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The history of Grappa Poli is a family history. It began in 1898 when the progenitor Giobatta, producer of straw hats with a passion for marc brandy, decided to install a small distillery on his cart with which to go from house to house. To treasure that simple but at the same time brilliant idea, he thought about it, his son, Giovanni, who decided to expand his father’s distillery by obtaining a new distillation system from the wood-fired steamer of a locomotive. Cultured and progressive Giovanni always turned his gaze towards the future and technological innovations such as the first cars and the telephone. He was responsible for the desire to transform the distillery, based in Schiavon municipality near Bassano del Grappa in Veneto, into a large company now known all over the world.
Giovanni passed down his innovative ideas to his son Antonio, known as Toni, a free-spirited lover of mechanics who, before continuing the legacy left by his father, traveled half the world aboard a red Guzzi motorcycle. In fact, Toni Poli had a dream: to reach the North Cape aboard his motorcycle. He left in 1951 and, after 10,000 kilometers, reached Norway before starting the long journey that brought him back home and to the head of the family business. That adventure relives today in the flavor of a special aperitif called Red Airone. Furthermore, Toni Poli was responsible for the modification, in 1956, of the original plant of the distillery which is still used today by his sons Jacopo, Giampaolo, Barbara and Andrea to produce grappa, fruit distillates, wine, gin, liqueurs. and grappa liqueurs. The building that houses the distillery and the museum, which contains a collection with over 1500 historical grappas, is a typical Venetian rural house, but what makes it unique is the distillation system present inside. The alembic of the Poli company, in fact, is among the oldest still functioning in Italy and is made up of copper boilers. As per tradition, it works with steam and the processing cycle is discontinuous as the marc is loaded into the boilers every two hours, which is the time required for distillation.
In the rooms of the museum, however, you can discover the origins of distillation, the raw materials and the methods with which they are worked together with the history of the Poli family and the generations of workers who have contributed, with passion and humility, to making this company unique in the its kind distilling in addition to grappa also a culture with an ancient charm and an authentic flavor.
In addition to the Schiavon headquarters, Poli Distilleria has also opened a museum in the historic center of Bassano del Grappa where you can discover how the history of grappa blends with alchemy.
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