The History of the Alambic
By: James F. Guymon’s lecture Distillation in Allambic (1989)

Alcoholic distillation is a very old technique, used by the Chinese as early as 3000 BC, the East Indians (2500 BC), the Egyptians (2000 BC), the Greeks (1000 BC), and the Romans (200 BC). In the beginning, all of the above cultures produced a liquid, later called alcohol by the Arabs, which was used for medicinal purposes and to make perfumes.

By the sixth century AD, the Arabs began their invasion of Europe and distilling techniques spread to the European counties. Alchemists and monks progressively improved both the equipment and distillation techniques. In 1250, Arnaud de Villeneuve was the first to distill wines in France; he called the product, which resulted from this process, eau-de-vie or Water of Life, and attributed to it the virtue of prolonging life.

Today, the ‘cooking pot’ still used in the Cognac area is known as an alambic. The word ‘alambic’ comes from the Greek ‘ambix’, defined as a vase with a small opening. In the 15th and 16th centuries, the European countries began distilling alcohol in, what is now called ‘alembic’ stills. The Dutch produced gin, the Irish and Scottish produced whiskey, while the French produced cognac and armagnac. Each country slightly revised the form of the still according to its needs.

In the 1600s, in the Cognac region, the Chevalier of Croix Marron discovered the double distillation process, which considerably refines and improves the final product. Later on, in France, Chaptal (1780) and Adam (1805) dramatically improved the efficiency of distillation and gave the alembic its final design. Thanks to the double distillation process and together with the alembic’s perfected design, Cognac manufacturers reached the height of perfection in cognac production.

Brandy produced in an alembic still is known as ‘alembic brandy’.

* Taken from James F. Guymon’s lecture Distillation in Allambic (1989)