1. Basic Grappa

Winemaking residue

Generally in Italy Grappa refers to everything associated with grapes. In the 1800s it came to be the name associated with an alcoholic liquid made from the dregs of the wine making process. After all the flavor is extracted out of the grape, all that’s left are the seeds, stems, skins, and juice with a little residual alcohol. This is called pomace. The alcohol is distilled from the pomace. This liquid is called Grappa.

History: ‘a source of energy for peasants’

As would be expected, Grappa was originally a cheap peasant’s drink, which braced him up for a long day of hard labor in the fields - ‘a source of energy for peasants’ - as put by Jacopo Poli, the great-grandson of an early grappa maker.

One can easily imagine the origin.

Benito: “I’m so poor that I can’t even afford wine. But look at all that sludge that comes from the vineyard. I bet you could get high on that. Let’s distill it and see what happens.”

After a few hours of boiling, the steam is collected and condensed.

Benito drinks it. “Whoa! Tastes terrible and stinks! But what a rush!”

Originally the peasants just wanted something cheap that would get them high quick and numb them to the drudgery of the long day ahead of them. It was not for taste that they drank this bitter stinky concoction - (although they did grow to enjoy the pungency and extreme flavors as time went by.)