Cognacs, Armagnacs, Calvados and Other Eaux-de-Vie

“Our cellar book lists all the major labels of Cognac,” said Mademoiselle Vivette,“which remains, perhaps, the ideal digestif, but we can also offer three important labels of the gay and robust brandies of Armagnac: the Marquis de Caussade, the Larressingle, and the Domaine de Noaces. We also have a Calvados, the remarkable apple brandy of Normandy, that has been aged for fifteen years and has the smoothness of velvet. Then, I often surprise our guests by offering them an almost complete spectrum of the extraordinary fruit brandies of Alsace, which seem to capture, in a brilliant clear spirit, the pure essences of the wild fruits of the Vosges Mountains. Our list includes apricot, alizier (made from the service berry), cassis (from black currants), fraise des bois (from miniature wild strawberries), framboise (raspberries), marc de gewürztraminer (distilled from the famous Alsatian wine grape), gratte cul (from the hips of the eglantine rose), Cherry Kirsch, mirabelle de Lorraine (from golden plums), mûre des bois (from wild mulberries), myrtilles (from huckleberries), prunelle (from sloe berries), prune sauvage (wild plums), quetsch (Alsatian miniature purple plums), Queen Claude greengage plum, sorbier (from rowanberries), and sureau (from elderberries).”