Article
Grappa
In the north of Italy one may come across such vulgar Latin terms as raspon, rapo, grapo, rappe, raspe and even graspa (an old name for grape pomace which has been widely used by local wine-makers to this very day).We can hardly find any unanimity of opinions while researches try to trace the origin of grappa. Some of them say Sicilians took over the method of distillation from Arabs who ‘stayed’ there in IX century and applied it for processing of winemaking wastes. Others think people in Friuli had already produced it four centuries before. And the third ones stand for Burgundy to be called the Home of Grappa. It looks like, one way or the other, we may take grappa is sure to have turned 1500.
Peasants were the first to be granted the ‘privilege’ of drinking grappa as it was one of those rare pleasures for them to distil the stale grape must. The drink was rough and stiff though it healed the wounds and was a perfect remedy to put down class inequality.
Grappa won its recognition starting from 60-70s of XX century. That was the time when a gourmet’s Italy was discovered. Moreover it very soon became fancy and beloved in Europe as well as in America. The Italian cuisine took the baton from the French cookery and so did the winemaking. While offering their new products, leading winemakers promoted expressiveness put into wine to underscore the terroir, which is the whole gamut of production conditions including the soil, the climate, the grapes, etc. All this in its turn required absolutely different quality for all production levels from vineyards to wine cellars. Thus grappa’s success was a matter of time only. This time came immediately after they had started grappa’s packing up anew, anew and anew… At first only few companies dared to enter the wine market offering a new and exquisite product – grace and delicate hand blown bottles (right up to Murana) replaced conventional plain jars. Certainly it went further than simply the outward. Various varieties of grappa appeared incredibly fast and nowadays one can classify them on the basis of a whole number of qualities (though we’ll talk about it later). Eventually Grappa lost its initial function to gain new ones. Nowadays the traditional digestive is widely used in cookery as well as serves an independent drink, especially when the matter concerns the Italian gourmet culture being adopted to the Slavonic attitude to the strong alcohol.
Details of Techniques
There is no doubt everything starts with the grapes. Choosing the grape the winemaker determines not only the grappa’s flavour but also the harmony of the drink as a whole, which depends much upon the level of acidity. For example, a good grappa is not to be often found in the Central and Southern Italy. The fact is that the ripe grapes have relatively low acid level, which in its turn waters down organoleptic properties of the distilled product. Yet Northern Italian grappa (Friuli, Veneto, Piedmont) is always distinguished by the rich and sophisticated aromas as well as the taste. The tendency to lower the amount of harvest per hectare is typical of modern advanced winemaking. As a result the concentration of aromatic substances arises significantly. Along with it the content of “outside” aromas is decreased due to thorough selection and further bunch processing. It is guaranteed that the grape pomace for grappa production contains no grape stems and stalks giving no chance to hard and ‘sour’ tannins. As a rule it is a product of the very soft pressing or no pressing at all due to which it contains much more of a pure juice. Some companies specializing in high quality grappa production went further! They started making distillates froma whole fermented grapes, though truly we don’t have the right to call such distillation product grappa but acquavite d’uva.
Two basic types of distillation are distinguished, the discontinuous distilling and the continuous one. The former is much more expensive than the latter as it requires regular complete refill of the alembic. But this is the only way to get the highest quality grappa, as there it is easier to control the distillation process (i.e. to accurately separate an undesired so called head and tail) than while using the continuous distilling. The actual process of distilling calls for the pomace to be heated until it gives off steam, which is then captured, cooled and condensed into liquid.
The young grappa (giovane) or the white (clear) one is filled into bottles either immediately after distillation or after aging in stainless steel containers or closed large bottles. Nevertheless the minimum aging time is six-month. Grappa aged in wooden containers is called affinata. It tastes milder. The Old grappa (vecchia) spends not less than 12 months in the barrel while the Riserva or the Very Old grappa (stravecchia) are to be aged for at least 18 months. Oak, cherry-tree and even juniper barrels are used for grappa aging. Depending on the homogeneity of the source material we distinguish between single-grape (monovitigno) and a (polivitigno) grappa, made from a number of grapes. The former grappa production requires not less than 85% of the pomace to be of the same sort as marked on the label.
Serving
Grappa is often served of the same temperature as vodka to prevent it from exposing. Though it goes for the stiffest peasant grappa only!!! It would be really better to serve the young grappa cooled to the temperature of 8-12°C as such temperature will help purely pronounce grappa’s specific flavour without any extras. Noble, especially barrique-aged grappas deserve particular treatment and they will show their best if served warmer (16-18 С).
There are several kinds of glasses for serving grappa. As a rule they have a long stem. An engineer from Brunswick (Germany), Mr. Harald Bremer gave birth to the goblet with a wide (paunchy) basis turning sharply into the narrowed cylindrical upper part. That type of glass won its recognition and is widely used now. Though along with it a cognac or sherry glasses may be used for serving grappa too.
Sergei Gusovsky