognized the [South African<\/span>] names. (It makes sense that the Netherlands was the MCWA for this question, given the links between Dutch and [Afrikaans<\/span>].)<\/p>\n

6.  Unaged grape brandy from Peru and Chile is typically known by what name? It\u2019s most commonly served in its namesake cocktail, a delicious classic sour with (in the Peruvian version) egg white and bitters.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"[Image<\/p>\n

[PISCO<\/span>]<\/p>\n

Both Peru and Chile insist that theirs is the true pisco<\/span><\/a>, though there are differences in region, grape selections, and aging. Peruvian [pisco<\/span>] tends to be more available, though both are exported. I remain agnostic, only choosing to enjoy the stuff in many forms, including the delectable pisco<\/span> punch<\/a> and the wonderful [pisco<\/span>] sour, which can be made in a Peruvian<\/a> or Chilean<\/a> style.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As seen here yesterday, I recently put together a trivia quiz all about brandy. Here are the next few questions, along with my discussion of the answers. As before, I've obscured the answers by putting them in white text on a white background; just highlight the area between the brackets to see what's there, and click […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ingredients","category-seen-elsewhere"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cocktailians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cocktailians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cocktailians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailians.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cocktailians.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailians.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailians.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}