The rest of Italy
The autonomous region of Val d’Aosta still enjoys the possibility of producing home-made Grappa, and has only a few distilleries that operate in the sector of quality rather than quantity.
Liguria sends a good part of its excellent marc to the neighbouring Piedmont and has about ten internal firms among direct producers and those that acquire Grappa for bottling.
In Emilia Romagna there are mainly big brandy and liquor labels. Only a few firms distil marc, and the most widely-used distillation system is that with continuous cycle.
In Tuscany, on the other hand, its great wine-making vitality is not matched by the distilling activities. It is not unusual for wineries to have their own marc distilled by outside distilleries, giving rise to various Grappas, sometimes coming out of the same still but with a different label.
Central and Southern Italy do not have the great tradition of the regions in Northern Italy, even if the number of Grappa drinkers is constantly growing. Special mention must be made of the Filu ‘e ferru of the Sardinian tradition, which owes its name to the method used to hide the bottles of bootleg Grappa: the bottles were hidden in the ground with a piece of wire (filu ‘e ferru) tied to the neck and leaving a bit of wire sticking above the ground so that the bottles could be found later.
