The grappa harvest takes place as soon as the grapes have become ripe enough, in order to obtain fresh vinaccia. The freshness of the vinaccia is the key of making a top quality grappa.
The grapes are then destemmed and softly pressed, in order to separate the must (this is used to make wine) from the vinaccia. Carefully selected vinaccia is taken to the distillery as soon as the wine has been drawn off. From 100kg of grapes the distillery gets around 20-25kg of high quality vinaccia.
The next step is to place the vinaccia into tanks for controlled fermentation. Sweet vinaccia will turn into alcohol.
The fermented vinaccia is then placed into steam pot stills. The steam will rise up from the bottom and through the vinaccia and transforms into alcoholic vapour.
The vapour then arrives to the base of the column still and begins to rise up. The master distiller will separate the head, heart and tail of the distillate. From 100kg of grapes the distillery normally makes three bottles of grappa.
The grappa coming out of the columns will need a minimum of six months rest in stainless steel tanks in order to be called “young grappa”. Alternatively the grappa is placed in wooden barrels for minimum of 12 months to become “aged grappa”.
Once the ageing is finished the alcohol content is reduced to desired level by adding distilled water. After which the grappa is bottled and labelled.
