The Wheat of Virgin Spaces

“I remember a girl I knew in my bachelor days. An American, she had worked as a model in several haute couture salons in Paris and had acquired a taste for absinthe. We were at her place one evening and she asked me if I would like to have a martini as a nightcap. I said I was game, though I favored cognac and water in the evening, when the lights are low and the music is throbbing on the high-infidelity. She stirred up a pitcher of martinis and brought it on a tray with glasses and a bottle of absinthe. She set the tray on the coffee table, or, rather, the martini table. Now, I don’t know whether this voluptuous creature had ever heard about thujone…”

The Virtual Museum has just published a complete English edition of the “bible” of absinthe distillation: Pierre Duplais’ seminal “Traité de la Fabrication des Liqueurs et de la Distillation des Alcools”. This is the authoritative French distillation guide. It went through seven editions from 1855 to 1900 and is the basis of our understanding of 19th century French distillation techniques. It’s arguably the most important book on distillation written in any language in the 19th century, and no comparable book of the same scope has been published since.. A single English edition was published in Philadelphia in 1871, translated by M. McKennie, a professor at the University of Virginia.The special section on absinthe is of particular importance - this is our most accurate and comprehensive guide to the recipes and techniques used by late 19th century absinthe distillers, and its widely used by those seeking to duplicate their recipes today.

McKennie’s translation appears to have been issued with a very small print run, and surviving copies are extremely rare - only two have come up for sale in the last 15 years. This new facsimile edition of this English version published by The Virtual Absinthe Museum has been painstakingly compiled from scans of a rare original copy, and contains over 700 pages, including 14 plates and numerous wood engravings. If you’re serious about absinthe, you need this book.

The book is now in stock and ready for shipping.

Click here to see the new facsimile edition of Duplais’ distillation guide.