In my last year of high school  we had to choose a product that we had to work around the whole year. We had to write a marketing plan, plan some advertising, etc…. to promote and sell your product. I chose Grappa.  My first choice was actually Whiskey, but my dad made me change my mind 🙂

You might find it a strange choice, but I changed my mind because Grappa was/is a product people aren’t familiar with. I know that the teachers didn’t complain about my choice 🙂 .

What is grappa actually? Grappa is a distillated liquid made from the grape left overs  after making wine.

When you would use the whole grape (or fruit) this liquid would be an “Aquavit” and not “Grappa”. What would obviously make that “Aquavit” has a softer taste, while “Grappa” has a much stonger taste. Grappa’s origin is in Italy, the parts close to Slovenia/ Croatia, like Friuli, Veneto, Alto Adige,…  

Within the Grappa itself you also have a distinction:

–          Monovitigno: made from 1 kind of grape

–          Polivitigno: consists out of all different kinds of grapes (as well white as red)

–          Aromatic grape: like the Moscato grape

My preferred Grappa and Aquavit distillery would be Nonino , which was also the company I worked with for my highschool thesis. To learn more about how the Grappa is made,  my brother and I went to visit the Nonino distillery . We took a guided tour with Cristina Nonino (daughter) and Giannola Nonino (mother)… who really took their time to explain everything we needed to know.

We also had a tasting (at 10.30a.m). But lilke for every drink, there is a special way or correct way how it should be drunk/ tasted, so  they also explained  us the best way is to taste Grappa. The best way to taste Grappa would be when the grappa is at room temperature (12°C) served an open glass and slowly drunk. My all times preferred grappa is the Picolit (made from the rare Picolit grape) . To make a “caffé corretto”, you should use the traditional grappa. Some of you will  be happy to hear that grappa goes well with dark chocolate 🙂

For the ladies who have a sweet tooth I would highly recommend the Gioiello, which would be a Honey distillated drink… very tasty.

The high school assignment story ended well.  All the teachers liked the work I wrote (I think the tasting during my presentation helped). If you would like more info about Grappa, don’t hesitate to ask me. It would be taking a trip down memory lane.