Grappa is unique in being distilled from a solid material: dried grape skins or ‘vinaccia’.
On average, 20 kg of vinaccia is needed to produce one bottle of grappa.
All the grapes used by Distillerie Francoli come from the Piemonte region. This means that they arrive fresh at the distillery and this is very important in order to ensure high-quality grappa.
A slow distilling process, with attention to every detail, ensures that the grappa is smooth and has a distinctive flavour.
The vinaccia arrives fresh, heavily perfumed and still moist. The steam is turned on and after about an hour the first distillate begins to emerge. The initial part (‘heads’) is discarded.
The middle part (‘core’) of the distillate is collected and the steam turned off to ensure that the final, low-qualitypart of the distillate (‘tails’) is not distilled but removed, together with the spent vinaccia. The Master Distiller and modern technology ensure that the ‘core’ has the required characteristics for the finest grappa.
To age its grappa Distillerie Francoli first uses large Slavonian oak vats and then small barrels made of French oak from the forests of Allier and Limousin.
These different woods give Francoli grappa its distinctive aromatic flavours.