Brandy

Grape harvesting		Vineyards of the Tiraspol Winery & Distillery KVINT are located in the terroirs of Kamenka, Rashkovo and Doibani, well-protected from the winds by the Poyany and Kalagur woods. The total area of our vineyards is 2000 hectares planted on different kinds of soil, such as sandy soils with high content of calcium, those rich in limestone, southern black soil. Soil composition has great influence on the properties of cultivated grapes, and such a variety of species allows us to obtain unique organoleptic qualities of beverages. The grape berries contain numerous useful elements and micro-elements: minerals, bio-active substances, amino acids, sugars and vitamins. Judging by the sugar content, one can determine the ripeness of grapes and schedule the right timing for the harvesting operations.
Processing		Harvesting and transportation of grapes to the processing lines are followed by crushing and destemming. The aim of crushing process is a destruction of grape berries in order to extract juice. Use of roller crushers excludes the damaging of seeds and abrasion of stems during the process. The stems are removed from the grape clusters on the horizontal destemmer. This operation is necessary to reduce the amount of tannins in wine material and protect it from the bad taste and rudeness. Then follows pressing on the pneumatic presses. Compressed air controlled by time is supplied into the press filled with crushed berries, inflating its membrane and thus squeezing juice from the crushed grapes.
Fermentation		Fermentation of wine materials takes place in special tanks, the so-called fermenters, which can hold about 60 thousand liters of grape must. An up-to-date equipment enables to strictly control every tiny detail in the behavior of fermenting juice through the entire process of its transformation into wine. For instance, an operator can decrease the fermentation temperature with a decimal accuracy in order to select from the grape aroma only the purest fruity and floral notes.
Distillation		The creation of brandy begins with a long process of distillation. KVINT distillers strictly follow the traditional cognac production method, enabling to preserve all essential oils in alcohol and to achieve the right concentration of them. The wine is distilled in Alambic pot-stills in two stages. At first stage you obtain the basic raw spirit, the so-called “brouillis” with alcoholic strength 29-32%. After the second stage, known as “la bonne chauffe” (or good heating) the resultant product contains 62-70% of alcohol. The full cycle takes almost whole day. Only after the first-stage distillation the volume of liquid is reduced several times.
Ageing		The shortest ageing time of KVINT spirits for this kind of beverage is 1 year. The best wood to keep eaux-de-vie spirit in is the Limousine oak. From the end of the last century KVINT prefers to buy the barrels made from 70-year-old oaks grown in Limousine region in central France. Multitude of grape varieties, favorable conditions of ageing including temperature control, humidity, competently chosen barrels and daily care – any of these components contribute to the formation of taste accents and aromatic nuances.
Blending		The final step that turns spirits into brandy is blending. This process is a gradual mixing of the certain ratio of eaux-de-vie aged for 1-3 years in oak barrels, wine-distilled spirits, specially treated water, syrup and oak essence.
Rest		The freshly prepared blend of brandy is characterized by misbalanced bouquet and taste, due to disturbance of equilibrium of the components. To avoid this, every blended brandy is put for rest into big casks, this process lasts for not less than 30 days.
Cold treatment		Cold treatment usually takes place before bottling. Brandy is chilled at the temperature from –10°С to –15°С and kept in tanks for 7-10 days, depending on the blend of beverage, then follows filtration at the same temperature as one of cold treatment. During the whole period of treatment the temperature is controlled automatically. The procedure of cold treatment enables us to guarantee that brandy will stay clear and stable in the bottle, if the conditions of storage are observed.
Control filtration		After cold treatment brandies undergo control filtration for giving them additional brilliance and crystalline clarity.
Bottling		The bottlery is equipped with the automatic bottling lines of the well-known European manufacturers. Bottling is one of the main stages in a cycle of production of top-quality drinks. Quality is above all, therefore the process of wines and spirits creation is controlled at all stages by accurate instruments of KVINT laboratory which is accredited in Moldova for conformity to International standard ISO 17025:2006.