Poli Distillerie

Why is it called PO’?

In 1995, breaking the historical predilection for red grape marc that always has characterized our distillery, I started to devote myself to Moscato, an extraordinary vine that found a natural habitat on Colli Euganei.

The primary aromas of this grape make it recognizable even to non-experts. The molecules responsible for this sensory identity are called terpenes and very few grape varieties, the so called “aromatic berries” are rich in them: Moscato, Traminer, Fragola (Isabella) Grape.  I will stop here, because all other varieties are semi-aromatic, if not even “non aromatic”, and therefore difficult to identify unless you have a highly trained palate.

The first distillation gave excellent results, although the yield was very small.  My father, who could not understand why I was wasting my time on this, would ask me at each “cotta” (a distillation cycle): “how much are you getting?”, knowing full well that white grape marc yields very little alcohol.  

“ Un po’… ” (a little) I would answer, trying to hide the embarrassment for a homeopathic yield.

After several “cottas” and several “un po’…” I filled up a small tank and when Mr. Valente, the excise officer, removed the seals, my father came up casually to the tank, but then dipped a finger into the Grappa and rubbed a few drops on the palm of his hand: “Good, this Grappa, by dint of PO’ you finally did it…..”.

That’s how this line got its name, extending over the years to other varieties, including Traminer, Merlot and Pinot.

We had the product, we had the name, only the package was missing.  I took inspiration from a bottle of Sangiovese I had been given by Robert Mondavi, the pioneer of American wine, when I met him in the Napa Valley. 

I reinterpreted its shape with the help of Franco Barbon, a graphic artist from Bassano del Grappa and when the time came to choose the cap, I had a fulguration, one of three in my life: let’s use a lightning cap! the same I used as a child when I prepared sparkling water by emptying the blue and the red sachet into the bottle, and then hurried to close the cap before the effervescence let it all out.

It was to preserve the most volatile aromas that we developed a very narrow neck and used a lightning cap smaller than usual, unknowingly creating an innovative proportion between body and neck of the bottle that was going to become in time one of the distinctive marks of our distillery