At the Origins of Distillation: History, Science, and Aromatic Creation
- Olivier Pezeron
- Dec 29, 2025
- 10 min read
Distillation, botany, and the pleasure of tasting: why some contemporary distilleries, such as URA SPIRITS, are now exploring new paths
Distillation is often perceived as a complex, sometimes mysterious art, reserved for insiders. Yet behind the technicality, precise protocols, and scientific vocabulary, the intention remains surprisingly simple: to provide pleasure in tasting. Pleasure of the nose, pleasure of the palate, pleasure of a spirit that reads easily while offering genuine sensory depth.
If certain contemporary distilleries, such as URA SPIRITS, now choose to follow paths closer to those of perfumers and scientific research, it is neither out of a taste for complexity nor from a desire to break artificially with tradition. It is because the context has profoundly changed. The available botanical corpus has never been so vast, and the expectations of enthusiasts have evolved toward spirits capable of expressing clarity, precision, and aromatic richness simultaneously. Complexity is no longer sought for its own sake; it is absorbed upstream so that the final experience remains fluid and accessible.
Part One — The Origins of Distillation: From Antiquity to the Middle Ages
For nearly two millennia, distillation followed a slow and differentiated path depending on its uses. The earliest devices comparable to alembics appear in Late Antiquity, notably in the Greco-Egyptian and Greco-Alexandrian worlds. Archaeological and textual sources indicate that these apparatuses were not used to produce alcoholic beverages, but rather to extract aromatic substances, oils, perfumes, and medicinal preparations.
In Antiquity and up to the early Middle Ages, the alcohol consumed by human societies was almost exclusively the product of fermentation: wine, beer, mead. Distillation, when practiced, belonged to the medical, cosmetic, or ritual sphere rather than to that of drink.
The shift toward distilling wine for human consumption occurred in the Middle Ages. It was made possible by scholars of the Arab-Muslim world, who perfected the alembic by improving its sealing, thermal control, and condensation, and who transmitted this knowledge to Latin Europe. Around the twelfth century—roughly a millennium after the first detailed descriptions of distillation apparatuses in Late Antiquity—the first potable eaux-de-vie appeared in Europe, initially in medical contexts and only gradually for enjoyment.
From there, local traditions slowly took shape. In France, complex monastic liqueurs emerged; in Italy, grape-pomace spirits; in Spain, related distillates; and in the Germanic and Nordic worlds, grain- or herb-based spirits. At the junction between the late Middle Ages and the early modern period, whisky appeared in Scotland, attested by written sources from the late fifteenth century. From the seventeenth century onward, certain eaux-de-vie gained access to Europe’s prestige circuits: cognac gradually established itself through maritime trade, the stabilization of double-distillation processes, and its ability to withstand long-distance transport.
Typologie des alambics à la Renaissance : standardisation progressive des formes et des usages.
Part Two — Two Trajectories from a Shared Heritage: Spirits and Perfumery
Meanwhile, perfumery never ceased to develop. Since Antiquity, perfumers have distilled, extracted, and transformed plant materials for aromatic and medicinal purposes. From the Renaissance onward, and especially in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, regions such as Grasse became major centers of floral cultivation and aromatic innovation.
This dynamic was amplified by major maritime expeditions. The voyages of James Cook for the British world and those of Louis-Antoine de Bougainville for France brought back from South America, the Pacific, and the Indian Ocean a vast array of plants, barks, resins, and flowers previously unknown in Europe. Bougainville’s Voyage around the World, published in 1771, marked a key moment in the botanical, scientific, and ethnographic dissemination of knowledge. It documented not only observed species but also their local uses, opening new perspectives for European botanists and perfumers.
Certainly, the spice routes and the Silk Road had already provided access to many raw materials since Antiquity. However, the rise of oceanic routes shortened journeys, increased volumes, and dramatically expanded the available botanical corpus. Perfumers were then faced with an unprecedented challenge: extracting and stabilizing extremely delicate aromas, often present in minute concentrations, derived from botanically distant plants.
It is here that the trajectories diverge. While medieval spirit distillers drew heavily on the knowledge of perfumers, apothecaries, and makers of medicinal preparations, perfumery continued on a path of constant innovation. Spirits, by contrast, retained distillation principles very close to those inherited from the Middle Ages.
The true rupture in the world of spirits was not technological but industrial. From the twentieth century onward, production shifted from small artisanal volumes—such as those of traditional home distillers—to much larger scales. Stills increased in size, temperature and pressure controls became more precise, but the fundamental principles remained unchanged. No major technological break comparable to those experienced by perfumery occurred in the distillation of spirits.
Part Three — Botany, Interactions, and the Science of Perfumery Applied to Spirits
Historically, spirits have been constructed according to two major logics.
The first relies on ancient recipes consisting of simultaneously assembling a large number of plants within a single distillation. Iconic liqueurs such as Chartreuse exemplify this approach. These recipes stem from an extremely refined empirical knowledge, transmitted through experience and time, but developed in an era when the science of aromatic interactions did not yet exist: neither the concept of molecules nor an understanding of solubility, volatility, or antagonistic effects had been formalized.
The second logic concerns spirits based on a single raw material or on plants belonging to the same botanical family, or to closely related families. In such configurations, aromatic compounds naturally exhibit chemical compatibilities that favor relatively stable and predictable interactions.
In both traditions, there was historically no need to mobilize advanced scientific expertise in aromatics. By contrast, perfumers and botanists were very early confronted with a different challenge: assembling plants from botanically distant families, whose aromatic compounds can interact in unpredictable ways.
Two remarkable materials, pleasant when taken separately, can together produce an unbalanced result. Molecular interactions are neither additive nor intuitive. It became necessary to understand when certain combinations should be avoided, when extractions needed to be fractionated, and when the introduction of a third plant—acting as a mediator—could stabilize, reveal, or rebalance the whole.
To address this complexity, perfumery developed an extremely refined science of aromatic interactions, structured around top, heart, and base notes, and today taught in leading institutions such as ISIPCA, at the intersection of botany, chemistry, and sensory perception.
Practical Application — Our Approach at URA SPIRITS
At URA SPIRITS, this approach is not theoretical; it directly structures our creative process. We work with more than fifty plants drawn from very different botanical families, territories, and aromatic worlds. Not all of them are intended to be immediately identified as dominant notes.
Some botanicals provide a clear aromatic signature. Others play a more discreet but essential role: that of mediator plants. They are not there to add to the fragrance, but to support, soften, reveal, or stabilize the expression of another plant chosen as the primary aromatic carrier.
This logic can be found across all our creations: HAIZE Gin, HAIZE Vodka, HAIZE Aquavit, as well as La Menthe de Biarritz and Le Café de Biarritz. The number of botanicals may come as a surprise, but the goal is never a display of force; it is to build an aromatic architecture that is legible, evolving, and balanced.
Addendum — Extracting Before Distilling: When Distillation Is No Longer the First Gesture
For centuries, distillation was both the central act and the first act of aromatic creation. Plant material was distilled directly, sometimes after simple maceration, and the still simultaneously performed extraction, transformation, and aromatic structuring.
However, when working with very fragile, highly volatile, or aromatically complex botanicals, this single sequence shows its limits. Certain molecules degrade before they can be properly extracted. Others are carried over too quickly, masked, or altered by heavier compounds. Distillation then becomes a thermal compromise rather than a tool of precision.
It is precisely to overcome these limitations that, for several decades, perfumery, flavor science, and more recently certain contemporary distilleries have introduced a major conceptual shift: extract first, distill afterward.
Ultrasound-assisted extraction relies on acoustic cavitation phenomena: microbubbles form and implode within the liquid, mechanically rupturing cell walls. This mechanism rapidly releases aromatic compounds without imposing significant thermal stress. Supercritical CO₂ extraction represents another major shift: carried out at low temperature and without residual solvents, it offers remarkable selectivity by finely adjusting pressure and temperature to target specific molecular families.
These techniques move the core of aromatic work upstream of distillation. Distillation does not disappear; it changes role. It becomes an act of shaping, fractionation, and aromatic sculpture, often performed under vacuum or through very low-stress thermal devices.
This is not a break with tradition, but rather a return to the original spirit of ancient distillation: respecting the plant and extracting what is most accurate within it.
Postscript — Going Further
When assembling botanicals from very different botanical families, complexity lies not only in perceived aromas, but in the physicochemical interactions between aromatic compounds themselves and their medium.
A large part of these interactions is determined by molecular structure. Some molecules interact through weak bonds (hydrogen bonding, dipole-dipole interactions), while others display affinities or repulsions related to their polarity. Two aromatic compounds that are pleasant when isolated can thus compete, mask one another, or destabilize each other when placed together in solution.
The polarity of the solvent is therefore central. Alcohol and water do not play the same role:
– ethanol is an excellent solvent for many non-polar or moderately polar aromatic molecules;
– water, being more polar, favors other families of compounds but can also trigger precipitation or imbalance phenomena if poorly controlled.
This is why alcohol strength, water quality, mineral content, and pH have a decisive influence on the stability and aromatic expression of a complex spirit. The solvent is not neutral: it conditions solubility, diffusion, and the perception of aromas over time.
Added to this is the notion of extraction kinetics. Some molecules are released rapidly, others slowly; some are highly volatile, others much heavier. Without mastery of these parameters, an assembly can evolve unpredictably after dilution, resting, or bottling.
Finally, in the most complex assemblies, it is common to use what perfumers call “mediator” compounds or plants: elements capable of creating aromatic continuity between distant botanical universes, dampening antagonisms, or revealing notes that were previously masked.
It is the combination of all these parameters—polarity, solvent effects, molecular interactions, the role of water and alcohol, extraction dynamics—that explains why creating spirits that assemble very different botanicals today requires a high-precision approach, at the frontier between tradition, botany, gentle chemistry, and the art of taste.
Final Part — Distilling Separately to Respect the Plant and Release Harmony
Assembling very different botanicals demands great rigor. Distilling all plants together leads to immediate compromises: degradation of certain compounds, masking of others, and early imbalances. This is why we have chosen to distill each plant separately.
Each plant imposes its own constraints: optimal temperature, sensitivity to oxidation, extraction duration. Distillation is therefore carried out under vacuum, at levels of pressure and temperature specific to each plant. Vacuum lowers vaporization temperatures and preserves the most fragile aromatic compounds.
The final assembly then becomes a precise act of construction, taking into account molecular interactions, the role of the water-alcohol solvent, and sensory balance over time. Complexity is assumed upstream; pleasure, however, must remain immediate. One does not need to be an expert taster to recognize it: what must remain obvious is the quality of the experience.
Extraction au CO₂ supercritique : sélectivité élevée et très faible stress thermique.
Conclusion — A Living Tradition and Research in Motion
The history of distillation shows that it has never been static. It has evolved through successive additions, transmissions, and refinements, in step with botanical knowledge, social uses, and available tools. The most demanding contemporary spirits now inscribe themselves in this continuity—not by mechanically repeating ancient gestures, but by re-integrating a founding idea: respect for the plant, enhanced by modern means.
At URA SPIRITS, this approach does not stop with the techniques already mastered. Other avenues are currently being developed: gentler extraction methods, more selective fractionation, improved assembly and stabilization techniques, and a finer understanding of interactions between aromatic materials and hydroalcoholic media. URA SPIRITS participates in these advances through research and development partnerships, bringing together complementary expertise in applied botany, extraction processes, aroma chemistry, and sensory analysis, with a constant objective: to increase aromatic accuracy without sacrificing clarity.
Far from being a frozen art, distillation thus remains a living field, at the crossroads of history, science, and taste. And it is precisely within this dialogue between heritage and research that part of the spirits of tomorrow is being shaped.
ANNEX — Overview of Contemporary Distillation and Aromatic Extraction Methods
Definitions
Distillation: separation process based on liquid–vapour equilibrium and differences in volatility.
Aromatic extraction: process aimed at transferring aromatic compounds from a plant matrix into a fluid (solvent, gas, or physical field), without necessarily involving boiling.
A. DISTILLATION METHODS
Category | Method | Operating mode | Relative temperature | Typical ABV (% vol) | Aromatic selectivity | Thermal stress | Yield | Main uses |
Distillation | Pot still | Batch | High | 60–80 | Low–medium | High | Low | Malt whisky, rum, fruit brandies |
Distillation | Charentais still | Batch (double) | High | ~70 | Medium | High | Low | Cognac (AOC) |
Distillation | Bain-marie still | Batch | Medium | 60–75 | Medium | Moderate | Medium | Fruit spirits, liqueurs |
Distillation | Vacuum distillation | Batch | Very low | 40–70 | High | Very low | Low | Fragile botanicals, premium gin |
Distillation | Rotary evaporator (rotavap) | Batch | Very low | 30–70 | Very high | Very low | Very low | Aromatic fractionation, R&D |
Distillation | Coffey still | Continuous | High | 90–95 | Low | Moderate | Very high | Vodka, grain whisky |
Distillation | Tray column | Continuous / hybrid | Variable | 80–95 | High | Moderate | High | Gin, rum |
Distillation | Packed column | Continuous | Variable | 95+ | Very low | Moderate | Very high | Neutral alcohol |
B. AROMATIC EXTRACTION METHODS
Category | Method | Physical / chemical principle | Relative temperature | Selectivity | Thermal stress | Solvent / medium | Typical uses |
Extraction | Hydroalcoholic maceration | Diffusion (Fick’s law) | Low | Low | Very low | Water + ethanol | Gins, liqueurs |
Extraction | Hot infusion | Accelerated diffusion | Medium | Low | High | Water / alcohol | Bitters |
Extraction | Hydrodistillation | Steam entrainment | High | Low | High | Water vapour | Essential oils |
Extraction | Ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) | Acoustic cavitation | Low | High | Very low | Liquid | Fragile botanicals |
Extraction | Microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) | Volumetric heating | Medium | Medium | Moderate | Intracellular water | Rapid extraction |
Extraction | Supercritical CO₂ extraction (SFE) | Supercritical solvation | Very low | Very high | Very low | CO₂ (SC) | Absolutes, premium extracts |
Extraction | Organic solvents | Differential solubility | Low | High | Low | Hexane, ethanol | Perfumery |
Extraction | Enzymatic extraction | Targeted hydrolysis | Low | Very high | Very low | Enzymes | R&D |
Extraction | Pulsed electric fields (PEF) | Electroporation | Low | High | Very low | Electric field | Pre-extraction |
Extraction | Mechanical pressing | Physical rupture | Ambient | Very low | None | None | Zests, juices |
Reading note (for the article)
Traditional methods are robust but poorly selective.
Modern methods (vacuum, ultrasounds, supercritical CO₂) allow greater aromatic fidelity and lower thermal degradation.
Contemporary premium spirits increasingly rely on multi-stage chains:
gentle extraction → controlled distillation → aromatic assembly
SOURCES AND REFERENCES
History, Antiquity & Middle Ages (“aqua vitae”)
Thomas, N. (2020). Aqua vitae et aqua ardens: production et consommation des alcools distillés au Moyen Âge. OpenEdition Journals.
Holmyard, E. J. (1957). Alchemy. Penguin Books.
EXARC (2020). Ancient Distillation and Experimental Archaeology.
Voyages, Botany and Plant Circulation
Bougainville, L.-A. de (1771). Voyage autour du monde. Paris.
Pitt Rivers Museum (University of Oxford). Cook Voyages Collections (Banks & Solander).
Cognac and Institutional History
BNIC – Bureau National Interprofessionnel du Cognac. History of Cognac and Charentais Distillation.
Perfumery and Aromatic Sciences
Musée International de la Parfumerie (Grasse). History of Perfumery and Raw Materials.
ISIPCA – Institut Supérieur International du Parfum, de la Cosmétique et de l’Aromatique Alimentaire. Perfumery and Aromatic Sciences Training & Research.
Modern Processes and Extraction Technologies
Reverchon, E. (1997). Supercritical fluid extraction and fractionation of essential oils and related products. Journal of Supercritical Fluids.
Chemat, F. et al. (2017). Ultrasound-assisted extraction in food and natural products. Ultrasonics Sonochemistry.
Kister, H. Z. (1992). Distillation Design. McGraw-Hill.
Léauté, R. (1990). Distillation et spiritueux. Tec & Doc.
Piggott, J. R. et al. (2003). Whisky: Technology, Production and Marketing. Academic Press.
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