t is a Wednesday a ernoon in November 1965 , and three Italians from t he same northern village are using an extremelycheap, ery spirit for very di erent reasons. A mother pours out a shot of the wet re from an unassuming metal jar—a ubiquitous container seen in every single home in the area. She cradles the drink i n hands lovingly and makes her seven- year-old boy consume it before he begins his cold morning walk to school. Next door, a grimacing farmer pours huge amounts of the liquid all over his freshly wounded leg. As the boy walks on he waves to a shop owner sipping a copita of the spirit along with his morning coee. Sometime aer 1970, that same humble, commonplace elixir began a rapid journey. Straight into an alcohol stratosphere ofhigh-end crystal bottles and price appreciations to rival any t ulip or internet bubble. In 2007, one can now shell out 100 quid or more for a single bottle. is is the story of Grappa. Grappa and its cousins are made from the distillation of leovers. Pomace, the starting material, is a general term for the solid remains of olives, grapes or other fruit aer pressing— usually done to produce oil or juice. If one takes 100 kilos of g rapes and presses them for wine, about 25 kilos of solid gun k remains. is pomace, or “vinaccie” in Italian, is mai nlyI Cinderella to Queen By Keith B. Homan collecting any of that sin swil l. Next comes out the “heart”, a clear run that is condensed into the nal product. Aer the heart, the distiller must again be sure to not collect the nal run, the “tail”, full of bad tasting oils and associated impurities. Some modern-day variants no longer use just the pomace, but venture a tad far from t radition by using whole grapes. e best of the current Grappas only use, in single-malt Scotch and ne-wine fashion, selected pomace from a single- grape varietal, terroir, rst pressing, etc. Giannola Nonino apparently invented the modern-dayÈ È comprised of the grape skins, seeds, leover pulp, must, and perhaps a few stems. ese remnants have been traditionally used for fertiliser, animal feed and spirit production. Once properlydistilled, and optionally aged in barrels like ne Scotch, the end product is ca lled: Grappa (Italy), Marc (France), Orujo (Spain), Raki (Turkey), etc. Grappa di ers from things like Cognac and Brandy by the fact that the latter t wo are produced when normal winemaki ng processes are taken the further steps of distillation and wood aging. e distillation process has two main types: continuous (used for industrial quantities, automated), and discontinuous (constant monitoring and tin kering employed by masters). Perhaps surprisingly, Grappa is made, bylaw, without the addition of water during its distillation process. erefore, the pomace must be heated as a solid to extr act the alcohols. How do they do that? Steam. In the “discontinuous” process, a distiller must make the very importa nt distinction between the varied ru ns of liquid belting out of the steam i nferno. e rst to come, the “head” contains highly volatile, and oen poisonous compounds such as methanol, esters and acids. Extreme care i s required to avoid È
