The first distillery in Italy. Let yourself be surprised by the bicentennial history of a family whose name, through centuries and generations, has become synonymous with a product, an icon of an entire nation.
Son of Bortolo Nardini and Maria Maddalena Giacomuzzi, Bortolo Nardini was born on 25 May 1739 in Segonzano (Tn) in the Cembra Valley. In the country with an ancient winemaking tradition, it was a widespread practice to distil the pomace to obtain a source of income and sustenance. At the time the distillers moved from house to house, with a mobile still, to distil the pomace deriving from the production of wine "for third parties" and Bortolo Nardini, having undertaken this "job", went as far as Bassano del Grappa.
Pushed as far as Bassano del Grappa, Bortolo Nardini was the victim of an accident that forced him to stop in the city. During his convalescence, he had the opportunity to get to know Bassano better and to understand its strategic importance as a commercial crossroads between Valsugana and Venice. With a precise vision and the tenacious will to turn it into reality, he bought the Osteria al Ponte, today “Grapperia Nardini”, to produce grappa with a still on a permanent plant and resell it.
For the first time it was no longer the distiller, with his mobile still, who went to the farmers to distill but the farmers themselves gave him the pomace for the production of grappa. Bortolo calls his grappa "Aquavite di marc", in the Latin way without the "c", playing on the etymology that sometimes wants it to be "aqua of life" other "aqua of the vine". The first grappa of Italy is born, Grappa Nardini.
The new generation of Nardini: Bortolo, Orazio, Mario, brings an important innovation: the reserve grappa, “Aged in oak barrels like cognac”. Grappa Nardini Riserva is born.
