Brandy
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Brandy. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a spirit produced by the distillation of both white and red wines, pre prepared chiefly in the south of France. A brandy highly esteemed is that of Cognac, which is obtained by distilling white wines of the finest quality. An inferior kind of spirit is frequently prepared from the "marc" of grapes and the refuse of wine vats. When first distilled it is as colorless as alcohol, and continues so if kept in bottles or jars. When stored in casks, however, it acquires from the wood a pale amber tint, and in this state is sold as pale brandy. The dark color of brown brandy is produced artificially, to please the public taste, by means of a solution of caramel. The development of viticulture in the Western States , particularly in California, enabled American enterprise to produce a brandy that was a formidable rival to the French article. Genuine brandy consists of alcohol and water, with small quantities of enanthic ether, acetic ether, and other volatile bodies produced in the process of fermentation. The value of brandy as a medicine depends on the presence of these ethers and other volatile products ; when, therefore, it is adulterated with raw grain spirit and water , the amount of these ethers is so reduced that the brandy becomes almost valueless for medical purposes.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
an alcoholic liquor distilled from the fermented juice, usually of the grape. Brandy is also made from cider, and the juice of other fruits; in which case it is called apple brandy, cherry brandy, peach brandy, etc. So far as the alcoholic element is concerned, brandies are alike, but each fruit gives its own flavor by reason of the aromatic oil it imparts. The most celebrated brandy is that of Cognac, France, on the importation of which the United States government imposes a tariff, reaching $20 per gallon for some brands. Of late California has produced a white grape brandy which competes with the French article. Most of the brandy on the market is raw wheat and corn whisky, doctored, flavored, and colored to resemble the more expensive liquor. See Alcohol ; Cognac
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The chemistry and craft described here still hold: brandy is distilled wine, colorless from the still, tinted by cask or by caramel, and Cognac remains the benchmark. What has gone is the medicine. Collier's confidence in 1921 that brandy's "value as a medicine" lay in its ethers, and that adulteration made it "almost valueless for medical purposes," belongs to a era when spirits were stocked in the dispensary; brandy has long since dropped out of medical practice, and giving it to shock or hypothermia patients is now considered harmful. Two other things moved: American Prohibition (1920-33) wrecked the California brandy trade that both entries called a "formidable rival" to the French, and the adulteration Aiton's complained of - "raw wheat and corn whisky, doctored, flavored, and colored" - was curbed by labelling law, with Cognac and Armagnac now legally protected names and age marks like VS, VSOP and XO defined by rule.
Written for this edition, 2026.