Distilled Spirits

Distilled spirits are the concentrated essence of wine and beer — products of the simple principle that alcohol (boiling point 173°F/78°C) vaporizes before water (212°F/100°C). Heating a fermented liquid sends alcohol-rich, aroma-laden vapor off preferentially; cooling and condensing that vapor produces a liquid far more potent than the original. The result is not just stronger drink but some of the most intensely flavorful foods humans produce.

History

Mesopotamians were concentrating essential plant oils by distillation over 5,000 years ago. Chinese alchemists may have distilled concentrated alcohol ~2,000 years ago, with commercial production by the 13th century. In Europe, significant quantities appeared in Salerno, Italy (~1100) at its medical school. The Catalan scholar Arnaud of Villanova (~1300) dubbed it aqua vitae — “water of life” — a term that survives in Scandinavian aquavit, French eau de vie, and the Gaelic uisge beatha that became “whisky.”