Interview with Gianni Capovilla In the wake of passion

How did this passion for researching this product come about,
how did you come up with the idea of dedicating yourself to spirits?
It came to me... or rather it fell into my lap by chance in 1974, the year I started working
I started working with oenological machinery. I was managing a company
for the foreign market, particularly Switzerland, Germany and Austria,
where there is actually a different culture of distillation compared
than in Italy. To quote two figures... Germany has something like
Germany has something like 30,000 distilleries, Austria has as many as 90,000 and they still have the
the rights of Maria Theresa of Austria. In Italy there are less than 120 distilleries.
One understands that somehow the culture of distillation, in particular
particularly artisanal bain-marie distillation, lies elsewhere.
This came up as a topic of discussion in the factory with the workers.
In this small company (with 40 workers) everyone had the ambition to distil
to distil something at home, to make smuggled grappa.
Of course, not knowing exactly what a still that distils well
a still that distils well was made, they built containers, stainless steel kettles
stainless steel kettles, nice and shiny, but they couldn't produce anything good.
And so, I was trying to tell them, "look at that, me, who goes to countries
where you see them in every house".
I tried to understand how a still must be made to work well.
The proportions, the helmet, the metals used in the construction, all have a significant
in the sense that copper in particular, exactly where the kettle is
where the kettle is, has a catalytic action on certain substances.
I was trying to explain all these things to them. Copper was not used in the construction
for the construction of these modern wine-making machines, and so,
almost as a bet with these workmates of mine, I stole in pieces
a still that I bought in Austria, because in those days the frontiers...
were really frontiers and so one piece at a time I brought it home.
I started distilling as a joke, just to check and compare what came out of a
what was coming out of a distiller "made for the right purpose" and not a
and not a home-made one.

What did you distil for the first time?
The very first thing was grape pomace because that was the direct comparison.
The pomace, if it's a homemade pomace and it's vinified well, you have a raw material that's fresh, not over-pressed.
which is fresh, not over-pressed and not oxidised.
Knowing what was going on in the countries I mentioned earlier, fruit naturally had a
naturally had a special appeal. And hence the desire to try what the
what the Central Europeans were doing.

Your first grappa, your first experiment, when was it born?
It was in '75. It took a year between importing and making the first tests.
And just having that opportunity, because I was hanging out with these people,
I could ask questions and get answers without being seen
as a "competitor". In those countries, they distill everything that can't be
not to be sold fresh, from apples, pears, cherries, everything a company produces.
produces. And it was in this spirit that at the end of the 18th and early 19th centuries, the
and early 19th century, the rights granted by the Austro-Hungarian Empire were born.
In the economy of a farm, products that weren't perfect and couldn't be sold fresh were
and could not be sold fresh, could be processed at home,
into something that could provide income as well as comfort.
This was therefore not just a product for self-consumption,
as licences allowed the production of 300 litres of alcohol per year.
So for a very large and 'extended' family (and the winters were very cold) these spirits
(and the winters were very cold) these spirits were a real source of income.

After this first production, the marc was either collected locally
or did you source it from other countries?
The first pomace was Merlot and Cabernet. I'm from Treviso
and transplanted in the Vicenza area for 25 years, but I was born in Crespano del Grappa
and these were the pomace from local Merlot and Cabernet grapes.

How did the step of switching from pomace to fruit come about?
You realised that the fruit was being distilled because it was no longer fresh,
whereas yours was a reverse step. How did you get this intuition?
The transition was automatic, precisely because I tasted a lot of things....
and a lot of bad ones! And not only Italian, of course.
I mentioned earlier the very high numbers in both Austria and Germany:
That doesn't mean everyone is a fine distiller..,
that produces who knows how good and elegant spirits.
They are more of a rustic distillate, because in season they pick the
they collect their surplus fruit in season, put it in containers and start a spontaneous fermentation.
spontaneous fermentation. The problem is that the actual distillation takes place in the
takes place in winter, when they have time to distil.

Therefore the step
was a short step to that of frequenting good distillers.
Why some are rustic, others good and others not so good.
Obviously, from there, I started to target specific producers.
I would take my time, I would visit them, I would even spend weekends,
or semi-holidays.

Tell me something about fruit picking, which is a very important step,
the basis of your business. Where do you pick your fruit?
Do you have exclusive producers?
Mine is a farm, we have 4 hectares that we grow organically.
So some fruit, the kind that can grow well here,
we grow ourselves. Of course, in Rosà, where we are,
not everything grows at its best. And so the fruit that I can't grow
grow I go and look for it where it grows well.

Who gives you these tips, how do you find out where this fruit is?
It's a journey that has lasted over 30 years and so by going around
and talking to people, you find out a lot of things.
Of course, it's always curiosity and interest that create new
new paths and make you go a little further.
But it all stems from a simple equation: with the experiments
experiments I did, I realised that the better the fruit, the better the final product.
the better the final product. If I start with an exceptional and
and extraordinary raw material, the only risk is to ruin it...
I'm not inventing anything, so the first real
and great job is to produce myself or go in search of the best
the best raw materials. Also because the fruit I bring home
is not fruit that you can't sell at the fresh market.
On the contrary, it is often fruit grown for the purpose, ripened on the plant,
harvested by hand... and this is something absolutely fundamental.
fundamental. First of all the raw material, then comes everything else.

For example, speaking of marc, I don't think all the big champagne houses,
or Châteaux d'Yquem, decide to give you the barrels to age the rum
or the marc. Is there anyone else who has this privilege?
Does this culture of distillation exist in France?
No, in France, the French grappas that are known are distilled
industrially distilled and therefore not an absolutely refined product.
Even France (in some parts until the early 19th century) which was under
Germany (e.g. Alsace) still holds the distillation rights,
this small licence - even if they have fallen behind.
Cognac, armagnac and calvados are the main products, but there is no grape marc distillate.
marc distillate, there is nothing particularly refined.
It is also a fairly recent development to distil marc from French maisons.
from French producers, who, as in Italy, are obliged to supply the distilleries with
to the distilleries. But if you see a distillery in France,
they make an industrial alcohol out of it!
In the Champagne region, only 60% of the grapes used to produce
champagne, only 60% of the weight of the grapes can be pressed as must.
The wineries practically deliver to the distilleries a marc
The wineries practically deliver to the distilleries a pomace still dripping with must, and a very pressed pomace gives a distillate
with a totally different structure. If there is a little bit of grape
of grape must, we have a slightly higher yield.

In terms of yield and aroma, does it change? The pomace you bring from France,
compared to the Italian ones, are they different?
There is definitely a difference, but particularly in terms of the acid structure of the marc itself.
structure of the marcs themselves, speaking of champagne. It is curious, for example.
in Mareuil sur Ay, where we go every year to de-stem the pressed grapes of Billecart and
of Billecart and Philipponat, there are these lorries that pick up the marc from the
the marc from the vintners. All the streets of Mareuil are sticky
All the streets of Mareuil are sticky and sprinkled with grape must, which comes down from the lorries carrying the marc.

Returning to your mechanical side, you built these machines:
Have you even patented them exclusively?
They are no longer machines... In my journey from the very beginning, the raw materials,
i.e. fruit, needs a certain type of processing, and therefore
not finding suitable equipment on the market to do that job.
on the market, I partly built my own machines.
The only machine that I have patented and which I also give to my colleagues
around the world is a kind of cooler that separates the volatile
this process separates volatile substances, including methanol, hydrocyanic acid and
hydrogen cyanide and sulphur dioxide if there is any...
So even if you do everything right in the distillation, separating heads and tails,
there are still substances left over that you can't
you can't separate them.

So with this machine it can do this...
It's not that with this machine a bad product becomes good...
but a good product becomes better!

Explain to me the passage, even a technical one, that you make compared to others, from when you take the
the fruit from the plants until it "enters" your bottles...
I don't do things that are very different from my Central European colleagues!

You make a lot of references to Central Europe because it means that in Italy...
There are few companies that distil fruit. There are a few here in South Tyrol,
but I have few examples. There are small ones, but the most significant ones are real
are real industries.

From fruit to distillate...
Accumulated experience makes you realise that each fruit has its own
has its own best moment to be picked and processed.
Therefore it is left on the plant until the right point, and this can vary
from fruit to fruit, because there are fruits that give their best when overripe, while
while others must be picked early, at the right time.
And the processing of the fruit itself, i.e. the crushing and pureeing of apples and pears, is an important part of the process.
apples and pears is very easy, because there is a machine on the market that does this.
commercially available for this task.
At the most, one decides whether to grind them coarser or thinner.
For stone fruit and other fruit, however, the procedure varies from type to type.
to type. For example, there are apricots, which have a stone
containing bitter almonds (there are few varieties with sweet
with sweet almonds), while peaches all have a very bitter stone.
bitter kernel. So peaches, whether we grow our own,
saturnine or other varieties should be completely pitted,
or rather, the fruit should be crushed without breaking the bone and then with another
another machine to stone them, keeping only the pulp. This is fruit
that has no pesticides or fungicides, it has an indigenous yeast flora:
We only do spontaneous fermentations.
Fruit with stones in particular (and this is what experience teaches you)
pits in particular (and this is what experience teaches you), can be pitted or the fermentation
fermentation takes place with part of the stones or with all the stones present and separated
and separated before distillation. This is because for some fruits
such as Mirabelle plums, the scent of benzaldehyde
which is the almond we smell,
is part of the character of the distillate.
And so to the right extent it is correct that there is this hint.

One thing that is beautiful and that characterises it: its logo,
its fruit tree. That also has a story.
Yes, a very simple story, like all our things.
It was an idea I had in my head, the wonder tree.
and then when I finally went professional
with this thing after 10 years of experimentation,
I made it happen.

And anyway it's very nice. You've captured so much from here for your packaging,
its bottles, its seals. There's a whole lot of work behind it, linked by the elegance
that shines through both the bottle and eventually into the product...
it represents it a lot!
The bottle is scantily clad... this handmade tie,
the toggle, the tag, which is the exact identity card
of each bottle and the colour, the seals...
which we make ourselves... so it's all manual work!
What I wanted to highlight
is our true, artisanal work.

You have a special sensitivity, you have chosen colours that on an emotional and visual level
and visual level that awaken and suggest what you are drinking.
...yes, the origin of the fruit.

And how did you come up with this idea?
It came to me on its own, I didn't think much about it.
In particular, with the waxes I try to "mimic" the natural colours of the fruit.
the natural colours of the original fruit.

The colours remind you of the sensations you find in the distillate when you drink it...
Yes, a reference, a point of colour is needed anyway, because in particular
fruit distillates if we look at them are all "colourless" liquids,
which doesn't exactly suggest the origin... whether it's from blackcurrants or mirabelles.
And this is nice!

Its bottle is clean, with no label. The colour is very evocative ...
When you put one of our spirits in your mouth... you call it the colour of taste.
The colour of the sealing wax recalls the true colour of the fruit.
A certain assonance with the origin immediately comes to mind
as soon as you taste the distillate.

The sensory impact of your distillates is very strong. When you open them, you close your eyes,
it is as if you are eating the fruit as well. In fact, perhaps not even the fresh fruit
In fact, perhaps not even fresh fruit gives this aromatic and ripening 'concentration'. Does this apply to all fruit?
This is not the case for all fruits, but only for those that have a particular
a particular class of aromas, the terpenes, which remains the same in fresh fruit,
fermented and even distilled. Therefore we find that fragrance
and those primary aromas of the fresh fruit.

Which ones have you tried that have given you the least satisfaction?
I keep trying different varieties, from apricots to apples to pears.
and then of course in the end you have to make choices.
First of all, they are linked to the difficulty of finding the raw materials to make a
to make a significant quantity that you can offer.
It's one thing to make a trial run, you make 5 litres... we drink it and we know that
that fruit gives that result. If we then want to propose it because

is interesting, we have to find the raw materials!
Wild berries are generally all interesting: the only difficulty is that since you can't
The only difficulty is that since you can't buy them, you have to go and look for them!
And that's the real work, although fortunately I have friends who are willing to do weekends.
who are willing to go on weekends to gather wild pears,
the blackthorn. This way I can get labour back
which is cheap... and that's the real fun.
Collecting the raw material is the first stage!

When you decided to produce spirits you started with just a few varieties
and now you have quite a wide range.
How do you go about selecting the fruit?
What I try to do even today is to collect the fruits of my childhood
and that are often ignored. For example, cornelian cherries, elderberries,
wild plums, various kinds of fruits that are ignored
because it costs a lot of effort to harvest them... it's often not easy, especially given the yields
yields (2-3%), it is clear that if you want to make a minimum of trial
you have to harvest at least 5-6 quintals.
And harvesting such a quantity requires a lot of work!

Would many people like to have your products in their shop window?
How do you choose people? Who do you 'give' your product to?
I don't go to customers and I don't even propose myself, it's the customers who choose us!
We are well known and people know what we do, they look for us.
We have a few representatives/friends scattered throughout Italy.
scattered all over Italy. My first customers ever, thanks to
business connections and speaking German,
were the Swiss, Germans and Austrians!
Proposing a fruit distillate 25 years ago in Italy was difficult.
They would tell you "it's fruit grappa" or something similar.
So it was not understood at all.
It has been a long and tiring journey. Those who encouraged me were
my importers, whom I still have in other countries. In the early 90s
I participated in international competitions, where our products stood out.
our products stood out, we made a good impression.
And these places are frequented by people interested
interested in this kind of product (importers, individuals, enthusiasts).
That's how it all started and I was encouraged to continue on this road!
on this road! At that time, in 1985-1986, I made the
the first harvest (I was also producing wine at the time,
although I didn't have my own vineyards) because of the knowledge I had in wine.
knowledge I had in wine. From Collio to Alto Adige I found excellent
I found excellent raw materials from Collio, Alto Adige, which I then processed here in the winery.
That ended in 1996: it was a forced choice,
but the two things coexisted with great difficulty,
so much so that I could produce, but everything ended up in a closed warehouse.
in a closed warehouse. In order to bottle our distillates
To bottle our spirits, I had to set up a laboratory in the village with absurd bureaucracy.
Plus the fact that I didn't have my own vineyards,
was decisive.

Going back a step: how is your company structured?
When you get up, what's the first thing you do?
In recent years, my life has certainly changed, in the sense that I now have 8 permanent employees and I am "educated".
I have 8 permanent employees and they are "polite"; everyone knows what they have to do.
I don't give orders in the morning, everyone is responsible and knows exactly what to do.
and knows exactly what he has to do. If anything, we talk about it the day before
If anything, we talk about it the day before and establish a work schedule. At the beginning, when I was alone
and had occasional help, but the day was absolutely long,
interminable. Now it's more of a control job, while in season
distillation I am always present.
As far as fermentations are concerned, the harvest and
and fruit procurement, I'm the one who takes the van to
I go to Alto Adige, to Tuscany, I go and collect the raw materials
or go looking for them. Depending on the season, my tasks
my tasks change completely, although I am always present
important moments in the production cycle.

Do you have a technician who supervises production?
They are all workers, I have my nephew, who is now dedicated exclusively to dilution and bottling.
dilution and bottling, which of course we discuss from time to time.
from time to time. I also have two boys in the country,
as we have 4 hectares under cultivation.

Where are they?
Around here on our farm. There are 3 different plots
and there's a lot of work there too. Of course, the fruit harvest
harvest in our orchards ends in early September, and from there for us
that's when the actual distillation season starts for us.
The guys who work in other places are exclusively dedicated to distillation.
distillation, under my supervision of course.
We don't work on a continuous cycle. We keep normal hours,
in season maybe a few more hours a day, we definitely work.
and this is because there is a bit of marc accumulating
we want to distil immediately and therefore we extend our
our presence in the company.

Have you ever had the desire to breed someone who can continue your trade?
your trade? You've never been asked to teach the art of distilling,

that is somewhat lacking in Italy?
We get requests, but I don't have the time to do that either...

But don't you have the desire to transmit this culture?
I am doing it in my own way. Apart from the fact that my distillery is well attended,
I have at least twenty good European distillers
who come to visit me and I visit them.
Between us there is a relationship, a comparison, a dialogue, we exchange raw materials at times.
raw materials at times; we meet at events....
and this has been going on for 20 years. What I am trying to do now
to disseminate this way of distilling, I can do thanks to the fact that even in
that even in Italy the rules of distillation have changed.
There is a kind of small licence since 2001, which existed before,
but even if you tried to get it, you'd spend 10 years running around
and then didn't get it. Now they are obliged to give it to you.
A farm can produce in Germany and Austria
300 litres of alcohol annually (as a maximum quantity) in Germany and Austria.
It must be a farm and distil its own raw materials,
both fruit and pomace. The Italian rules are slightly different,
with my artisan Muller (with whom we do a little bit around the world)
I have built a still suitable for this purpose. That is, a small still
that distils twice, according to the rules imposed by the state and I am proposing it
to farms that are serious about distilling.
That's it. In a few years, I will be able to create a small group of distillers
of distillers with whom I can compare myself, who are starting from scratch with what
what I teach them. This could create a new generation,
because those who are there now, even if they are small...
are following an industrial system that is 100 years old.
The culture of distillation in Italy is really wrong,
linked to the compulsory supply of marc, which costs nothing.
which costs nothing. Historically, grappa was the alcohol of the poor,
which had to be cheap. And all the machines and technology
to de-calculate this by-product, had to work fast and with very high
quickly and with very high yields.

I see on the table hidden behind the grappa a bottle of rum.
When did you start your Caribbean adventure?
Really in 2006. It was an idea, a dream of Luca Gargano,
who had been chasing me for years because he had this thing in his head.
As a great importer and connoisseur of all rums and more,
he still had the feeling that something different could be done,
better, without using continuous column distillations.
And so, thanks to the last guys who arrived at the company in 2003-2004
(otherwise I would never have been able to move) I started to turn.
In 2005 Luca absolutely wanted to take me
to Guadeloupe to at least show me around.
I kept saying no. He told me that,
besides liking the sea, there was a small distiller on the island
there was a small distiller on this island who would be willing to be our partner,
to make room for us in his distillery...
I went to Marie Galante, an extraordinary little island, beautiful and peaceful,
where I met Dominique Thiery, the third partner in this enterprise.
And since he also wanted to meet us, he came to Italy
and in 2006 we left. We sent Marie Galante all the technology
all the technology and it was a year of experimentation,
I had to know the raw material.
Officially, the first production came out in 2007.

So for you sugar cane was an unknown raw material in terms of distillation behaviour?
in terms of distillation behaviour?
Yes, almost unknown, so much so that it took me a year of experimenting
year of experimentation, as the process of making sugar cane
compared to other agricultural rum producers like ours.
(agricultural rum means rum made directly from sugar cane
from the juice of the sugar cane and not with the waste from the
from sugar cane juice and not from sugar processing waste) is completely different.
Our juice is not diluted, our fermentations are very long
fermentations are very long and temperature-controlled.
And then there is the double distillation in a bain-marie
as with fruit.

But does it puree the sugar cane?
No, it is pressed, there are no fibres and therefore
it's like grape juice. And this has to be treated differently
And this has to be treated differently than local distillers usually do.
In the pressing process these fibres have to be watered continuously in order to
to extract all the sugary substances they contain. At the end you get
At the end of the process, the juice is diluted 50% with water that is often of poor quality.
Fermentations are very fast and forced, as they are grafted with yeasts such as beer yeast.
with yeasts such as brewer's yeast.
Temperatures are naturally high in those places,
around 27-28 °C, and there is no possibility of cooling the fermenting mass.

fermentation. Fermentations are tumultuous
and reach 38-39°C and there the process stops. This is why
this dilution is needed in these countries,
because otherwise at that temperature,
the mass would stop fermenting and it would be lost alcohol.
For their production cycle, therefore, it is fine that things are done this way.
be done in this way. But the distillation system that they have
(they are countercurrent columns) which does not allow the possibility
the possibility of separating the heads from the tails, produces somewhat 'dirty' products.
One thing I discovered along the way is that agricultural rums are very
are very rich in a toxic substance, ethylecarbamate,
which is formed just after distillation
and comes from nitrogenous substances. In particular they,
as yeast nutrients, they use ammonia salts
into ethylcarbamate, the effects of which are not known.
effects are not known. The FDA, for example, has set a ceiling on this substance,
so that in some countries, such as Japan and Canada, these distillates
cannot be imported because of the presence of ethylcarbamate.
Our rum does not contain this toxic substance,
thanks to slow fermentation and double distillation in a bain-marie.
But what is more interesting, compared to a traditional agricole,
is that with my distillation system and a clean fermentation,
fermentation, as is also the case with fruit, we leave all the richness of the raw material.
of the raw material, therefore its typicality.
So much so that I am also experimenting with different varieties
monovarietal varieties of cane, to see with time to address ourselves
aromatically more interesting types.

You source your sugar cane in Guadeloupe, in Marie Galante.
What is the difference with Dominican, Cuban and Nicaraguan sugar cane?
This small island also has a special microclimate
and the quality of the cane depends on the rainfall.
There are countries that harvest two canes a year,
but here they only have one and it's extraordinary.
precisely because there is a special microclimate.
And this is an added value.

Some lucky people have been able to taste their banana and pineapple
his banana and pineapple spirits. Is it the same procedure and production on site?
Of course, exactly as for rum, and Guadeloupe
the bottling is also done in Guadeloupe. The bottles arrive in Italy
already labelled, ready to go. We send labels, corks, bottles
and everything is done on the spot.

And how has this rum been received.
Do people understand that it is different from others?
Surely that's the first thing people say.
In fact, people often say 'I've never tasted a rum like this...
I've never tasted rum like this... but other things!
Also because in Italy, quality white rums
are scarcely present in Italy. There are the industrial products used for blending,
which are rums legères, industrial rums. We know more about quality rums
that have been aged, and this is the most usual use
used in Italy. In countries like England
and those who know something about rum... the reactions are very positive!

I don't know if you can reveal it yet. Do you also have a project to produce a dark rum?
That is already in place. Some of the rum being offered now
is 1/3 of that produced in 2007. We kept it white
and bottled it last year. We also let the rum rest for a year,
like all our other spirits (which rest for several years so that
years) before bottling,
just like a great wine.

...so they have the right yield in terms of flavours and aromatic charge...
Exactly! It's not something that stays put, it has an evolution,
it esterifies. Therefore, after this necessary rest, we have a product
Therefore, after this necessary rest, we have a more complex, deep and harmonious product, which it does not have when young.
In Italy, we then reduce the alcohol content with spring water
that we get behind the Grappa. In Guadeloupe instead,
where the water is of very poor quality, to think of demineralising it
and using dead water to dilute a good product...
I don't do that and so I use the water from the sky, the rain water,
which we use to lower the alcohol content.
As I was saying, 1/3 is bottled white
and 2/3 immediately at the end of the season in wood. They will come out in a couple of years.

But what wood do you use?
Unlike what is normally used in the Caribbean,
which use American Bourbon barrels,
we use French wood.

And where do they put the barrels in the Caribbean?
Even in the sun! If they can, of course, in the shade,
but there are big distilleries that have hundreds of thousands of barrels...
and they don't know where to put them and they leave them in the sun, or with a cloth.
Coming back to the type of wood, unlike what is normally
normally done, big old barrels, the best barrels they use are the
the best barrels they use are the Bourbon ones, which are 6 to
8 years of use, the 190-litre American ones (not 225 litres), which are cheap.
which are cheap. I wanted to go a different way.
I have some experience with wood! I find barrels that are rarely used after a single pass and I have excellent wood for the purpose.
However, we will see in a couple of years.

Back to tropical fruit spirits.
I am doing various tests, constantly looking around.
The tropical fruits that are unknown to me, I taste them, I can't resist
and I must experiment, try! All the experiments carried out
with bananas, pineapples, montbin, carambola in small quantities
would be a very interesting thing to do, although it would be a completely
a completely new market, because things like that are not
are not known. Unfortunately, the problem we have in the
in the French Caribbean is that fruit is very expensive and purchase prices are like
prices are the same as in Europe, if not more expensive. The island offers many varieties
The island offers many varieties, but in modest quantities. Some time ago I visited Vietnam
and I was pleasantly surprised by the people and the place.
There are fruits of all kinds there that cost 1/20th of what they would cost in the Caribbean.
than it would cost in the Caribbean.
Maybe if this project continues..,
some interesting things will come out. Always 100% distillates.

Fruit distillates, grappas, absolutes: let's be clear about the
about your flagship products compared to others.
There is only one distinction to be made:
a distillate is not called such simply because it has passed through a still and been distilled.
and has been distilled. By pure distillate, we mean
that the alcohol that we then drink comes exclusively from the natural
from the natural sugars of the fruit, which the fermentation
transformed into alcohol and then separated by distillation.
In the case of infusions, spirits and "flavoured things", this is a completely different category.
completely different category: they are not pure distillates, but obtained by infusion
in alcohol of agricultural origin and then distilled. In practice, the alcohol is used
to extract the primary aromas of what is being infused, and the
and distillation separates this alcohol which has been flavoured from the things
infused. But that's a completely different
completely different category.

Is this a line of thinking that you don't intend to follow?
No... with this method you could make more money,
speed of realisation of the product itself, with different costs,
but I've always gone my own way.
If you ask me why I do these things, it's because I like them that way!
It was a very precise choice, made at the time.
The difficulty of not being able to produce certain products a little more
is because there are no raw materials.
What I do manage to produce is this.

As Gianni the distiller and as Gianni outside the distillery,
is there anything else that inspires you apart from your relationship with nature?
Do you have any other sources of inspiration? Do you enjoy eating, drinking, listening to music?
All of the above! I like "the beautiful things in life",
good friendships, cultivating them while you can.
Yes, I like to cultivate them...just like good fruit!
I like to cook, I cook twice a day, also for my daughters who help me and keep me company.
who help me and keep me company; I like listening to good music, even if my time is limited.
even if my time is limited. I would like to do many things, a little bit age,
... in short, I have to be content!

Has there ever been anyone, for example a chef, who has used his product as the
as the 'irreplaceable' main ingredient in a recipe?
Yes, there have been several chefs.
This is an extremely interesting topic,
I sometimes talk about it. I always mention different cultures, where in Austria,
Switzerland, Germany, there are Michelin-starred chefs,
who even offer complete menus and dishes made,
cooked or accompanied with spirits. It is not part of our culture,
except for a few provocations, but the marriage of food and
extraordinary marriage of food and spirits. Distillates are usually drunk or
or think of it as a digestive, but it can be used as an aperitif,
in the kitchen on raw fish, a few drops or sprinkled on top...
instead of the usual balsamic vinegar or lemon, a quince,
a distillate of moscato grapes orange blossom at full strength in a spray,
just to give an example on a raw fish carpaccio,
on scampi, etc. Great chefs, those with many stars,
enjoy experimenting and proposing many dishes made with our
with our distillate. I mention a tartar with meat
butcher's meat that is made with blackthorn distillate or
distillate or cornelian cherries. With the latter for example
a vinaigrette on a carpaccio of venison or wild roe deer:
The sorb or cornelian cherries have an earthy, wild aroma,
almost reminiscent of truffles, and are a wonderful accompaniment.

Instead of putting the usual cognac, you can therefore add
your distillate in the preparation of tartar...
In France they consume their stuff, in Italy they use grappa
or to make bruss or a rather improbable risotto.
We have over 60 distillates. If we think about the use in cooking
of aromatic herbs or spices, where we go in search of
with the range of natural aromas found in our spirits.
the range of natural flavours in our spirits is endless!

Now that you mention herbs, have you ever thought of distilling flowers,
vegetables, or have you tried it and not been satisfied?
No, I am familiar with the practice, I have also dealt with this issue, not for myself but for others.
but for others with this issue. The fact is that you should have
a completely separate distillery, you can't think of making essential oils
essential oils with the same stills you use to distil fruit.
So I would have to have two separate distilleries and they are two different jobs
and two different markets. I am more fascinated by things
which I then consume and which I like!

And the most extraordinary combination that has turned your life upside down?
And maybe a combination of music. What trio would you compose?
Music, extraordinary company and an extraordinary meal.

I happened to taste a dessert, the fried cream of Tonka bean
accompanied by its raspberry distillate sprayed on top! What do you think?
I am not very fond of desserts!

Even if you don't like sweets, it was an extraordinary experience for me:
the freshness and pungency of the distillate is one of the memories
The freshness and pungency of the spirit is one of the memories that has remained with me, indelibly.
Generally I experiment on my own or hang out with chefs.
So there are plenty of experiments I could mention,
I can't think of one in particular at the moment.
These are things that I live with almost on a daily basis.
I enjoy my work outside the distillery.

I'm told you imported a very drinkable rum cocktail from the Caribbean.
It's not really a cocktail.

An aperitif?
It's a different way to enjoy our rum.
It is usually only served at 56 degrees
(an important alcoholic strength to drink if it's not fresh).
In the Caribbean they make this t-punch, which means anything
mixed with rum is called 'punch'.
The national aperitif, with all its South American variants,
the Caribbean and the Antilles, is prepared with wild lemons,
lemons, which are cut into wedges and then squeezed into
in sugar syrup or in cane sugar and rum at 59 degrees.
(normally agricultural rums are at 56-59 degrees).
We Europeans put a bit of ice in it, but they drink it like this,
at full strength. The variant I came up with,
as I want to leave the personality of the rum we produced,
clean and pleasant (despite its 56 degrees, it does not offend the mouth).
becomes pleasant if accompanied by an ice cube and a citrus peel
a cube of ice and a citrus peel (a natural lemon, our own
a tangerine or, even better, the wild lemons from Guadeloupe
that I always bring home from my travels) ... and that is no longer a t-punch but a C-punch.
...and that is no longer a t-punch but a C-punch, the Cape's aperitif, Capo-punch.

Apart from this tropical variant, how do you recommend drinking your rum?
We think of spirits in general, such as rum, with a good cigar,
with chocolate, the moments to enjoy it are certainly many.
Of course the rule applies: drink little and drink well!

You are an all-round pleasure seeker. You like nice things,
you like good drinks, cooking....
Yes, simple, all in all...

Why did you choose to become a distiller?
Because I like it.

So you get up in the morning and are happy to be a distiller?
You make me think of one thing:
The greatest satisfaction I get from my work..,
is that every morning when I get up I find I have a future,
because every day I have something new to discover.
That's the extraordinary thing about this job.
So that's why I don't indulge in "easy things".
I have too much respect for this project. In my journey
I have also met some extraordinary people, including Luigi Veronelli,
who was very fond of our work and he often repeated to me
that the greatest emotions of the last 10 years of his life
he experienced with our products. He would tell me over and over again,
sitting in front of 50 different tastings, that I have a big responsibility,
because if I don't do what I do, nobody else will!

He has a heavy legacy to keep!
It's not so much responsibility as it is my life.

His is a mission!
It is not a mission, it is a pleasure. A mission can be a sacrifice,
Mine is hard work, but the positive and "light" side of it
definitely outweighs everything else.