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DISTILLATES: ON THE HUNT FOR DEFECTS

Each distiller has his own method for detecting defects in a distillate: there are those who smell the freshly emptied glass or those who decide to place the distillate on a strip of paper and smell or those who pour a little distillate on their hand and rub .

Another widely used method, the dynamics of which we will delve deeper into, consists of diluting the distillate with warm water. Understanding the mechanisms that make it effective will help us explain all the other approaches a little.

The extreme volatility of alcohol has the ability to carry with it the aromas and any distillation defects up to the nose, but the alcohol concentration in a distillate is so high as to cover the olfactory perception, so the dilution with water acts as a mitigating factor, allowing our senses to function better.

Even in terms of taste, the reduction in the burning sensation produced by alcohol will make analysis easier. Another effect of dilution is the slight heating reaction of the sample due to the mixing of water and alcohol, which facilitates the volatilization of the substances contained in the sample.

If we dilute excessively, the volatility of the alcohol will be totally depressed by the water and the aromas, with any defects, will no longer be able to be transported to the nose.

The increase in temperature favors the release of aromas, but also increases the aggressiveness of the alcohol, so the right balance is needed.

From what has been explained so far, some tricks could be unmasked to hide any distillation defects, such as deciding to serve the distillate cold, suppressing all its organoleptic characteristics, defects included, or one could decide to bring it to a high alcohol content in order to ensure that the alcohol prevails over everything.

Then there is the path of sweetening and flavoring which leads the distillate to be a basis for liqueur-type operations. With this statement we do not intend to denigrate the flavoring of grappa which has its own historical dignity where grappa was used by monks as an alcoholic base for the preparation of infusions which also had a medicinal purpose.

Apart from the addition of flavorings (provided for by law) which some companies resort to in order to be able to package a low-cost product that has little to say in terms of quality and history of the raw materials, the products currently on the market, even the industrial ones have reached a good quality standard with regards to distillation defects, but a product without defects does not necessarily have merits.  The difficulty of the master distiller is precisely that of removing, but not too much, to avoid delivering the distillate deprived of its defects, but also of all those characterizing notes that define its body and personality.

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