The distillation process was greatly altered by the invention of the continuous still by three people more or less simultaneously – Coffey (Irish), Stein (English), Blumenthal (French). These details are outlined in a book by R.J. Forbes – a short history of the art of distillation.
The title of inventor of the patent still is disputed, with some citing Jean-Baptiste Cellier Blumenthal of France, or Robert Stein of England, although the history attributes it to the Irishman Aeneas Coffey who was issued his patent and began to use it to produce whiskey. This technology was advanced by the work of Jean-Edouard Adam, who invented a method for isolating the ethanol in wine.
The continuous still heats cold wash by pumping it through a steam filled column called the rectifier into the analyzer, a column heated by steam. The wash vaporized and rises through pipes into the rectifier where it travels through a series of perforated plates, cooling down gradually as it rises and condensing on each of the plates. The distillate is removed at the desired point (plate). The steam escapes through the top, and the heavier liquids fall to the bottom of the rectified and eventually being re-distilled.
This method produces a much purer product that is also more neutral, but it is of a much higher percentage of alcohol, and the distillate has more purity but less character than the distillate produced in a pot still.
After distillation, the distillate is reduced (usually with water) to somewhere between 40 – 60% ABV. In some cases this is done prior to maturation (indeed, some spirits are not matured as such), while in other cases there are long maturation régimes to be observed prior to the final blending.
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Wine Regions of the World
