Grappa With Elegance - Rojita B.Tiwari

Sandro Bottega, Owner, Alexander Bottega and Renza Lorenzet, Asia Export Manager speaks to Ambrosia about the journey of grappa as a poor workmen drink to the drink of the affluent, the place that it comes from and specialties of Alexander Bottega.

Situated 45 kms from Venice, the region that produces Prosecco is important for production of Grappa too. This area has a long tradition of producing Prosecco and wine. Each region in Italy has its specialty in producing wines from hundreds of different wine growing regions.

Alexander Bottega is located in the heart of northern Italy's scenic Veneto region, which is also the birthplace of grappa. Double-distilled in copper steam alembic stills under the exacting standards of the Bottega family's proprietary system, Alexander Grappas are highly refined, aromatic, and smooth and naturally moderate in alcohol. They include several types of grappa di monovitigno, or grappas made from the pomace of a single grape variety.

Representing the utmost in quality and purity, Alexander Grappas delight the eye as well as the palate. The range is packaged in sensational hand-blown bottles designed by Sandro Bottega and crafted by skilled master glass blowers at the Bottega family's own glassmaking facility, in the tradition of an art form developed in Venice in the 1400s.

Grappa as a drink has not had a famous past. Though it has been there for quite sometime, it gained popularity in the last few years. However, now if you mention it to people in Germanyor US they all understand it, as these are the places where Prosecco have become more popular than Champagne. And people like to drink Prosecco. It is different from Champagne. Prosecco is more complicated, it has less shelf life than champagne. It has its typicality.

About Distilleria Bottega

Distilleria Bottega was founded nearly 30 years ago by master distiller Aldo Bottega, Sandro Bottega's father. The company is headquartered in Castello Roganzuolo, about 30 miles from Venice, with a state-of the- art distillery located in Pianzano. In addition to grappa and glassware, this energetic family’s ventures include production of still and sparkling wines, wine accessories, mineral water, olive oil and organic food.

Grappa is the typical Italian drink produced out of the Mars grape skin. Grape skin is quite strong in bouquet; it is also an important part of a drink. After you crush the grape and take the juice out of it, the mars skin is kept in a vacuum container for 15 days. We let the remaining sugar turn into alcohol and then we proceed with distillation.

"Alexander the premium grappa is offered in blown glass. This is a typical production from Venice. The hand designed bottle is blown out of one piece of glass which could be refilled with grappa or any other liquor. The concept was to offer a very clear packaging. The Murano glass not only looks elegant but also is distinctive," says Renza.

We entered duty free retail market with Alexander premium grappa which is our flagship brand. The second step had been to enter the airlines. In 4 years time Alexander grappa has found its place in most of the airlines around the world. The company is building its airlines business at the moment.

"We have designed a special Alexander bottle of size 20 cl for the in-flight alcohol menu. Our products have also been in dutyfree for quite sometime. Except grappa we also have a range of sparkling wines prepared of Moscato grapes", adds Renza.

Some Info about Grappa

Mars grape: The fruit of the Mars grape is blue, round, and seedless. Berries are medium to large in size, and grow in tight clusters that ripen in August. They are delicious for table eating, juice, or making into coluorful preserves. Versatile and fast growing, a grapevine can bear in just two years. One vine requires about 8 feet of fence or trellis, with each plant producing on average about 15 pounds of fruit each season.

Distilleria Bottega has recently launched a sparkling Rosé. It is a sweet wine with great acidity and 11 per cent alcohol. The Rosé has a special packaging for special occasion to support the Breast Health Institute in London. This concept is conceived by Sandro Bottega, the owner of Alexander Bottega.

One euro from each bottle sold in the duty-free is donated to the Breast Health Institute in London. Many dutyfree operators are already supporting this campaign and Dubai Duty-free is already selling it.

Sandro Bottega, the owner of Distilleria Bottega adds, "We started selling the Rosé in duty-free from September 2007 and we have sold about a couple of thousand bottles. From Dubai duty-free only we have collected around 2000 euros in just September and October of 2007".

The duty-free price of a Rosé is between 11 to 12 euros. The money collected through this sale will be used in building up hospitals in Dubai, Italy and Germany says Sandro.

Another initiative that we would like to highlight is our newly constructed ecological building from where the company operates. It is a naturally air conditioned building situated in a place near Venice which has cold winters and hot summers. The building uses thermal energy to generate power. Biomass from grape skin is used to produce grappa. And the most interesting part is, the distillery does not use even a single liter of traditional oil for producing grappa or wine, says Sandro.

History of grappa drinking

Grappa was originally made in Bassano del Grappa, a town of around 40,000 residents in Italy's northern Veneto region. It is from this town that Grappa gets its name. Grappa started as a by-product of the Italian winemaking trade, a rough drink made with what was available, potent enough to get the farmers through the cold winter months. It was good at warming you up, but not particularly tasty, similar to the grain alcohols of the Midwestern United States. Grappa, largely, remained a drink of the poor workmen and farmers until the 1960s. With 50 per cent alcohol, grappa was a hard drink and people used to drink it to flavour the hot coffee. When Sandro Bottega took over Alexander Bottega, he changed the whole business with new packaging. It was in the 1980s when he started working towards giving a new look to grappa. And now most of the Alexander Bottega grappa has 33 per cent alcohol. Reduction of alcohol percentage allowed Sandro to sell grappa not only to men but also to women and young people who can now buy grappa as a gift. So, the packaging, the taste, the presentation combined, opened doors for the company and helped it enter the duty free retail market.

Distilleria Bottega sales around 6 million bottles of grappa out of which 60 per cent is to the export markets and 20 per cent to duty-free. We export to more than 100 countries including Germany, US, Canada, Japan. Asia is a fast moving market with special focus on Russia, Brazil and India which has the potential to become the number one market very soon. The growth has been around 27 per cent in export markets adds Sandro. In last 7 years the growth has been of 300 per cent.

Distilleria Bottega is now the biggest in grappa production and the most popular grappa brand in airlines and hotel business. The bottle, the label and the quality of the product inside does wonder for the company, says Sandro