1868 The complete Practical Distiller

179

SPECIAL DISTILLATIONS.

^* According to the obseryations of M. Aubergier, it would appear that this oil is seated in the skin of the rai- sin itself, and, from the facts which he relates, his opinion is likely to be true. Kernels distilled with alcohol or water have given a liquor of an agreeable taste. '^ The stalks have produced, by distillation, a liquor slightly alcoholized, having neither the taste nor the fla- vour of lees-brandy. But the envelope of the raisin, separated from the kernels and from the stalks, when submitted to distillation, after having been fermented, have given a spirit in all respects similar to that of lees. Thus it appears clearly demonstrated by these experi- ments that the seat of the oil, which communicates to the lees-brandy its bad qualities, is in the skin of the raisin. M. Aubergier has succeeded in obtaining this oil by rec- tifying lees-spirit at a moderate heat. ** The first portions of alcohol which came over had much less acridity than those that followed : on having been rectified a second time, they were almost entirely free from it ; but repeated rectifications could not give it so agreeable a taste as that possessed by the spirit pro- duced from wine. The latter portions of liquid in each operation, reunited and distilled, gave, at first, alcohol, which the addition of water did not render troubled, and which contained but little oil. **The portions which were afterward obtained were transparent, but they became troubled when mixed with water ; the third portion, which remained milky until the end of the operation, had on its face a light couch of oil, although it marked 23° Beaume. ^^ This last produce having been mixed with the second,