CORTE BRANDY - The origins of brandy are unclear, and tied to the development of distillation. Concentrated alcoholic beverages were known in ancient Greece and Rome and may have a history going back to ancient Babylon. Brandy as it is known today first began to appear in the 12th century and became generally popular in the 14th century. Initially wine was distiled as a preservation method and as a way to make the wine easier for merchants to transport. It was also thought that wine was originally distilled to lessen the tax which was assessed by volume. The intent was to add the water removed by distillation back to the brandy shortly before consumption. It was discovered that after having been stored in wooden casks, the resulting product had improved over the original distilled spirit. Also, the distillation process doesn't just remove water, but leads to the formation and break-up of dozens of aroma compounds fundamentally altering the composition of the distillate. This is why unaged wine spirits (unaged brandy) diluted back to wine alcohol strength tastes nothing like the original wine