Style of brandy

Fine Champagne isn't a cru of its own but a blend of Grande and Petite Champagne, in which at least 50 percent must come from the Grande Champagne. The term appears on the label when a house blends both crus, and it's the common answer to the question of how to combine the finesse of one with the accessibility of the other.

The Grande Champagne itself stands for brandies considered floral and refined, with a scent of blossom and a touch of apricot. They're widely thought to mature slowly, needing years in wood, and to show their best in XO and Hors d'âge expressions. Houses that place value on great age like to source brandies from this cru.

The Petite Champagne lies all around on similar chalk soil, though the topsoil is denser. Its brandies are considered somewhat lighter and more approachable earlier. Anyone wanting to compare both will find bottlings on the market labeled Grande Champagne, Petite Champagne or Fine Champagne, and can read from these three names how the brandy is composed.

Two things therefore appear together on the bottle. The age category, that is VS, VSOP or XO, states the minimum age of the youngest brandy in the blend. The cru indicates where the wine came from. Together, these say more about the style than any back-label description, and they prevent Cognac from being equated with ordinary brandy.

The difference between Cognac and brandy shows up in the rules. Cognac has strictly defined origin, method and minimum age, and allows only the Charentais pot still. Brandy, by contrast, outside such designations of origin, requires only a minimum of 36 percent alcohol and maturation in oak.