As the air turns brisk and darkness falls early, the desire to enjoy the quiet dreaminess and warmth of an after-dinner drink grows. Brandy — and especially its ultrarefined cousin, cognac — remains a sublime luxury of the discriminating diner. Perhaps it is the resurgence of indulgences such as cigars, the rise in expendable income or maybe just the pure sensual pleasure of the sparkling, jeweled drink heating the body from within — but brandy's appeal is growing in restaurants and retail markets across the United States.

Amber, the rich color of this king of after-dinner drinks, is also the color of money for many savvy restaurateurs. After-dinner drinks are the perfect way to enhance a diner's experience, encourage repeat visits and increase check totals. According to Judy Blatman, vice president, public affairs and communications, for the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, headquartered in Washington DC, brandy is in its sixth consecutive year of consistent growth; consumption increased 3 percent last year. Additionally, the United States is the largest market in the world for the consumption of cognac.

The Adams Liquor Handbook 2000 reports that the most popular months for brandy consumption countrywide are October through December and the month of March, so now is the perfect time to suggest that your customers savor this supremely elegant and alluring drink.

Brandy beginnings

Historical accounts relating to the birth of brandy differ, but most experts believe that it was created in 15th-century Europe. France is now the most widely lauded brandy producer in the world, but brandy was actually the innovation of Dutch seamen and traders, who lamented that wine took up too much precious cargo space and would not keep on long journeys. The sailors eventually found that by distilling the wine and then reconstituting the intense liquid with water when they returned to Holland, they could expand their cargo. After tasting their new spirit, the Dutch gave it the moniker brandwijn, or burnt wine, and thus the magic of brandy was born.

Later in France, distillers in the Cognac region used a second distillation of brandy, then aged the resulting liquid — called eau de vie — in casks made of Limousin oak, which removed the harshness and transformed the drink into a mellow yet complex spirit. According to Alain Royer, a French master blender and originator of the boutique cognacs of A. de Fussigny, Limousin oak is perfect for aging brandy because of its loose fibers, which allow the wine to breathe and take in its soft tannins and regal hues. After aging, the spirit was blended to create the final product. This process has been refined over the centuries but remains essentially the same today.

Made primarily with ugni blanc grapes from the Grande Champagne, Petite Champagne, Borderies, Fins Bois, Bon Bois and Bois Ordinaires regions of France, cognac can only be named as such if all grapes used in it hail from those areas. Because aging is such a crucial part of the process, special designations are assigned to brandies of various ages. The designation V.S., for example, stands for "very superior" and requires a minimum of four and a half years of aging. The designation V.S.O.P., or "very superior old pale," is aged between four and a half and six and a half years. Napoleon, X.O. — which means "extra old" — and Hors d'âge are aged for at least six and a half years, although many distilleries extend those limits by decades when creating their finest blends, according to the Bureau National Interprofessionnel du Cognac's Web site (www. bnic.fr/web_bnic/asp/accueil3.asp).

What makes the Cognac region the prime location for cultivating fine brandy? Royer says it is the soil and climate. The Cognac region, which lies only 60 miles from the sea, has "champagne soil, with limestone and thin, good top soil" — in other words, ideal conditions, he says.

Cognac is not the only brandy causing a stir among restaurant patrons. Armagnac, another fine French brandy, is also specific to a nearby region in France. Distilled only once, it has a very different character than cognac and is preferred by some connoisseurs. Calvados, an apple brandy made with meticulously chosen apples from Normandy, and other fruit brandies are popping up on more after-dinner drink menus and also are often used in brandy cocktails. Brandy de Jerez, a Spanish brandy distilled and blended traditionally but aged in oak casks from America, typically endures a much shorter aging process than French brandies and has a unique taste and aroma. Brandy is actually produced all over the world, and its character varies widely from region to region. It can be made from a variety of fruits and berries, including grapes, apples, plums, cherries, blackberries, pears, raspberries and apricots.

Cognac chic

Brandy was once seen as a pleasure of the elite class, but its appeal and consumption has recently become increasingly egalitarian. Many restaurants have seen a brandy-drinking surge among consumers age 30 to 45, "especially the dot-com and Wall Street business [types]," says Inez Holderness, beverage manager at New York City's Windows on the World.

Brandy has an alluring tradition that seems to appeal to martini-loving, cigar-smoking younger consumers. Distributors like Canandaigna Wine Company, makers of Paul Masson Grande Amber Brandy, are trying to capitalize on brandy's appeal with its latest ad campaign. "Our print campaign targets 21-to-54-year-old Caucasian men — a key growth market for the brand — while also speaking directly to the historically strong ethnic market of 21-to-54-year-old African-American men, the largest per-capita consumers of brandy," says Peggy Fox, marketing director. And in Food and Wine's Trend Report 2000, cognac is tagged as "the French brandy of the moment . . . especially those bottles coming from single vineyards, single distilleries or single vintages."

"It's kind of the hip thing to drink," says Holderness. According to an article that ran in an August issue of the New York Times, the hip-hop culture also is keying into this phenomenon, and brandy producers like Courvoisier are quickly changing course and hitting the market with splashy, edgy advertisements aimed at this segment of the population.

"There is a new, chic way to drink cognac," says Jack Shea, vice president, corporate communications of the Westport, Connecticut-based Allied Domecq Spirits and Wine, which distributes Courvoisier. "The category is picking up added momentum as a result of this drive toward mixability and sociability."

Indeed, brandy cocktails are being consumed much more commonly. "The days of sitting by the fireplace and sipping brandy are no longer," says Ian Falconi, general manager of The Strand restaurant in Miami. This growing trend toward imbibing cognac in an unconventional manner may make some connoisseurs cringe, but it's sure to make the drink more accessible to diners who formerly were intimidated about drinking such a sophisticated spirit. Cognac mixed drinks made with a cola beverage or tonic are quite common, even in Europe, and brandy cocktails that contain fruit juices and other liquors are on the rise as well.

A warming trend "People know more . . . and are willing to try more now," says Nicolas Fanucci, general manager of Le Bec-Fin in Philadelphia. This experimental attitude among consumers can lead to heightened check totals if waitstaff and bartenders are well-educated about the nuances of brandy and are able to then educate diners about the pleasures of consuming this beverage, which should be stored standing, in a moderately cool environment.

Many restaurants include brandy service and tastings in their beverage training, but brandy is still something that many diners see as an extravagance and they may need a bit of encouragement to order this higher-priced item. Savvy managers like Falconi strive to "share the legends and history" of quality spirits like brandy and to "initiate passion in [his] staff" about those drinks. Falconi also displays his top rail specialty drinks around the restaurant and bar to stimulate curiosity in his customers.

At the Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas, training is conducted by sales representatives from liquor companies, so the staff gets expert information about brandy that they can then use to entice customers to sip the amber elixir. Brandy distributors also can help restaurateurs create promotional copy to describe the beverage on their menus. For example, descriptions of brandy's aromas and tastes can be as varied as green apple, black pepper, oak, butter, cider, honey, vanilla, burnt almond and lead pencil. Operators can provide suggestions for pairing the beverage with certain dishes.

Fanucci of Le Bec-Fin recommends introducing the novice brandy drinker to a well-known, midpriced variety of the spirit, while Robert Peppey, sommelier of L'Orangerie in West Hollywood, prefers to recommend a unique brand, perhaps a Delamaine or a fine Calvados, depending on the diner's preferences. "I want people to have something that they're not going to find in every restaurant, so they remember it and come back," says Peppey.

Gordon Leigh, manager of Bistro Bis located in the Hotel George in Washington DC, also likes to sell something a little different. The menu at Bis contains one particularly intriguing cognac that Leigh admires for its dedication to quality — Kelt, a cognac made from the grapes in the Grande Champagne growing area. Although this is a wonderful but not so distinctive quality in itself, add to that the fact that this aged spirit literally travels in its Limousin oak casks for three months around the world by ship, and it imbues the beverage with an air of romance that will be irresistible to some diners. This example perfectly illustrates the profits that can be made by promoting this unique beverage's inherent mystique.

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