When Slughorn tasted the mead intended as a gift for Dumbledore in advance, it was poured into a glass, gleaming with a crystal-clear amber hue and giving off the scent of oak. Newly made wine also needed aging. Not only could it absorb the fragrance of oak barrels, but it could also "breathe" through the tiny gaps in the wood, becoming smoother on the palate.
Cognac brandy and Armagnac might be unfamiliar to those who did not care much for drink, but their other name was probably more recognizable. "XO" was not a brand, but a designation for top-tier brandy. It had to be aged for at least five years before it qualified to bear an XO label.
The Cognac region lay in Bordeaux. The finest brandy produced there was called "Louis XIV," and it could be aged for as long as fifty years.
Armagnac was Europe's oldest distilling region. Distilled wine had likely been produced there as early as the Hundred Years' War. Armagnac had once served as a buffer zone between Toulouse, controlled by the French king, and Guyenne, controlled by the British king. The two sides had constantly struggled over it, and it was not until Henry IV that Armagnac officially became part of France.
Both kinds of wine could be transported over long distances and were often shipped overseas. The older they became, the more fragrant they grew, and naturally, the more expensive they were.
Georgiana had kept thinking, Once medicinal herbs are added to wine, it is no longer wine, but medicine.
Adam Smith had said in The Wealth of Nations, "France is considered Britain's enemy; therefore, we would rather give up our own interests than see them gain interests in our country."
Fine French wine had been smuggled for a long time. Britain produced