Grappa Nonino

Grappa Nonino, a family success story.

Distillers in Friuli since 1897. With heart, spirit, and the tenacity of farmers. An Italian family with the rhythms and roots of rural tradition. Grounded. Tough and uncompromising when it comes to flashy marketing—often true subversives of mainstream production trends.

The Nonino family has transformed grappa—long considered a humble spirit born from winemaking scraps—into a refined, cultural product. In 2019, they became the first Italian distillery and the first grappa brand ever to be named “Best Distillery in the World” by *Wine Enthusiast*. A lifetime of work and passion for distillation led them to spark three major revolutions in the world of spirits:
1. On December 1, 1973, they changed the way grappa was made and perceived by creating the first single-varietal grappa: the Nonino Monovitigno.
2. On November 27, 1984, they made another leap forward, becoming the first to distill whole grapes and creating the Acquavite d’Uva ÙE Picolit.
3. In 2000, after years of research, they introduced GIOIELLO, the distillate of purity—an eau-de-vie made entirely from honey.

For the Nonino family, distillation is a business to be shared daily with a single partner—a majority partner deserving of daily respect and reverence: nature. From the outset, they gave themselves a strict production mandate that leaves no room for commercial shortcuts. Even the structure of their distillery is a love letter to pomace, their prized raw material. Pomace is the most polyphenol- and aroma-rich part of the grape, but it’s also extremely delicate. Just a few hours can lead to undesirable secondary fermentations.

To preserve the freshness of their raw material, the Noninos went against the industry norm of storing and distilling pomace for up to 8 months. Instead, they chose to distill only during the harvest period. That’s why they built a distillery with 66 handcrafted discontinuous stills (compared to the Italian average of 6–12), running 24/7 for just 9 weeks a year.

This is the true Nonino revolution: loving their craft so deeply that they center their lives around the quality of the raw materials they distill—day after day, harvest after harvest. In doing so, they imposed new quality standards on the grappa market, raising the entire category’s status. Today, grappa is a staple of Italian after-dinner enjoyment, on par with global spirits like whisky and cognac.

The path to this prestigious reputation could fill a university course. Take, for example, their creation of a literary prize. Founded in 1975 to save native Friulian grape varieties—Pignolo, Schioppettino, Tazzelenghe, and Ribolla Gialla—which had been made illegal to cultivate, the Nonino Prize evolved into an international award that has anticipated the Nobel Prize six times. A vital cultural contribution, where grappa elegantly found its place alongside global debates on major contemporary issues. And all of this was born from their love of the craft.

In Ronchi di Percoto, just outside Udine, Nonino is now a thriving business with 40 employees and nearly €13 million in annual revenue. Their incredible and complex rise to the Olympus of world spirits began with passion: a family of distillers, in love with the art of distillation for 124 years.