eau de vie

Eau de vie is an ambiguous term that depends on context. Literally “water of life” and linguistically linked to terms like “aquavitae”, “vodka” (“little water”) and aguardiente (“firewater”) that historically refer to distillates. As a distiller’s term, “eau de vie” may refer to whatever comes straight out of the still, regardless of what went into it in the first place. In typical American usage, “eau de vie” is typically employed as a category label for individual fruit brandies, such as framboise and poire williams.