09 Jul Grappopolis!
The country of Italy is an extremely gorgeous peninsula jutting out deep into the Mediterranean Sea, meaning it has loads of coastline and very moderate climes. Its food, people, and scenery are all beautiful enough to have a person questioning whether or not they should ever return to whatever country they’re visiting from. In that very small and specific way, a trip there can feel almost bittersweet.
Bassano del Grappa, a city in the northern region of Veneto, is a particularly appealing slice of Italian pie and happens to be home to grappa. After finding ourselves there in February of this year, Colton, Florian, and I took a couple of hours to visit the Poli Grappa Museum so that we could learn more about this quintessential Italian spirit.
Grappa has a long and interesting history, which the museum did a wonderful job of illustrating in various formats. This distinct spirit has been made for centuries, though it suffered for most of that time from a poor reputation—the vast majority of grappa distilled before the 20th century was rough on the palate, to put it mildly. I mean, this stuff is the byproduct made from the leftover waste of another drink! I don’t think it’s too much of a surprise that it didn’t always come off the still a vibrant and delicious elixir.
Regardless, its production continued, expanding into just about every grape-growing corner of Italy, and eventually some more artisanal products began to spill forth. Grappa stopped being the crude beverage of the Italian working man and began to be seen as something more worthy of appreciation. And then the mid 1900s rolled around and with it came the widespread advent of continuous distillation systems.
Continuous distillation affected every single kind of spirit making. After many years poking around in the history of variable spirit categories, I feel pretty confident in that assessment. It’s not exactly a #hottake either way. A continuous system, especially a column still, can be a great tool if used correctly—a good many rums and whiskeys have been made on column stills that are interesting and flavorful—but Italy’s artisanal grappa distillation was not initially improved by its introduction. After industrial distillation systems became available, quality grappa saw a dip and competitively priced alternatives flooded the market.
Let’s pause here a moment to discuss what grappa is and is not. It’s not the exact same as brandy, for one thing, though it is a type of brandy. While brandy is a product distilled from either fermented grapes or other fruit mash, grappa is a product distilled from marc, or the skins, pips, and stalks leftover after the grapes have been pressed during the winemaking process (which can also be called pomace or vinaccia). So grappa is not distilled wine either as the wine has already been separated out. This process of distilling leftover solids still wet with some residual wine results in a spirit possessing a very different flavor profile, though that’s not meant to imply that all grappa tastes the same.
The north of Italy is composed of several notable grappa regions: Piedmont, Aosta Valley, Lombardy, Veneto, Trentino, Upper Adige-South Tyrol, and Friuli Venezia Giulia, AKA Barolo. The top half of the country is better suited for grappa production because of the higher levels of acidity largely present in the grapes. These regions will be familiar to educated fans of Italian wines, but they might not realize how that translates to grappa.
In terms of production, think of Piedmont as the stodgy old nonno of Italian grappa. They favor the old distilling tradition and choose to honor it by eschewing continuous distillation systems, opting instead to use boilers with flowing steam. In Piedmont, grappa can come from a variety of quality red grapes, including Nebbiolo, Dolcetto, and Barbera, or white grapes, such as White Muscat, Arneis, or Erbaluce. Some of the grappa made here may be aged for a long while in barrels, and oftentimes it’s the spirit made from red grape marc that does so.
Lombardy is home to Italy’s capital city, Milan, where I spent four and a half wonderful, bread-stuffed months in college. It has historical roots to distillation—Jesuit father Francisco Terzi Lana lived there and devoted the third volume of his seminal Magistrium Naturae, which was published in 1684, to the art of distillation. Do check it out if you are fluent in Latin.
Typical grapes for this region are lesser-known and include Bonarda, Croatina, and Groppello Gentille. (There really are SO MANY grapes in Italy with which to make wine; it’s crazy.) In the last 50 years, Lombardy, in particular, has seen a reduction in the number of distilleries, more so than other regions.
This mountainous region to the north borders Austria and is very close to where we distilled our gin! South Tyrol/Upper Adige has been home to a number of famous inhabitants over the years, including Benedictine and Augustinian monks, who helped to transform this generally inhospitable land into a bounty. Aromatic white grapes grow best here, including Gewürztraminer (obvi) but also Riesling, Chardonnay, Weissburgunder, Goldmuskateller, Kerner, and Veltliner. Red grape varietals in the area include Merlot, Cabernet, Pinot Noir, and Lagrein.
This region is known for its quality grappa and respect for the traditional ways of production. The people of this area have been producing grappa for centuries; over 90% of the cultivated vine species are of Certified Origin. As far as red grapes go, the most prevalent of the region include Schiava, Teroldego, and Marzemino. For white grapes, you’re likely to find Traminer, Riesling, Muscat, and others.
Fun fact: In 1601, a Distillers’ Guild was created in Venice and went on to have an impact on the distilling tradition of the Friuli region. The distilling tradition in Friuli Venezia Giuli is very old and culturally significant. It’s typical for grappa made in this region to be aged in oak and bottled at no less than 40% ABV. There are also terms that denote successive age, including Vecchia, Invecchiata, Riserva, and Stravecchia.
Veneto is the region most populated by grappa distillers in all of Italy and is also where we got the chance to meet an Italian grappa distiller, Vittorio Capovilla. It’s also historically connected to aqua vitae. In the late 1300s, a doctor from Padua named Michele Savonarola published “De Conficienda Aqua Vitae,” a treatise on the production of aqua vitae.
There are a variety of grapes grown in the Veneto region, including Prosecco, Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Pinot Bianco, Cabernet, Merlot, Corvina, Molinara, Friulano, Raboso, and Rondinella. This means that there is always an abundance of fresh marc available for distillers in the region. Batch systems, continuous systems, and hybrids are used at distilleries in and around Veneto.
Whatever popularity grappa once had seems to have largely been lost to time. It *might* have been something that your grandparents drank, depending on your own age, but today’s most influential drinking segment—Gen Z and Millennials, by my estimation—hardly seems to give grappa a second thought. Which is too bad, because there’s some really fabulous grappa out there if you have the dedication, patience, and means to find it, plus there’s probably never been a time that producers were better prepared to make fine grappa. I mean, the really heavy mechanical presses used by some wineries to extract juice can make for difficult grappa production once the marc makes it to the distillery—ideally, you want it to still be pretty wet so that a decent amount of flavor and residual alcohol remain. But the knowledge that some producers possess regarding the process of grappa distillation is being used to create some phenomenal products these days. Case in point: Capovilla Distillery. Vittorio Capovilla is crafting gorgeous grappa that would make a fan out of anyone lucky enough to try them, but how many liquor stores bring in small producers of his quality?
Whatever popularity grappa once had seems to have largely been lost to time.
Understanding grappa can be difficult for a would-be imbiber who isn’t fluent in Italian, but there are some key things to know, one being how grappa is matured/restred. Colorless grappa is going to be that way because it was bottled after distillation or after a rest in stainless steel vats, meaning it did not see any oak following distillation. Grappa can still have a lot of delicate flavors and aromatics even without that softening kiss of wood influence and, depending on the producer, can certainly be something enjoyable to sip on (out of those lovely tulip glasses, of course).
But grappa might be aged as well, and if it is it will likely bear the word ‘Riserva’ somewhere on the bottle. I’d say 99% of the time grappa is aged in neutral oak—I can’t say for sure that it hasn’t been rested in new oak, anything is possible, but I’d be surprised to find one. Distillers who age their grappa usually do so for a period of at least 18 months and could do so for much longer (see: neutral oak). That process will bring out new flavors and nuanced developments in the spirit, much as it does for the wine that those grapes might previously have begotten.
So how does one enjoy grappa? Well, I already mentioned those lovely stemmed glasses, which are gorgeous and designed for oenological amplification no doubt but also seem to me like they’re one tipsy flick of the wrist away from shattering at any moment. It’s a common ritual in Italy and elsewhere in the world to enjoy grappa as a digestif following a meal in said glassware, which is all well and good, especially if you’re a romantic at heart. (Get a crash course on all things grappa glassware here, and know that I completely cosign on this person’s passion for proper glassware employment.) But some rebellious bartenders have been increasingly using grappa in cocktails. I know—wild! You love to see it, and so do I. Grappa in a cocktail? Why the hell not. It can be a good way to introduce a person to the spirit while highlighting its best qualities and may eventually lead said person to start drinking grappa all by its lonesome. Win win!
It’s hard to know what to divine for the future of grappa. On the one hand, people are definitely trying to make grappa happen (examples A, B, and C.) On the other, it hasn’t always had a great reputation, even within its home country. An additional complicating factor is that, while any bottle in Europe labeled ‘grappa’ has to be from Italy and is subject to certain regulations, the same is not true in America. So to all you domestic drinkers interested in wading into the grappa pool, prepare yourself to be vigilant. This stuff is going to remain pretty niche as long as folks aren’t exposed to it or able to access information about it. I encourage you to keep reading more about grappa and keep seeking it out! I promise there’s a reward at the end of the journey (that being really fabulous grappa.) Cheers.