Nonino Grappa Friulana Alla Ruta (700 ml)

When Orazio Nonino founded the house in Percoto in 1897, grappa was a farmhand's by-product. It was his granddaughter-in-law Giannola and husband Benito who, across the 1970s, redesigned the category entirely — commissioning bespoke copper steam discontinuous stills and insisting that pomace arrive at the distillery within one hour of pressing, placed into fermentation within that window to preserve volatile aromatics that silo storage destroys. Grappa Friulana Alla Ruta carries that philosophy into a centuries-old Friulian tradition: the maceration of ruta (rue, Ruta graveolens), a bitter, resinous herb historically tucked into grappa bottles across northeastern Italy as both flavoring and folk preservative. The pomace base — drawn from Friulian varieties processed at the five artisanal sub-distilleries in Percoto, Pavia di Udine — undergoes slow batch distillation with precise head-and-tail cuts, the technique Nonino credits for eliminating harsh methanol peaks that plagued industrial grappa. White pomace is ensilaged under vacuum in stainless-steel tanks at controlled temperature for up to 48 hours before the still; red fermented pomace goes directly to distillation. What makes this expression categorically unusual is the rue itself: where most modern grappa producers have abandoned botanical additions as archaic, Nonino preserves the Friulian herb-infusion tradition as a deliberate regional identity statement, producing a spirit that sits at the intersection of grappa and botanical distillate. Non-vintage by nature; drink now or hold — the herb character softens and integrates over time.