Step 3: Distillation.
After the fermentation or maceration process, the musts,
now with their low alcohol content, are distilled to extract
this brandy from the pulps, skins, cores or pips, and the
water of fruit musts.
A technique known for two millennia, distillation consists
of heating the musts in a copper still and recovering the
alcohol vapours by cooling them (condensation coil).
We take care to select only the middle of the distillation
called the heart or “Coeur de Chauffe” –
in other words the best. Only this “heart,” titrating
at 70% volume, will be used for the final production. The
residues, known as the dregs, are sent to the purification
station to be turned into fertiliser.
The 4 hammered copper bain-marie and vapour injection stills
of the Biercée Distillery are equipped with rectification
and concentration columns. They combine beauty and technology.
Copper is an excellent conductor of heat, and a material that
cannot be damaged by fruit acids. It is therefore ideal for
refining brandies by concentrating the flavour and aroma components
of fruit musts through various chemical bonds. Operating stills
is a delicate, subtle, ever-so-complex art.
Step 4: Ageing
Rest and aging are indispensable to give brandies their finesse
and complexity. It takes years of experience to run a wine
and spirits storehouse.
Our white brandies (titrating at 70% vol when leaving the
stills) rest in stainless steel vats sheltered from light,
but not from air or temperature variations, which are necessary
for their proper aging.
Our apple and plum brandies and our Peket dè Houyeu
are aged in oak casks. A subtle, harmonious work between time,
oak, air and brandy: long enough to give it the delicate,
vanilla-flavoured taste of oak, but not too long, so as not
to hide the natural taste of the fruit.
In order to achieve this, we use the casks of a vintage year
of the famous Château d’Yquem (Sauternes). This
superb wine and spirit storehouse, access to which is monitored
by the Customs Department, is installed in the cellar, at
ideal temperature and hygrometry conditions.
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