The definition of brandy adopted by the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists and the Association of State and National Food and Dairy Departments upon the recommendation of the Joint Committee on Food Standards is as follows:

New brandy is a properly distilled spirit made from wine, and contains in one hundred (100) liters of proof spirit not less than one hundred (100) grams of the volatile flavors, oils, and other substances derived from the material from which it is made, and of the substances congeneric with ethyl alcohol produced during fermentation and carried over at the ordinary temperature of distillation, the principal part of which consists of the higher alcohols estmated as amylic.

Brandy (potable brandy) is new brandy stored in wood for not less than four (4) years without any artificial heat save that which may be imparted by warming the storehouse to the usual temperature, and contains in one hundred (100) liters of proof spirit not less than one hundred and fifty (150) grams of the substances found in new brandy save as they are changed or eliminated by storage, and of those produced as secondary bodies during aging; and, in addition thereto, the substances extracted from the casks in which it has been stored. It contains, when prepared for consumption as permitted by the regulations of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, not less than forty-five (45) percent by volume of ethyl alcohol, and, if no statement is made concerning its alcoholic strength, it contains not less than fifty (50) percent by volume of ethyl alcohol as prescribed by law.

Cognac, cognac brandy is brandy produced in the departments of the Charente and Charente Inferieure, France, from wine produced in those departments.