Anyone make their own “grappa”?
Love grappa.
The best makers – in my experience – are Jacopo Poli, Berta, and Marolo. I think Berta’s grappas are consistently the best, but they are pretty proud of their products ($$$$). I’ve had good ones from particular wineries – I assume they outsourced the production, but sold them under their own labels.
I also remember two memorable visits to Otto – the Batali restaurant in NYC. The first visit was a casual lunch at the bar where the barman was holding forth with a friend about the various infused grappas he had been making, and serving, from various large mason jars behind the bar at Otto. I asked him to tell me about them, and instead, he said “Tell you about them? You’re going to drink them!” and proceeded to give me small pours of about 6 different infused grappas he was making. I remember discussing them, as well as his process of making them for about 45 minutes, while savoring the various results of his work. Fast forward a couple of years, and my girlfriend and I are visiting NYC and killing about 1.5 hours between dinner and a show at the Village Vanguard, and we decide to hit Otto for a drink. The placed is literally jam-packed, so I bull my way forward to the bar to get us some drinks. The same bartender that had previously served up his infused grappas is still there and happens to be the one to ask me for my order. I ask him what infused grappas he has and the guy’s demeanor instantly changes from harried-bartender-in-the-weeds-with-multiple-entitled-douches-demanding-trendy-drinks to absolutely beaming and expounding on his current lineup. I order two, and he proceeds to pour me two 6ish ounce glasses of grappa. Both were awesome, but they left us a little less than at our best for the ballads being served up by the Paul Motian trio at the Village Vanguard.
Personally I have ony tasted Romano Levi’s Grappas twice, once from a friend of a Friend who claimed that it was distilled by the old man himself and once (2015) at a restaurant in Trento where they said that the bottle was produced after the old man died. It simply wasn’t my type of Grappa. I wouldn’t say that it was bad as such but the style combined with the price asked has so far stopped me from buying.
I would really love to experience the magic of the Roberto Levi Grappas that people are talking about. So far I just haven’t.
Some do but I don’t think there are many. Personally I have only visted one such producer, Pojer & Sandri up in Trentino, but have read stories about others.
Someone once told me that Gaja also owns a local distillery but I don’t know if that is true or not.
A dream of mine!
I do. We use a still like this one only about 2 - 3 times the size. We use the sediment pumice left over from racking barrels (thus no white wine is really used). It goes into a stainless steel vat and when we are ready to run the still, we fill the alembic heat it up and that’s pretty much it. You have to keep the water in the cooling chamber cool but it’s not hard to make. In Spanish it is Orujo.
Do you sell your grappa?
I do, at the winery. My import license is for wine and beer. I never even thought of bringing it in to the US.
I started tinkering around this past Spring, bought an alembic but the condensation pot and coil was way too small, so I crafted my own. I made a couple batches from some cases of wine I had laying around 
… I was hosting a paella and Spanish tapa party for a local tasting group and I needed a decent amount to make Queimada. My orujo came out with a proof of around 140 after single distillation. I did proof it down to about 120 later, but not before I made the Queimada.
The Queimada was a hit!!!