A trip to an artisan distillery @distilleriagualco really interesting learning about the art of making Grappa and all the flavours in Alcohol and of course tasting. The visit was rounded off by a game matching the scent infused into the alcohol with the herbs on display. It was more difficult than I imagined!!!
– Silvano d’Orba is a beautiful drive from Verdmont especially with the season changed, and definitely worth a visit if you are in the area. Do you love Grappa or zero waste, grappa is the ultimate zero waste product. It is a waste product from wine making and after it is made the remains become biomass for energy! And the energy used in the distillation is from the vinacce , wine waste itself. What could be better.?
In a very basic and simplified form after the first fermentation in a winery the skins are removed as they add too much tannins etc to wine. So we end up with vinacce which is shipped to a distillery, there are only 135 in Italy we learned.
The skins are then distilled with water to extract 25-35° alcohol. This is saved and eventually transferred into various Barrels. Oak, Acacia are generally used.
The tasting was interesting our guide explained in plain language that he cannot taste clipped grass with wind blowing from the north west but we can have a good experience without this deep olfactory ability.
First we can see what type of Grappa we are talking about a young grappa will be clear or pale. It will have flavour reminiscent of the grapes themselves and less wood. As we progressed through to the tasting the flavors were progressively robust due to lengthy aging.
I confess the most fun part for me was the guessing game. A pressure based machine infused alcohol with natural herbs. Our task was to guess which herb was infused with which glass. By using your nose. It was very difficult. It does inspire me to have more wild flowers and herbs in the garden so do explore Verdmont and ask questions!!
