Spirits terms, in plain English

Spirit Categories

The major spirit categories you'll see referenced constantly in WSET study materials, grouped by how they're made.

Base spirits

Brandy

A spirit distilled from fermented fruit, most often grapes; aged examples like Cognac and Armagnac take on rich notes of dried fruit, spice, and oak from time in barrel.

Vodka

A neutral spirit, traditionally distilled from grain or potatoes and heavily filtered to strip out flavor and aroma, prized for its clean, almost flavorless character.

Whisky / Whiskey

A spirit distilled from fermented grain (barley, corn, rye, or wheat) and aged in wooden casks, which give it most of its color and flavor; styles range from smoky single malt Scotch to sweeter American bourbon.

Rum

A spirit distilled from sugarcane juice or molasses, ranging from light and clean to dark and heavily aged, with production concentrated in the Caribbean and Latin America.

Tequila (and Mezcal)

Spirits distilled from the roasted or steamed core of the agave plant in Mexico; Tequila must be made from blue agave in a defined region, while Mezcal can use other agave varieties and a wider production area.

Gin

A neutral spirit redistilled or infused with botanicals, always including juniper, which gives it its signature piney, resinous character.

Liqueurs & aperitifs

Liqueur

A spirit that's been sweetened and flavored, often with fruit, herbs, spices, or cream, usually lower in alcohol than the base spirit it started from.

Aperitif

A drink, often lower in alcohol and slightly bitter or herbal, traditionally served before a meal to stimulate the appetite.

Digestif

A drink, often stronger or sweeter, traditionally served after a meal to aid digestion.

General Terms, A–Z

A

ABV (Alcohol by Volume)

The percentage of a drink's total volume that is pure alcohol, printed on every bottle's label by law.

Aging

Storing a spirit, usually in wood, for a period before bottling, allowing it to pick up color, flavor, and aromatic complexity from the barrel and from slow exposure to oxygen.

Angel's share

The portion of a spirit that evaporates through the barrel's wood during aging, reducing the volume left to bottle over time.

B

Barrel

A wooden container, usually oak, used to age a spirit; its size, age, and previous contents (such as sherry or bourbon) all shape the flavor it imparts.

Blending

Combining spirits from different casks, distillations, or even distilleries to achieve a consistent house style.

Botanicals

The herbs, spices, fruits, and other flavoring ingredients used to flavor gin and some other spirits; juniper is gin's one required botanical.

C

Cask strength

A spirit bottled straight from the cask without dilution, usually well above standard bottling strength.

Cocktail

A mixed drink combining a spirit with other ingredients such as mixers, juices, bitters, or other spirits.

Column still (continuous still)

A tall, efficient still that can run continuously, producing a lighter, purer spirit than a pot still; used for most vodka, gin, and grain whisky.

Congeners

Flavor- and aroma-active compounds, other than pure alcohol and water, produced during fermentation and distillation; they're a major source of a spirit's character.

D

Distillation

Heating a fermented liquid to separate and concentrate its alcohol, based on alcohol's lower boiling point than water.

Dilution

Adding water to a spirit, either during production to bring it down to bottling strength or at the point of serving.

E

Esters

Aromatic compounds formed during fermentation that give many spirits their fruity notes.

Ethanol

The type of alcohol found in all spirits and other alcoholic drinks.

F

Fermentation

The process where yeast converts sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide, turning a sugary liquid into the base that will later be distilled.

Filtration

Passing a spirit through a filter, often chilled, to remove compounds that can make it look cloudy or taste harsh.

G

Garnish

An ingredient, such as a citrus twist or olive, added to a finished drink for aroma and appearance.

H

Highball

A simple mixed drink made of a spirit and a larger volume of a carbonated mixer, served over ice in a tall glass.

I

Infusion

Steeping flavoring ingredients, such as fruit or botanicals, in a spirit to transfer their flavor.

M

Mash

The mixture of ground grain (or other starch source) and hot water from which sugars are extracted before fermentation.

Maturation

Another term for the aging process a spirit undergoes in a cask.

Mixer

A non-alcoholic ingredient, such as soda, juice, or tonic, combined with a spirit in a cocktail.

Molasses

A thick, dark syrup left over from refining sugarcane, and the main raw material for most rum.

N

Neutral spirit

A spirit distilled to a very high strength specifically to strip out almost all flavor and aroma, used as the base for vodka and gin.

New make spirit

Freshly distilled spirit that hasn't yet been aged; clear and often quite harsh compared to its finished, matured form.

O

Oak

The most common wood used for aging casks, prized for the vanilla, spice, and toasted notes it can contribute to a spirit.

P

Peat

Partially decayed plant matter, burned to dry malted barley in some whisky production, giving the finished spirit smoky, medicinal aromas most associated with Islay Scotch.

Pot still

A simple, traditional copper still, usually operated in batches, that produces a heavier, more flavorful spirit than a column still.

Proof

A historical measure of a spirit's alcohol strength; in the US, proof is exactly double the ABV percentage.

R

Rectification

Further distillation or purification of a spirit to increase its strength or purity, typically used to make neutral spirits.

S

Sour mash

A whiskey production method where some spent mash from a previous batch is added to a new one, helping keep a consistent flavor and pH from batch to batch.

Spirit

A distilled alcoholic drink, produced by concentrating the alcohol from a fermented liquid through distillation.

Standard drink

A measure of pure alcohol used to compare drinks of different strengths and serving sizes.

W

Wash

The fermented, low-alcohol liquid, similar to a beer, that's fed into a still to be distilled into spirit.