🥃 Orujo

If you have seen "orujo" on a Spanish menu or shelf, it is the country's pomace brandy, a cousin of Italian grappa and French marc. In the Spanish text of EU Regulation 2019/787 category 6 is called "aguardiente de orujo, orujo o marc": a spirit made only from fermented pomace, every distillation below 86 % vol., the first one with the pomace, and at least 37.5 % vol. In Spanish the word "orujo" also means the pomace itself.

The only Spanish geographical indication in this category is "Orujo de Galicia", protected in the EU since 12 June 1989; its rules are described on a separate page. Its technical file calls it the only Spanish pomace spirit with a GI in Regulation 1576/89, alongside French marc, Italian grappa, Portuguese bagaceira and Greek tsipouro.

Three more GIs are built on Orujo de Galicia. "Aguardiente de hierbas de Galicia" has 37.5 to 50 % vol. and at least three plants: mint, camomile, lemon verbena, rosemary and others. "Licor de hierbas de Galicia" and "Licor café de Galicia" are liqueurs of 20 to 40 % vol. with at least 100 g of sugar per litre; orujo supplies at least 25 % of their alcohol.

The technical file mentions pharmacy distillation in Galicia in the 16th and 17th centuries, a 1739 plea by the Government of the Kingdom of Galicia for the right to distil pomace, and an orujo aged 100 years shown at the regional exhibition of 1878. In neighbouring Portugal the same drink has another legal name, aguardente bagaceira; three GIs are registered there: Bairrada, Alentejo and Vinhos Verdes.

Why it matters to you. The word "orujo" on a label only names the category; Galician origin is guaranteed by the GI name with the Regulatory Council's seal or back label. A straw-coloured or greenish drink with herbs is "aguardiente de hierbas", and a dark sweet one is the "café" liqueur, not orujo itself. According to the WHO, there is no safe level of alcohol.