Poli Distillerie

From the material ... to the spirit

Vespaiolo is an autochthonous white grape vine of the Breganze area. The name comes from ‘vespa’ (wasp): this variety has a particularly flowery aroma that attracts wasps during the grape harvest.

The first time we distilled the Vespaiolo grape marc was in 1983. Until then we had mainly collected red grape marc, already fermented and ready to be distilled straight away, and the little white grape marc that arrived from local wine producers was immediately distilled, without waiting for it to ferment,  thus obtaining a risible alcohol yield.  My father rightly thought it was better to have a few less litres of Grappa then to wait for an anomalous fermentation of a small amount of white grape marc to compromise the whole mass and consequently the quality of the final product.

However, when the Vespaiolo grape marc arrived from Cantina Beato Bartolomeo in Breganze it was a truck with trailer and we had no choice but make it ferment.

The problem was we did not have a proper place, so we decided to put it in the garage, empty for a long time, of a house next to the distillery, and press it down well. On one side of the garage was a door leading to the kitchen of Luigi Pettenon’s family, who at the time lived in the house.

I won’t tell you what happened when the draining piquette started to wet the floor of Elsa Pettenon’s kitchen, where she reigned supreme… not to mention when we started carrying away the grape marc with a skid steer. If you think that distillation went on without interruption day and night and that the poor Pettenons slept above the garage, I can only say thank you to those good people who were so patient at the time and let us produce our first Vespaiolo Grappa.

The bottle we chose for this special distillate was a satin white Burgundy, with a label that said Vespaiolo in pink.

It was not very successful. On the other hand, the Grappa was different from any other ever produced by our distillery and, despite some obvious flaws deriving from a non-perfect fermentation of the grape marc, our clients kept requesting that particular lot for many years, even after we started the fermentation of vespaiolo grape marc in steel containers, at controlled temperature and pH.

Mysteries of Ars degustandi.

Today Grappa Amorosa di Settembre is more elegant and delicate than ever, our most flowery product, a real delight for wasps and the lovers of gentle Grappa.

Jacopo Poli