Aside from his cryptic racism towards the Japanese, one of the things that stood out in Great Ace Attorney’s prosecutor, Barok van Zieks was his consumption of an alcoholic beverage in the courtroom. This is a departure from the norm in Ace Attorney games as the joke in Japanifornia is that everyone consumes grape or tomato juice, but since we’re in Victorian England, temperance was forgotten and we got this world instead.

So was the beverage he consumed? Let’s check the the Ace Attorney fandom wiki for an answer:

Prominent among his bizarre bench behavior was his habit of bringing wine, though he only rarely actually drank from the chalices that he poured into. Instead, he smashed them wantonly to intimidate the defense and emphasize his points. When the court proceedings required van Zieks to change tacks, he would fling his bottle into the gallery behind him with little regard to whom it might hit. Over three cases that he prosecuted against Naruhodo, at least three bottles and nineteen glasses were broken. Despite all this, the prosecution’s bench and van Zieks’s clothes would remain immaculate.

The thing is: based on how the bottles would break upon hitting the oil lanterns, it would be impossible for it to be wine as the flames emitted indicated that it was something with a higher alcohol content. Simply put: wine cannot be set ablaze.

Throughout Adventures and its sequel, Resolve, I annoyingly kept watching him toss a bottle of his “precious vintages” behind him towards a lit flame and upon collision seeing it catch fire. Red wine would match the colour of the contents of his “hallowed chalice” which would put it as low as 12.5% ABV (alcohol by volume) to as high as 14.5%, although it is said it could peak at 20%. Even in Victorian England, this would not be much different.

For an alcoholic beverage to catch fire, it needs to be at least 40% ABV, but in personal experience, it should be around 60% for it to do anything substantiative. As this article puts it:

Don’t bother trying to light a floater of any alcohol under 40 percent alcohol by volume. You can get a little action in the 30-percent range, but it’s not worth the trouble.

One little tangent here: an aluminum can with a volume of 355 mL filled to the top with 5% ABV beer would contain 18 mL of alcohol. What makes this cool is that a typical can weighs about 14g, so if you take that 18 mL and convert it to grams, it comes out to 14g as well.

Anyway, since wine cannot be set ablaze, what could it be? Could we just increase the alcohol content of wine to something like 40%? Well, yes, we can. Let’s talk about brandy.

Brandy is distilled wine, but unlike its origins, it contains anywhere between 35 and 60% ABV. It was popular in Victorian England and like wine, was stored in casks, which van Zieks had plenty of. Being that it was 40% it could catch on fire.

However, what makes this disturbing is how he consumed it. It is hard to discern, but his goblet probably held about 125 mL if we just opt to use this as a reference. At 125 mL, that would be about 3-4 shots of brandy, which is quite a bit. Controversy about this measurement aside, but being that the CDC states 1-2 drinks per day is safe, he is exceeding what is recommended as a single shot is that one drink.

Basically, this implies that van Zieks is super unhealthy and is probably a functional alcoholic. Considering his backstory and the era it takes place in, it sort of tracks. Great Ace Attorney does take place a century after the gin craze, a time period where the consumption of gin by the pint was not unheard of, so maybe it would also track that this man would consume his brandy in such a manner.

In any event, last night, I tried congac for the first time and I can safely say that I don’t think I could consume it the way he does even if I really wanted to.