English to Russian Art/Literary Wine / Oenology / Viticulture

The US Federal Standards of Identity define cordials and liqueurs as products obtained by mixing or redistilling distilled spirits with fruits, plants, their pure juices, other natural flavoring materials or their extracts.

By law, cordials must contain sugar in an amount not less than 2.5% of the finished product. Therefore, you can expect a cordial to be measurably sweeter than that of other distilled spirits.

Interestingly, unlike other spirit categories, there are no proof requirements in the US. In practice, however, most cordials and liqueurs contain between 15 and 30 % alcohol through some may go as high as 50%, like DeKuyper Hot Damn! 100 proof.