Spirit of Wine

We have noticed that some spagyrist frequently recommends using in the preparation
of the tinctures and other spagyrical preparations, commercial alcohol, or the
distillation of brandy or other spirituous drinks.

Those liquors, besides the alcohol whose provenience is ignored, contain other
products such as colouring and preservatives, etc.

There is not doubt that chemically an alcohol, which is distilled of cane, sugars or of
beets and of fermented fruits, is chemically an ethanol.

Spagyricaly, there is an abyssal difference between a commercial ethanol and the

ones acquired in a pharmacy and the spirit of natural wine.

I will give you an example of a good spirit of wine that has the quality. Acquire a
bottle of good spirit of wine with at least 25 years of permanence in a barrel of French
or Portuguese oak, just as the one that we showed you in the image.

Pour a little in a suitable glass and shake it circularly. Drink that precious nectar
slowly. Then, smell what remains in the glass. You will feel an incomparable, very
pleasant sweetened smell, similar to honey and with "bouquet". How was possible
similar transformation of the aged spirit of wine along 25 years?

The explanation that we found can only be attributed to the essence of the wine. It
will be unnecessary to tell you that it would not be economically reasonable to distil
this "nectar" and extract its spirit, given its high price.
Also, concerning the famous Porto wine, in its production, is added a spirit of wine of
the best quality, to reach the alcoholic graduation of 18%.

The Law prohibits expressly using other spirit that is not pure spirit of wine so its
high quality.

This is just to give you an example, because the spirit that you will need for your
spagyric works can be extracted of the wine of a recent year so that it is relatively
cheap.

We have also noticed that there is a certain difficulty to elevate the graduation of the
spirit of wine up to 98% or more. This is not difficult if you use the suitable
glassware and it is not necessary to have a vacuum distillatory or complicated vase.
An alembic is enough with an extension that hinders the access of the water to the
helm and that is contained in the spirit of wine at 90% and with addition of
quicklime in the percentage indicated in our writing on the spirit of wine.
We never had any difficulty with the glassware that we used to obtain a spirit of
wine of at least 98%.

Why spirit of wine and not any alcohol? The spirit of wine in the scale of the
vegetable evolution is the most perfect of the vegetable mercuries. It not only
contains ethyl alcohol, but also the essential oil of the grapes conforms to the breed.

Besides, distilling the flowering branches of a plant that contains essential oil will
make it an integral part of the mercury of that plant because it drags it in the
distillation.

It is also right that the mercury of a plant can be obtained by fermentation of the
same without addition of ferments or of sugar.

For a plant as Melissa or other similar ones that contain a lot of water, that operation
is not so difficult, but it is necessary to have a great amount of the plant to obtain an
alcohol by fermentation that later on allows the rectification up to 98%. Adding sugar
to the plant for the fermentation is a rude mistake under the spagyrical point of view
because the alcohol that one will obtain in the distillation is one from the
fermentation of the sugar and not the mercury of the plant.

Actually, the distillation from the fermentation of the plant would be almost
impossible. Therefore the viable solution is the distillation of the spirit of wine
together with the flowering branches of the chosen plant.

Let us speak of the distillation of the spirit of wine. For that you will have to distil a
wine of good quality and, for you to obtain 750ml of spirit of wine at 45%, you will
have to distil at least, 5 litres of wine at 12%.

For us Mediterranean countries (Portugal, Spain, France, Italy and Greece) where
wine of high quality is produced and to moderate price, it is very easy because the
wine is relatively cheap and it is not necessary to have a wine of high quality for the
effect, because the wine of the year that cost not much more than 1 Euro or 1 USA
Dollar per litre, will do just fine.

And to conclude, we will say that there is no alcohol that is comparable to the spirit of
wine. Therefore, it is why our Masters prescribed it for the spagyrical preparations
and so that you don't try to do your preparations with any other kind of alcohol
because it won't have the same virtue.

Rubellus Petrinus