Eau-de-vie and Fruit Brandy

Where it started

The traditions are regional and old, and the law that organizes them today is recent. In the EU, the rules sit in Regulation (EU) 2019/787, which sets out fruit spirit, fruit marc spirit, cider and perry spirit, and the macerated styles as separate categories.¹ In the United States, they sit under the federal brandy class, as fruit brandy.²

Where and how it's made

EU fruit spirit is made only by fermenting and distilling fresh, fleshy fruit, berries or vegetables, or their must, with or without stones.¹ Every distillation must be below 86 percent alcohol so the aroma comes from the fruit, and the spirit must carry at least 200 grams of volatile substances per hectoliter of pure alcohol.¹ It may not be flavored, and it may not be colored, except with caramel when it has spent at least a year in contact with wood.¹ Sweetening is capped at 18 grams per liter, and the minimum strength is 37.5 percent.¹ Stone-fruit spirits have a limit on hydrocyanic acid, 7 grams per hectoliter of pure alcohol, because the stones are distilled too.¹

For a listed set of berries and other fruits, raspberries among them, the EU also allows maceration: unfermented or partly fermented fruit steeped with a limited dose of alcohol, then distilled. That spirit must say "obtained by maceration and distillation."¹ A Geist is a similar maceration-then-distillation product, made at less than 86 percent.¹

How to taste it

A small tulip or stemmed glass, at cellar temperature or slightly cool. Take your time on the nose; that is where the fruit lives. U.S. rules do not require an age statement on fruit brandies because they are not customarily stored in oak.³ Pairings: a cherry clafoutis with kirsch, pear tart with Williams, a cheese plate with plum spirit.

Styles and what the label means

• Kirsch — cherry spirit; in the U.S., cherry brandy may be called Kirschwasser.¹²
• Slivovitz / Quetsch / Plum — plum spirit; U.S. plum brandy may be called Slivovitz.¹²
• Mirabelle — from the mirabelle plum, Prunus domestica subsp. syriaca.¹
• Williams — pear spirit made only from Williams pears.¹
• Obstler — at least 85 percent of the mash from apples, pears or both.¹
• -wasser — a German legal name used with the fruit, as in Kirschwasser.¹
• Fruit brandy (U.S.) — one fruit is named, as in "peach brandy"; several fruits need a statement of composition.²
• Cider spirit / perry spirit — distilled cider or perry, the category Calvados sits in. calvados →