Fine (French word meaning "fine", as in "high quality") is a term for some high quality French brandy (generally AOC), not including Cognac and Armagnac.
Varieties include:
- Fine de Bordeaux
- Fine de Bourgogne
- Fine de la Marne
It is notably referenced in Ernest Hemingway's work, especially The Sun Also Rises:
- "We had dined at l'Avenue's and afterward went to the Café de Versailles for coffee. We had several fines after the coffee..."
- "After the coffee and a fine we got the bill, chalked up the same as ever on a slate"
(It is also mentioned in A Moveable Feast.)
In a scene in the James Bond film Goldfinger, Bond is offered more of what Col. Smithers describes as "rather disappointing brandy." M asks what's wrong with it, and Bond replies, "I'd say it's a 30 year-old fine, indifferently blended...with an overdose of bon bois."
It was formerly quite common in France; it is now quite rare.
Famous quotes containing the word fine:
“In those rare days, the press was seldom known to snarl or bark,
But sweetly sang of men in pow’r, like any tuneful lark;
Grave judges, too, to all their evil deeds were in the dark;
And not a man in twenty score knew how to make his mark.
Oh the fine old English Tory times;”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1890)