If you’ve read this column for the past three years, you know I don’t like to stray from the topic of whiskey. But brandy—which essentially means distilled fruit—is sublime. Like whiskey, brandy is a categorical term with subcategories throughout the world. Let’s explore.

Recently it dawned on me what woodcock hunters are referring to when they talk about hunting their favorite coverts. As I understand it, a covert is a place that is damp or wet and has lots of trees and brush cover, vines, and briers—that sort of thing. It is br’er woodcock’s brier patch. He likes it damp so he will not have to poke deep for worms and the other soil creatures he eats. I can understand why it takes a special dog and a tough, fast-shooting dude to hunt coverts.

After high school in Baltimore, Maryland, Gordon Allen lived on Barren Island in Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay and worked as a hunting and fishing guide while helping to run the island’s lodge. He then studied for a year at Maryland Institute College of Art, and later at the School of the Museum of Fine Art in Boston.

When Allen was in his early 20s, his father invited him to meet his friend Gene Hill, the outdoor writer, in Princeton, New Jersey. Hill invited Allen to produce illustrations for Hill’s next book, Mostly Tailfeathers, and that launched Allen’s career in illustration, largely for book-publishing clients at that time. He says he quickly developed a reputation in the sporting publishing world in New York City. “I supported myself for several years by illustrating, and selling the original drawings helped me make ends meet,” says Allen. “I love books, and was happy to be a part of creating them.” Allen’s lifelong involvement with hunting and fishing gave him familiarity with those subjects, which informed his illustrations.