One of the fascinating items on display at Vint Hill Craft Winery was this still, which was on the counter behind the wine bar. It was about two and a half feet tall, made of copper burnished in a woven pattern, and possibly of Mediterranean origin. When I asked about it I was told that it was purely there for display and that they didn't distill any spirits, though there are plans for a real distillery as part of the Vint Hill complex.
I was immediately reminded of some folks I used to know down in Tennessee, known as "ridge-runners," who had a supply of what I simply referred to as "product" and they knew as "white lightning," i.e. moonshine. As a friendship gift one of them gave me a Mason jar full of a clear liquid that was obviously not water. He said to me that this was the luxury kind because it had been distilled in an "all copper still." Copper I guessed was the better metal for stills, as I had heard that some people desperate for equipment brewed 'shine in old auto radiators. I tried sampling the product and it tasted terrible. They told me to mix it with fruit juice and it would go down easy. Well this still here wasn't the "ridge-runner" kind with a spiral tube instead of a simply bent one like this example, but it was quite impressive.
When I got this drawing home I couldn't resist seeing the still as an outright phallic shape, so you get erotic and alcoholic themes combined in one shrine-like object. As I said, of Mediterranean origin.
Black tech pen ink on sketchbook page, 4" x 7 1/2", January 9, 2016.
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