Grappa

John: This is a screwball one. You’ve got to listen carefully, because I consider this a secret. The quality of this product is generally terrible, and unless you’re clued in one way or another, you will never drink this stuff. It’s called grappa.

Adam: Who hasn’t had grappa?

John: A lot of people have had grappa. I’ve had plenty of grappa, and I’ll give you the story. I was probably in the late ’80s, maybe the early ’90s. I was in New York, going to a restaurant—I think it was called City Hall. It was a famous restaurant at the time. We had a sommelier, and I always get along with sommeliers because they size you up. If they figure you know what you’re doing, they give you the good wine. So at the end of the meal, the guy—he was French, which added some impact—says, “What would you like to do after dinner?” I said, “Yeah, I’m a cognac guy.” So he says, “Oh, you like cognac.” And then he asks, “Do you ever have grappa?” I said, “Yeah, I’ve had grappa. Everyone’s had grappa. It’s terrible.” Because most grappa is terrible.

Adam: Most grappa tastes like toilet water

John: Or kerosene, or fusel, or turpentine. Depends.

He says, “Oh really? Well, I’ve got a grappa here I want you to try. And if you don’t like it, you can just give it back. You don’t have to pay for it.” That’s always a deal. Of course then he caught me on the thing. So he brings out this grappa, and it was fabulous. That’s when I realized grappa has a protective layer of lousy grappa that keeps people from getting to the good stuff. They make so little of the good stuff they don’t need a run on it like Scotch, where prices go to $500 a bottle.

Adam: It’s a protection racket.

John: It’s Italian.

Adam: Yes, of course. Protection racket. Gotcha.

JOhn: So I have a couple of grappa brands that are universally good. One in particular always gets 98 or 100 points from everybody. You’ll be able to find it if you dig around enough. You’re not going to get it at Costco. We had it last night—or the night before, on Friday night. All we could do was talk about it and marvel over the grappa. It was unbelievable. When you have a good grappa, it’s a phenomenal product. It’s hard to explain unless you’ve had a good one, but when you do, it’s just so good. It’s made from garbage, basically.

And it takes super skill to make it. Jacopo Poli. This guy’s grappa is always getting 98 or 100 points from all the tasters. Killer grappa. If you go right to that, you’ll never drink the junk again. I have a backup brand, which is good, but it’s not up to this. This one is ridiculously good. The backup brand is Lorenzo Inga. You’ll find this pretty commonly. They make a line of grappas based on various areas where they get the leftover stuff to make it. Very good.

Adam: That is a very good tip. I have a comment and a request. First, I need to tell you that last night we took our final Bordeaux from the Costco crate to dinner, and people were like, “Wow, this is so good.”

John: You’re talking about the Bordeaux 2022?

Adam: Yep.

Second, last year when Tina and I were in Florence—because we were visiting Willow for Christmas—we went into this little restaurant the first or second night. Nobody was in there. Completely empty. One of those small places on a side street. We sit in the back, all lovey-dovey, Florence is beautiful, the lights, not a lot of tourists because it was cold. The owner was a young guy who had just opened the place with four friends. He says, “Can I give you some grappa for dessert?” I’m thinking, garbage, just like you said. But I wanted the kid to feel good about his purchase, so I said sure. Same experience—fantastic. He said his dad makes it in the bathtub. I said “With your dad in it?”

“No.” But it was good grappa. I completely agree. I’m going to try some of this.

John: If you can get to this one brand, this holy stuff is so outrageous it’ll stop the meal. It stops the show. Total showstopper.

Adam: Now, a request. Because it is the season, I don’t know if you’re going to recommend brands or a recipe, but I’d love for you to do eggnog on the next show.

John: Eggnog I can do. The problem is we have an eggnog issue at the family level.

Adam: You have too many eggs—you can’t even make eggnog.

John: We’ve got plenty of eggs. My wife has a recipe for eggnog from her dad. It has to be an heirloom recipe. That’s bullcrap. Absolute bullcrap.

Adam: We don’t want the bullcrap, we want the best. We want the primo stuff. Bring your eggnog recipe. Everybody’s ready for it.