|
Ever since I
appeared in Men's Vogue, where I was interviewed by Lawrence Osborne on
Grappa, people have been asking my opinions on grappa and distillates. (The
video of our conversation should be posted soon on the magazine's website.)
Many years ago, when I first went to Italy, after lunch, they came
around with the grappa cart. It was late in the afternoon and the waiter left
the grappa cart and said, "Help yourself."
In the interest of research, and trying to find which were
the best grappas, I, of course, tasted all of them. Going back to the
hotel, Michele was laughing hysterically because I was holding on to the
railing of the building (we were in Firenze
at the time). The only thing that kept me upright were
the walls of the building. Block after block Michele kept on whispering the
same thing in my ear: "As the man told you, 'Only one grappa after
dinner.'"
I have always heeded those words since.
The Italians drink grappa as a digestivo, in
other words, a drink that helps them to digest after a heavy meal. For the
most part, they only drink it after dinner. Grappa is made from what is
called the vinacce in Italian, what we call
the pomace in English: the skins and the pulp of
the fruit left over after the grapes have been pressed to make wine. This
juice is distilled using the bagno maria method, in other words, a double-boiler
distillation system. The one thing that one can say about grappa is that if
it's good grappa, it always tastes like grappa. Some producers age the grappa
in wood for many years and this gives it a much smoother taste along the
lines of cognac.
After dinner, the Italians also drink such digestivi
like amaro such as Averna,
Ramazzotti, Montenegro, and one of my favorites, the amaro by the famous grappa-distilling Nonino
family in Friuli.
The word amaro literally means
"bitter": amaros can range in flavor from
semi-sweet to very, very bitter, as in the case of Fernet-Branca.
Most amaros are made from herbs, spices, and
"secret ingredients," and in the case of Cynar,
it is made from artichokes.
At home, many Italians "flavor" their grappas by infusing them with
different types of fruits and herbs. For example, rue, cinnamon, or
chamomile, or oranges, lemons, cherries, figs... The list goes on and on.
At tomorrow night's grappa and digestivi class,
Vino's Operations Manager Jim Hutchinson (of Philadelphia) will be leading
the group in infusing, tasting, and bottling grappa: this is a great holiday
gift idea and, indeed, many in Italy give home-infused grappas as gifts
during the holiday season.
--Charles Scicolone, Wine Director, I Trulli and Vino
To register for tomorrow night's Grappa and Digestivi
class, please email register@vinosite.com.
Look for Charles' picture in our New York Times ad tomorrow!!!
|
|
|
