An extraordinary single vintage grappa from the trailblazing Marolo distillery, found in the Piedmont area of Northern Italy.

Made with pomace of Nebbiolo grapes used to make Barolo wine, that was harvested and distilled in 1985. The pomace has been gently distilled in bain marie stills.

Things get even more interesting with the spirit’s maturation. Not only is this a single vintage grappa, but it is the product of just two barrels, number 1217 and 1240, which are rather mysteriously listed as being “of different kinds of wood”. The batch appears to be separated by which barrel it was matured in, with this bottling coming from number 1240.

Bottled in 2012, the bottle has been aged for 27 years, and extraordinarily long time for grappa to mature, and has produced a spirit of near-unparalleled complexity.

This grappa offers flavours of tobacco, herbs, peppery alcoholic spice, baked apple with cinnamon and raisins, walnut, hazelnut and almond, jammy berries, liquorice, anise, floral hone, warm wood, pot-pourri, dried cherries and prunes.

Bottled at 50% ABV, this ensures these flavours can full express themselves on the palate.

Just 516 bottles are available, each of which has been hand labelled, and is finished with Marolo’s classic kingfisher motif.

• Distillery / brand
  Marolo
• Country
  Italy
• Bottler
  Distillery Bottling
• Distillation date
  1985
• Non-chillfiltered
  No
• Natural colour
  No
• SKU
  034158