If you visit a wine museum in France (there's plenty of those around) they usually have an alambic on display. They'll tell you what they did with it, but they won't let you play it. The French are still distilling 'eau de' whatever - beer, wine, fruit, you name it - and they must still be using an alambic-like apparatus for that, I think.
If you ever visit the Alsace, Colmar is a good place to start. And if you thought Mel Gibson's protrayal of the passion of Christ was bloody, check out the 15th C. Issenheimer altar by Mathias Gr?newald at the Mus?e d'Unterlinden - nothing new under the sun.
(Message edited by Adriaan on March 17, 2004)