Spirit Log: Poli Bassano del Grappa Classica

I might actually like grappa more than whisky. No, it isn’t as complex, but with whisky there are always ones that are your favourite, and others that are… possibly even disappointing. In fact, most of the time I spend drinking whisky seems to be spent wondering how much I like it, and whether I really do, rather than simply enjoying it. Sure, that is a symptom of critical evaluation, but I just want to return to the time when I could enjoy what I was drinking. And that’s what I have with grappa. There’s not that much difference between brands of grappa (but there’s enough), and they are all nice – even the bad ones, which you’ll be reading more about in the coming months. And some are amazing. I’m enjoying it; there is nothing left to ponder, I think to myself.

The thing that irks me though, is that it seems like I’m the only person in Britain who actually likes grappa – or even knows what it is. I’m doing my best to educate people – writing about it, making my guests try it, buying it as an alternative to whisky for gifts – but the fact remains. It isn’t popular and availability here in the UK is sadly low and the variety poor (not in quality, but in scope).

My latest purchase [at the time of writing] was this one, Poli Bassano del Grappa (40% ABV, 50cl, £24.99). Poli is the distiller, and Bassano del Grappa is the town of origin, and in fact, the town where grappa itself originated.

I spotted this one in my local Marks And Spencer a month or two ago and had been saving my credit card reward vouchers, putting unnecessary expenses on my card and waiting for my next batch of vouchers with the intention of picking it up ever since. M&S only reward customers every three months, so it was a long wait, and the £3 I received was disappointing when it finally arrived. I sighed, subdued the rising tide of ennui, and added it to the £7 I already had. Then, also armed with a 15% off voucher I hotfooted it off down there one Friday after work.

“What’s that? Vodka?” asked the bag packing assistant as the lady at the checkout scanned the price.

“No,”  said the cashier, peering at the label, “it’s grappa.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s a liqueur.”

“It’s not a liqueur,” I interjected, “it’s a kind of pomace brandy.”

“Ooo-oooh, it’s brandy, have I hit a nerve?”

I didn’t say anything to that. I’ll let you stew in your own ignorance next time. Fucking liqueur. Guh back to drinkin’ yer fooking Glen’s.

I wasn’t offended or anything. It’s all in a day’s work when you’re spreading the good word of the grappa. I don’t think I converted anyone there, but I reckon there were a couple of people in the queue behind who might have been interested. Any grappa distributors want to pay me more than my current job for working less hours, but more importantly, helping grappa take off over here; get in touch.

This is only the second time I’ve been able to buy grappa in a UK supermarket. On the first occasionthe checkout assistant asked me what it was, too. What does that tell you? Supermarket checkout assistants like a drink, but they don’t know what grappa is. Who does?

This one then, is a young grappa produced from a cuvee of red grape varieties of the Venetian province. It is distilled in small lots in a discontinuous copper still provided with steam pots. I don’t know either.

They produce 27 separate expressions of grappa at the Poli distillery, among which are some really interesting varieties:

-          A 13 year old, oak aged expression of which only 9 are produced each year (read: expensive).

-          Expressions finished in various ex wine, port, sherry and even rum barrels.

-          Expressions produced in a number of varieties of different stills and distillation methods, including a “vacuum double boiler still.”

-          A kosher grappa, which you’ve got to be curious about but will probably never, ever buy.

-          They also produce grape brandies.

The Poli made its debut in a straight comparison with its predecessor – La Castellina Squarcialupi – which I had actually kept for nearly a year. I’d been deliberately saving it for the next time I had a new bottle, and this was it.

Now, I’ve been enjoying the Squarcialupi, but it hadn’t quite measured up to the San Perano in Donato that I’d picked up on the same trip. I think I’ve already talked about that at length, so let’s just crack on with some direct observations:

Price

The Squarcialupi was 25 euros while the Poli was £24 – both for 50cl. You can clearly see the discrepancy here between the price you’ll pay in Italy and that you have to pay in the UK. Poli is the absolute entry level of the brand and I’m guessing, but I suspect it would cost 15 euros or less in its country of origin. You’d probably be looking at £40+ for the Squarcialupi, if you could get it here because it is an aged and even numbered variety.

The ABVs

Squarcialupi 42-40 Poli (like a rugby score).

Presentation

Both are quite nicely presented – Poli with its curvy bottle and clasp-like cap and Squarcialupi with the narrow cylinder and modern, understated label design. If I had to pick, it would be the Squarcialupi.

Enjoyment

I don’t want to get into hints of this and that, so let’s just jump straight in. As with the other categories, it’s the Squarcialupi that comes out on top. It’s just a little lighter and more delicate, but then it’s perhaps not entirely fair to compare these two different products – aged and unaged grappas are very different animals. Equally though, I’m not saying I always prefer one variety over the other…

Poli does come into its own… on its own. It’s just in direct comparison that it is slightly bettered. With no reference point to hand it is perfectly drinkable, and if you can get over the fact it’s way more expensive here than it would be over there… it’s actually quite reasonably priced compared to general UK grappa prices. It is only a 50cl bottle, so in terms of value it comes in at around the same as 70cl of a decent (but not expensive) single malt, and if you like grappa, that’s pretty good. I do, and I think it’s time you did too – though this one might not be the best place for you to start.

Spirit Log: La Castellina Squarcialupi

Grappa again. Am I the only person in the UK who likes grappa? Come on, what’s wrong with you all? That goes for those of you from elsewhere in the world as well. And the Italians! Put yer wine down, and get on to the hard stuff.

What do we have this week then? This is La Castellina Squarcialupi, from last year’s Tuscan adventure. It was one of two bottles I chose to bring home, and was actually the one I was most excited about because it was a bit more expensive than the other (25 euros as opposed to Mille Lune’s 15), and the bottle is numbered – 394 out of 2000 produced each year.

It is bottled at 42% ABV and comes in a long-necked 50cl bottle with a neat and modern label.

What’s it like, and would you be spending your money wisely on it?

 

For me, 25 euros is still a snip for 50cl of authentic grappa. If you were buying this in the UK – if you could buy it in the UK – I can’t imagine you’d be paying less than £40, so that’s certainly a consideration.

Put it in context though, and if you scour the towns and villages of Tuscany, you’ll see an enticing smorgasbord of affordable grappas, and until I’ve tried them all, how good they are is anyone’s guess. I’m guessing… good – to great.

So fuck it, how can I describe this for you? It’s hard to do so without referring to its direct rival, Mille Lune. It’s not quite as good as that. For all the Squarcialupi’s colour, that makes me expect a lingering sweetness… there is very little sweetness. Nor is it as oily and texturally pleasing as I had expected.

So while I don’t want to advise you against purchasing this one, should you be in the area… you can do better.

Yes, it’s just a short one this week. Next week though, the word count will be slightly higher when I discuss two Canadian whiskies I picked up earlier in the year – Lot 40 2012 edition and Highwood HighCentennial limited edition. I expect to see you then.

Booze Tourism Tuscany: Grappas Delight

Another holiday, another booze tourism adventure. That’s what happens when you don’t have any kids – making 3 in 2013 (holidays, not kids – maybe we’ll make 3 kids next year… but preferably one to begin with), with [at the time of writing] one still on the horizon - Christmas in Canada, with the chance to pick up some obscure bourbon and Canadian whiskies…I’ve even heard Canadians make pomace brandy, you know.

 Mrs Cake’s equivalent of my Distilgrimage

This time it was Tuscany, in the heart of Italy, and you know what that means, don’t you? Grappa, Italian beer and to a lesser extent (for me at least) wine. Yes, they make a lot of wine in Tuscany (you might have heard of the Chianti region which is right in the middle of it there), so the general idea behind the holiday was much relaxation, much tootling around in a rental car (which may not necessarily go hand in hand with the relaxation thing) and much consumption of sumptuous foods and rich alcohols.

I would be doing the driving, so in theory that would make this Mrs Cake’s equivalent of my Distilgrimage. That was so awesome that I was delighted to be able to return the favour that Mrs Cake did by driving me round most of the distilleries of Islay while I drank enough samples for both of us – and not just because my pre-trip research didn’t turn up any grappa distilleries in the region. I’ll just chauffeur the missus around then so that she can consume as much wine as possible. But would there be any grappa to be had? That was my concern (outside of generally having a great time and relaxing with Mrs Cake). Well… we’ll see.

It’s going to be too late to get to the duck fest…

No duty free purchases to take with me this time; I knew interesting alcohol would likely be available in abundance, so I set my sights on an early supermarket purchase of some grappa that I could dip into throughout the week, and hopefully finish before returning home – ideally leaving space for two special grappas to come home with me.

We collected the hire car from Pisa airport – a tiny and clunky Nissan Micra with far more scratches on it than were marked on the damage sheet (we’d been warned of the notoriety of Pisa Airport’s car hire merchants, so we had the guy mark on all the extra scratches), and a fuel tank that was two notches below full… though I didn’t notice that until we had to fill up the first time; oh, so those bars do go all the way to the top… ROBBING BASTARDS!

We plugged in the satnav, and away we went, straight down the highway towards Florence, before turning off towards Arezzo and arriving at our apartment, halfway up a mountain an hour and a half later.

Though our host couldn’t be with us for another couple of hours, we elected to hang out by the pool, eating the Aldi crisps we’d brought from home.

A couple of hours and a brief orientation later, we were on our way back down the winding mountain road, looking to head to the Coop supermarket in the nearby town of San Giovani Valdarno. The plan was to collect a few essentials before heading to the slightly further town of Arezzo for what was being billed as a Duckfest - so lots of duck to eat. We were starving by this point and prone to irrational bursts of panic or stress as our stomachs digested themselves, so the possibility of a duck fest went right up my flagpole.

San Giovani Valdarno is only a small town so surely, we thought, it couldn’t be difficult to locate a medium sized supermarket. WRONG. We drove up and down, round and round, trying to get used to the traffic system and the fact that you’re not expected to stop for pedestrians at crossings in Italy, all the while watching the light fade and thinking, ‘it’s going to be too late to get to that duck fest… it might be too late to pick up groceries at this rate…’

We made it in the end, finding what turned out to be a medium sized supermarket that would have been a food blogger’s delight… fantastic deli counter, but you don’t want to hear about that.

No, what about the booze? Well, Mrs Cake went in search of the cheapest wine she could find while I went to check out the beers. Most of the beer was gone but I got a couple of reasonably priced three packs – Moretti and Poretti…

When I found Mrs Cake again she’d found wines for a euro fifty and three euros. I’d struggled to find the spirits aisle, but much to my relief (and after being briefly overwhelmed by the choice of bottled water) there it was, and while it was small, there was a plethora of different varieties of grappa.

The problem now was how to make my choice. I quickly engaged the logic circuits and decided to choose something that was 50cl, rather than 70 (to better facilitate finishing it during the holiday), and that was also at least 40% ABV (because it’s just better, and I can tell the difference).

...and in the glass... at night

Deta Ars Essentiae in the bottle...

It still wasn’t easy with all that affordable spirit (prices ranged from 7-35 euros), but in the end, this is what I went for; Deta Ars Essentiae Riserva di Chianti Classico. Clearly it has been aged (probably from around 18 months to 2 years) and it comes in a fancy bottle with a Grolsch style cap. No doubt these factors played a subconscious part in my decision.

 Sixty euros later, we returned to the car to programme the satnav, and found that the duck fest was around an hour and a half away. As that wasn’t what we’d been led to believe by our host we wondered whether the satnav was mistaken and decided to head back to the apartment, drop off our goodies and check the map we’d left there. The sun was sinking fast, and when we found out the satnav was correct, the experience of the roads we’d driven so far convinced us an hour and a half more without food might be a bit much for us to handle on our first day. It was a shame because food festivals were the kind of thing we would have liked this holiday to be all about. Nevertheless, our host had said there were these kind of festivals all the time, so we decided we’d see about trying another one later in the week.

We headed to the much nearer town of Loro Ciuffena to search for a restaurant. The one we found was fairly good, but there was to be no booze for me just yet – navigating dark mountainous roads (on the wrong side), in a left hand drive car, struggling to flick between the full beam and dipped headlights and having to be ready to shift down to second or even first at a moment’s notice was proving far too taxing to risk driving back with even a single beer in me. The only help was that the satnav gave me a basic idea of where the road was going, and if the severity of a turn or gradient wasn’t entirely accurately represented, it at least gave some advance warning. Making it back to the apartment would be cause for celebration… and something to look forward to.

Achievement unlocked: Clutch control.

Beeroni

We did make it - it would be hard for me to be typing this if we hadn’t – and I dipped straight into those beers that I’d popped in the fridge a couple of hours before. They were nice and cold because I’d thought to check the thermostat earlier, and knocked it down (or up) a notch (whichever makes it colder). It’s worth bearing this in mind for future holidays – properties will often adjust their fridges while unoccupied, presumably to economise on electricity bills, so get on it early and you too could have proper cold beers when you return from that first excursion.

 I was able to procure four types of bottled beer over the week, all of which were strong and most of which were terrific. I’m a fan of Italian beer, but sadly I can't remember any specific details for you, so you'll have to make do with pictures. Soz.

Days In

On the first day we briefly discussed what we would do on each day of the holiday, and it was quickly decided that there would be two days reserved for sitting around the pool and in the apartment’s designated garden. The first, we decided, would be Sunday, our first full day.

The weather, of course was beautiful, but what would be a sensible time to open that first beer? 12.30.

Stop. Grappa Time.

Later also, I was able to open the grappa and sample its delights for the first time. I struggled a little getting the cellophane off the cap, and  I think in the end Mrs Cake may have finished that particular job off for me, but all that just served to make the pomace spirit all the sweeter.

Information on this brand hasn’t been too easy to find, but I can confirm the Deta Ars Essentiae Grappa Riserva di Chianti Classico is from the Chianti region, which was just over the next mountain from where we stayed. Also, it is made from the Sangiovese variety of grape, from which the vast majority of Chianti wines are made – as we were to learn later.

At 11 euros it wasn’t the cheapest, but in comparison to the first bottle of grappa I ever bought – Domenis Storica (50% ABV, 32 euros), it was positively budget. Because of that, I kept my expectations low. Deta was merely conceived of as something to drink with gay abandon during the holiday, so it didn’t have to be amazing. It was the stuff I’d be selecting for taking home that was intended to be special.

Nevertheless, those late evenings relaxing after a long day’s driving and the two days I was able to dedicate a little more time to it convinced me that this was actually a grappa of quality. I’m clearly no expert as yet, but I have decided to move this straight into 2^nd place (behind the unaged Storica) on the grappa hierarchy, and that is actually ahead of the aged Domenis Blanc e Neri, which you may remember me parting with 48 hard-earned pounds for. That had a slightly bitter finish, despite a complexity on the palate. There was no bitterness with the Deta, so it turns out to be quite a bargain.

Boozy Chess Update

If you’ll allow me to digress for just a moment, let’s just get into the game of chess that we had on our last full day at the apartment. We didn’t follow any specific drinking rules, but we were drinking. Mrs Cake was on the red wine and I was trying to polish off a number of strong beers and just over a quarter of a bottle of the grappa.

It was a good game that had two turning points. First, I lost concentration enough to plan ahead and then act on my future plan before the situation was in place. Mrs Cake threatened one of my important pieces, and instead of moving it I decided to back it up – which should be fine, except I backed up a move that hadn’t happened yet, allowing Mrs Cake to take the piece I was trying to protect.

That seriously affected my chances of winning, but I went on, hoping I could forge out a clever victory. What won it in the end though was when Mrs Cake inexplicably moved the one piece that was preventing me launching an attack on her king.

Unbelieving, I looked at it and said, “why would you do that?” suspecting I might be about to fall into a trap, as I so often do but no, Mrs Cake had just gifted the match to me. I moved my castle up next to her king and that was it. A lucky victory.

I’ll leave it there for part one. Join me next week for part 2, when we’ll be visiting Siena and the Chianti region and having all kinds of exciting adventures. See you then.

Booze Tourism Part 1: Venice

Popular Venetian souvenirs: glass, masks, pictures of canals. 

Venice – the most romantic city in the world. People love Venice, and for good reason: it’s great. I took Brenda there in June last year, and we spent the whole time wandering around in search of culinary delights, gifts, romantic photo opportunities, and… grappa.

Yes, grappa that I was first introduced to in York’s Vom Fass (http://www.vomfassuk.com/) store. Wikipedia has some interesting and in depth information (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grappa), but the gist of it is that grappa is made by distilling all the stuff that’s left over (skins, pulp, seeds, stem) from pressing grapes for wine, and it differs from brandy in that brandy is made by direct fermentation of pure grape juice.

I didn’t know anything of that at the time, but I do believe it was during this trip that I had the idea of becoming a booze tourist. It was as simple as that; ‘they make grappa in Italy, don’t they? I could get some of that’.

Since the whole idea occurred on holiday, I didn’t get time to do any research into brands or anything. So when it came to deciding which one to get, Brenda just asked a guy in the sports store where I was buying a Venezia football shirt. He seemed quite knowledgeable. Interesting technique though – don’t ask an expert, just ask anyone.

My starting criteria was that I wanted something traditional, but good. Our guy recommended Storica, and directed us to a place around the corner where we could get it.

As things transpired, they didn’t have it in the store. They had an alternative, but it wasn’t a traditional style. I can’t remember what was different about it, but I decided to leave it for the time being.

For the next couple of days we walked all over Venice, and tried every shop we could find from your off-licence type stores, down to every tiny grocery store and even the tourist gift shops. They all sell grappa of some kind, though none of them had Storica.

I found it eventually, and had to choose between three varieties. The shopkeeper was no help, as each time I found a slightly different way of asking which was the most traditional, he countered by listing the three types by name. So I went for this one:

Also on that holiday we found a wine shop where they keep the wine in giant barrels, and pour it into empty water bottles for you. We paid about 3 euros for a litre and a half of it. It was good stuff, too. As we were leaving, some American tourists who had been watching from outside asked us what the situation was. Soon a queue was forming outside that little shop.

As for the Storica; it became a firm favourite. It’s fragrant and sweet, and the liquid seems far more viscous than any other liquor I’ve experienced before, and at 50% alcohol, it’s nice and strong. Sadly, my bottle is long gone, and only one friend got to try it. Next time I go to Italy I’ll struggle to decide whether to buy that one again, or try a new grappa. Most likely though, I’ll spend far too much money getting both. 

If you’re planning a trip to Venice, keep an eye out for the discount wine shops, and definitely consider getting yourself some grappa. If you want to try it first you can get free samples of up to five varieties at Vom Fass. I have a small bottle of their grappa prosecco at the moment, which clocks in at only 40%, and is priced at £5.60 per 100ml. It’s not quite as nice as the Storica, but it’s still a special treat that I’ll be saving for more special occasions. As for the Storica, that’s available from The Whisky Exchange for £46.44 including delivery, and I also saw a bottle in the Didsbury branch of Carringtons for £42. I paid 32 euros so… I win.

One place we didn’t win was the “legendary” Harry’s Bar. Harry’s Bar is famous for inventing carpaccio and the Bellini cocktail, which is two parts sparkling wine and one part fresh peach puree. It is also famous because it was popular with Ernest Hemingway. It’s difficult to find and you can’t see out of the windows. I can’t speak for the food there, though I do know it’s very expensive. Some friends of ours went on their honeymoon, and spent £300 each (I think) on dinner. Brenda and I had to be a little more economical than that, but we’d been told we should go, so we just ordered a couple of Bellini’s. They didn’t even make them fresh – I saw the waiter pouring them out of a jug, readymade. And they were small. And they were 15 euros each. And they weren’t even that nice (that’s a matter of opinion, I suppose). I wouldn’t recommend it, anyway.

As ever, please feel free to leave a comment. If you’ve got any booze tourism recommendations or questions, I’d be glad to hear them. And don’t forget to look out for part 2 of this feature, which will focus on Spain.