Australia's best organic brandy

Organic Brandy

We are great at what we do and that's why we are the best brandy in Australia that's certified organic.

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What is Organic Brandy?

What is Brandy made from?

Organic Brandy is made from certified organic grapes or fruits, in our case, organic grapes from one of the most northern wineries in Perth's Swan Valley Region.

The name brandy comes from a dutch name Brandewijn, meaning burnt wine, not that we burn the wine but boil the fine wine so the alcohol is boiled off and collected as organic brandy spirit.

How is Brandy made? How to make Brandy?

Our Brandy is made by distilling a specially made wine (of approximately 12% alcohol) in a pot still to refine the wine and increase the alcohol content of the resulting organic brandy spirit. Once the spirit has passed through the still twice the clear brandy spirit has an alcoholic content of approximately 70% (140 proof), it is then stored in oak casks in the underground cellar for a minimum of three years to become our certified organic Australian brandy.

Once you have the preservative free wine, brandy is easy to make by using a pot still, although it takes a lot of time and effort, especially as it is a wood fired pot still. The pot still has to be continually tended to keep the fire burning. A special finished fermented wine is boiled at a temperature between the boiling point of the alcohol and the boiling point of water.

Meaning, the temperature varies as the organic alcohol content reduces during the distillation process.

The resulting vapour are transferred and cooled in a condenser. The cooled vapours contain most of the alcohol from the original liquid along with some of its water.

To drive out more of the water, always saving the alcohol, the distillation process can be repeated several times depending on the alcohol content desired, depending on the apparatus used.

The distillation process is used to produce both fine and mass-produced brandy, though the final products are dramatically different. Australian Brandys tend to be lighter in style than cognac brandys.

Wood Aged Brandys - Classifications

WHAT DO THE INITIALS VS, VSOP AND XO MEAN?

VS, VSOP and XO refer to the age and quality of the Brandy. Each corresponds to how long the brandy has been aged in oak barrels. In 1983, following a request by the BNIC (Bureau National Interprofessionnel du Cognac)*, the French government drafted regulations governing the terms used to describe a cognac"s quality. These designations, which may be included on the label, refer to the age of the youngest eau-de-vie used in making the Brandy.
VS stands for "Very Special": only eaux-de-vie at least two years old can be used to make a VS Brandy. Other denominators and expressions are permitted, such as "3 stars" or "luxury", and as such are included in the VS Brandy category.

VSOP stands for "Very Superior Old Pale": VSOP Brandys are created from eau de vie aged for at least four years. The VSOP category includes designations such as "Old" or "Reserve".

XO stands for "Extra Old": XO Brandys are made only from eaux-de-vie at least six years old. Brandys such as "Napoleon" ( 6 years old) were equivalent to XO Brandy but not since 2018. XO is greater than 10 years old.


Australian brandy has to be aged for a minimum of two years in oak casks and in Cognac, it is also two years. The age of the organic brandy or cognac is calculated as that of the youngest component used in the blend. The blend is usually of different ages and (in the case of our organic Brandys) our blended brandy has a minimum of nine years of age. Thus being the only organic Napolean Brandy in Australia.

Brandy vs Cognac

Australian Brandy and Australian Cognac

In Australia and France all brandy is grape based unless specified as made from another ingredient. As we are in the Geographical Indicator of the Swan Valley we can call our organic brandy "Swan Valley", and in the area of Cognac in France, the brandy in Cognac can be called "Cognac". Therefore, there is no such thing as Australian Cognac, only Australian Brandy.

Brandy classifications

Brandy must be aged for at least two years in oak casks but, unlike whisky, does not typically carry very specific age statements. The three brandy age classifications are V.S., V.S.O.P. and XO.

V.S. (Very Special) is blended brandy, aged for at least two years in casks. V.S.O.P. (Very Superior Old Pale) is a blended brandy with the youngest component of which has spent at least four years in oak. Napoleon: A new classification, Napoleon brandy has been oak-aged for a minimum of six years (this used to be XO class). XO (Extra Old) contains brandy matured for no less than ten years and frequently much older.

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Why is brandy brown in colour and not clear

Brandy is brown or straw in colour as the alcohol acts as a solvent on the wood of the oak casks, extracting flavour and colour from the French oak casks. Some distillers add sugar and caramel to increase the palate and colour of the spirit. At Harris Organic we add nothing besides rain water to our finished organic brandy spirits.