Spirits are fine alcoholic beverages obtained through a physical process of separation and concentration of flavours and alcohol from products of plant origin such as cereals, roots, tubers, fruits, or wine. Distillation is based on the different boiling points of the various substances which, vaporising one after the other, can be separated from each other and from the aqueous component. Fermentation - which converts the sugar into alcohol - must be carried out first. The actual distillation process is carried out using stills. By controlling the temperature, the master distiller determines which substances will vaporise. The most volatile substances are the first to vaporise while the heaviest are the last. They will tend to remove the heads (first part) and tails (final part), so to extract only the heart of the distillate. Once condensed, this forms a liquid that is more concentrated in alcohol and flavours than the original raw material. The oldest form of distillation is discontinuous distillation, which involves processing one part of the raw material at a time (one batch at a time). A more modern form is continuous distillation, which optimises work thanks to a mechanism that can be fed continuously into a column still.

All spirits are clear and transparent. But sometimes they are aged in wooden barrels, which turns them brown. However, the effects of ageing are certainly not limited to colour: new flavours are formed due to the substances released by the wood and the interactions between the various components, and the taste becomes smoother and more concentrated due to evaporation. After prolonged ageing in contact with wood, the final taste of the spirit is very different and much more complex than the initial one. Most spirits are blends of several batches and are diluted with demineralised water before bottling. Others are from a single vintage or a single barrel and are particularly valuable and unique products, often presented in numbered bottles. Famous spirits are: Whisky (from cereals), Brandy (from wine), Cognac (from wine), Grappa (from marc), Rum (from sugar cane), Tequila (from agave), Calvados (from apples), Vodka (generally from cereals).