Poli Distillerie

Piero's bees

We started distilling our Acacia Honey-Infused Grappa back in 1982 when a local beekeper showed up with a new recipe, a much different from the ones generally used to produce similar products.

Piero, the beekeeper, is now in his eighties and is just so energetic: he says it's because he's had a spoonful of honey and propolis twice a day, everyday, ever since he was a little child.
I don't really know whether this can be scientifically proved or not, but I can honestly say he's much fitter than I am, or many youths are.

He's still personally grazing his bees, moving the hives throughout the whole "Pedemontana Veneta" (the Veneto Foothills) according to the time when flowers are blooming.

In our case, we are using pure Acacia flowers honey which is added to distilled Grappa: for every liter of Grappa we add a third of a liter of honey, which means that honey makes up for nearly a third of the whole bottle. You bet you can call this an energy drink !

The honey we are using is a hundred percent made in Veneto by healthy and happy bees. It is not pasteurized, as pasteurization would slow down digestion, while natural honey promotes it. The majority of honey found nowadays for sale is produced in eastern Europe or Southern America. 

Those bees are oftentimes tied to heavy production cycles, subjecting them to stress and weakness. This may result in several diseases that are usually treated with antibiotics and drugs, something that later affects the honey.

Instead, we're lucky that Signor Piero loves his bees so much that he probably knows them one by one. And I'm pretty sure that when his bees' day in the fields is over, he sings a lullaby to wish  them sweet dreams…

I have to admit that all this doesn't come cheap, indeed much more than what it would cost  to acquire normal honey. The result is however an outstanding honey with great nutritional properties that the  fans of Miele have come to love and demand.

After adding honey to the Grappa, we also further infuse 4 essential oils, obtained from the distillation of the following plants: Juniper berries, Mint leaves, Mugo pine needles and Lemon Verbena.

This is how we balance the sweetness coming from the honey: with a fresh, balsamic note.

The result is a "Grappa-based liqueur" (because of its 35% alcohol content, we cannot by law call it a Grappa) featuring aromatic scents of meadow in bloom and alpine wood, sweet but not too intense, to be enjoyed nice and chilled or as ingredient perfectly suited to many cocktails, such as "The Holy Poli Cocktail":

2 oz. Poli Miele, 2 oz. fresh lime juice, 1 oz. simple syrup: pour all ingredients into a shaker with ice and shake well, strain into a tumbler glass over crushed ice with a lime wheel garnish.

Enjoy !

Jacopo Poli