The Italian brandy is not comparable to the French Cognac. To give an example. And yet among many mass-market and rather cheap products, there are distillates of great value wine, behind which there is a tradition, a rigorous technique and an uncommon cure.

In short, our wine distillate deserves attention and four illustrious producers of the still are raising it. A Bolognese, a Bassanese and two from Trentino who answer the names of Guido Fini Zarri, heir to the historic Pilla industry, Mario Pojer (whose company was born from the meeting with Fiorentino Sandri), oenologists and winemakers, Vittorio Gianni Capovilla is Bruno Plizer, last arrived. The first uses the charentais direct fire still, strictly in French style, while the other three use the distillation technique with a discontinuous bain-marie still. For the rest, all four differ profoundly with regards to barrels, methods, style, provenance and stills. But they had the merit of teaming up.

In the shade of grappa
The Italian Craft Brandy is a distillate of Italian wine aged in oak barrels, but for many years it has not enjoyed all this appeal and is overshadowed by the distillate of marc, the grappa, much more famous and known in Italy. In reality it was not always the case and in the late nineteenth century the cognac crisis brought by phylloxera had made some very powerful brands flourish that remained in vogue until the 1970s (Stravecchio Branca, Florio, René Briand, Vecchia Romagna Buton, Stock 84, Oro Pilla). But then these brands have not held up, tastes have begun to turn towards white spirits, advertising strategies have failed to keep up with the times and the market has been invaded by unprotected and often used stoves in the supermarket more than consumed in the glasses.

However, Italian artisan brandy was born from a common vision by Mario Pojer and Guido Fini Zarri, which in 1986 had their first wine distillates poured from their stills. Shortly after they came Gianni Capovilla and Bruno Pilzer. The stories are different: who comes from a dynasty of fine distillers, who from oenological studies and who even from rally cars and then, only then, from the construction of machinery for oenology (Gianni Capovilla). Bologna, Vinceza, Trento, the origin is different and the brandies in question are unique, but all four share strict rules and the philosophy of doing good. The products in question are a concentrate of elegance and goodness and are: the Capovilla 1998 Wine Distillate, the Italian Brandy Traditional Assembly 10 Years of Villa Zarri, theHistoriae Brandy Portegnac 13 Years of Pilzer and theAcquavite Divino Dolomiti 2000 harvest of Pojer and Sandri. Obviously the four musketeers of the brandy (so they were renamed) are not the only ones to produce artisanal brandy and do it well, but they have been the only ones to make a team up until now.

The seven golden rules
In short, we need an identity card and a serious and common disciplinary, just to begin to distinguish authentic products from those more mass, hardly tasted in tasting glasses, but maybe used for some dish. To maintain high standards it is essential first to carefully select the raw material, the grapes, which must be in perfect condition, carefully follow the fermentation process without adding sulfur dioxide, use stills that gently extract the aromas (Charentais or bain-marie), leave that the wine distillate ages for all the time it takes to reach the balance between its natural aromas and alcohol, according to the style and taste of each one, do not add natural or artificial aromas, do not add sugar or caramel , avoid any manipulation before bottling, making only the filtration at room temperature. The re-launching of the Italian quality brandy will have other stages, not least a young and effective communication, to return the suggestion of a product and its imaginary.

Emanuela Di Pasqua,
March 2019