The Nonino family have been making grappa in the region for more than 100 years, originally from a mobile still before they founded the distillery in 1897 in the village of Percoto.



Grappa and Aquavita were traditionally made from the distillation of the pomace (skins, seeds, stems and pulp) left after winemaking, these remains were carelessly handled and stored as wine was the prime product ,often uncontrolled fermentation had already begun by the time the distillers received the pomace.



In 1973 Nonino revolutionised the industry when they produced the first single varietal grappa by distilling the pomace of the Picolit grape on its own. An important factor was the freshness of the pomace which was used as soon as the wine was pressed; Nonino were prepared to pay 5 times as much for the pomace to ensure they got it immediately. To highlight the quality of this new style grappa they presented it in the most refined and beautiful bottles which soon caught they eye of distillers worldwide. They continue to innovate and in 1984 they produced a new grappa distilled from the whole grape, once again other distillers were compelled to follow the Noninos’ example.



We visited the distillery accompanied by Antonella, one of the 3 daughters of Benito and Giannola who are all involved in the Family business, there are over 50 individual copper stills as each single varietal needs its’ own still and Benito has constructed each one by hand himself!

We toured the facility and Antonella took us through the whole grappa making process, the pride and passion shown in their product is evident everywhere, no wonder a Nonino grappa was the only grappa present in Forbes Magazine’s top 10 spirits in the World in 2008 (Nonino Grappa Cru Montevitigno Picolit).

Before dinner we visited the tasting rooms, once the family home, where we tasted a few brilliant and rare grappas. Throughout the afternoon children and grandchildren drifted in to say ciao, and feeling somewhat light headed and one drink short of delirious, we headed for dinner.

We arrived in Trieste airport from Leeds at Midday and the torrential rain and notoriously bad drainage on the roads nearly fooled us into thinking we really were in Venice as Ryanair leads people to believe (Venice is, in fact, about an hour away on the Barzi bus service from the airport; easy and just 5 euro).

Our trip was to include visits to our prosciutto maker, Testa e Molinari, Giovanni Piuatti’s new state of the art winery and Nonino – one of the oldest grappa distilleries in the area. We were joined on this mission by Dan, Paul and Shery from the dining room teams who were all on their first trip to Italy.

Our first stop was Udine, a hour or so’s drive away and home to the Nonino family, distillers since 1897 and credited with revolutionising the industry when they created their single varietal grappa ‘Montevitigno Nonino’ in the early 70’s.
We arrived at the hotel, Casa Orter, in sleepy Risano on the southern edge of town and sat down to a late lunch.
Annalisa Gon and Roberto Verzegnassi were both classical musicians before they channelled their creativity into Casa Orter, 12 characteristic rooms in an 18th century farmhouse with an elegant restaurant inside the courtyard.
Annalisa asked if we just wanted a little snack as Antonella Nonino had pre warned her that she had organised dinner for us for later in the day, we snorted in derision and asked for LUNCH! The full bag o nails as we had been travelling since early morning and we were desperate for a nice glass of vino and some local chow.

Lunch was an absolute delight! We started by nibbling a few crostini topped with ossocollo, a local type of cured pork neck seasoned with cloves and nutmeg, a bit of Austrian influence from up the road coming into play as the border is very close.

The white asparagus were picked 20 metres away just behind the hotel and served simply with a fine boiled egg salad: this was followed by a very fresh and crumbly cow's milk ricotta with a local green called, in dialect, sclopitt’ accompanied by celery conserve and thin shards of cured horsemeat which is consumed freely around Friuli.

The room was spacious and elegantly set up, complete with a Grand piano and Harp, which Annalisa kindly played for us while we enjoyed our lunch – she is a fantastic musician by the way!
For the pasta course Roberto prepared some ricotta filled hearts with mozzarella di bufola and tomatoes and we followed with ‘bocconcini di arista ripieni’ creamily stuffed and crumbed saddle of pork with a balsamic reduction and tomato salad.

The wines were all local and included the intriguingly named Rsgialla from LaTunella, a Sauvignon from Villa Russiz and a fine Merlot dai Colli Orientali del Friuli Specogna.

The afternoon sailed by in a warm haze and as we had only an hour left before our first meeting we only managed a light dessert of chilled kiwi soup with strawberries and a quick coffee before we were on our way to the distillery.

The rooms, hospitality and food at this little hotel was quite charming and as we departed I was soon daydreaming in the car about returning for dinner with my wife for a weekend of great music, food, wine and hospitalty.

www.casaorter.it

Lower Manhattan has changed a heck of a lot since I stayed there in the late 70's. The seedy dive we stayed at on Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village is now a boutique hotel and the mouldy cross legged cross eyed hippy singing 'For what it's worth' in the park has finally learnt all the words.

On day 4 we finally crumbled under the daughters mysterious and incessant suggestion to visit the Meatpacking district for dinner, you needed nerves of steel wandering around those streets back in the day so I had no idea that Sex and the City, The Hills and Diane Von Furstenberg had made it a very trendy area full of bars, restaurants and clubs with no name - complete with aloof gorillas and sexy bored clipboard girls. Trendy -you betcha, hip- I think that's gone with the wind, maybe uptown to Hell’s Kitchen. By 9 pm the place was buzzing and loud chatter filled the air like crickets in the trees on that romantic holiday, with the beautifuls on one side of the clipboards and the tragics and tourists on the other.



Macelleria, Italian for butchers shop, is a handsome restaurant situated in an old butchers wholesalers on Gansevoort street and while we were waiting for our table at the bar the daughter spotted Hilary Swank, a proper Hollywood actress, eating tiramisu and strudel which confirmed she was in the right neighbourhood.

The menu here has a Tuscan slant and we supped a decent bottle of Morellino di Scansano Barbi while we ordered mozzarella di bufola with Parma ham, Tyrol speck with truffled pecorino, grilled baby squid with chilli and some littleneck clams to share. I was surprised at the quality of the produce - superb, and that included great sourdough and a can of Sicilian olive oil on the table. For mains we chose aubergines (eggplant in the U.S) alla Parmigiana, chicken alla diavola (organic) and linguine alle vongole with broccoli rabe and some salad. Again, with the exception of a flat (no pun) and ordinary linguine, the dishes were well cooked, delicious and the most authentic Italian Italian I have ever eaten in the U.S.A.... ever in 20 or so visits. The strudel with cinnamon ice was also a hit and I finished off with the best (i kid you not espresso outside of Italy. The dining room staff were subdued but pleasant enough and a mistake by the waitress was quickly sorted to everyone’s satisfaction.

All in all this was a brilliant New York experience and a million miles away from the weird, often awful, red sauce and sausage, thick crust thin crust, doggie bag nonsense so prevalent on these shores.
Dinner came in at just a few dimes short of 200 bucks + tip for 3 of us which I thought was excellent NYC value for money.

On the subject of Downtown, Italians and that New York atmosphere, another place we enjoyed was Arturo's pizzeria in the Soho/Greenwich Village area
It's a crowded little place on the corner of Houston and Broadway that bake a decent pizza in a coal oven, we shared a large one between 4 of us with some salads and listened to a cool New York jazz quartet as we watched kooky downtown walk by and the barman who really did look and sound like an extra from the Soprano's chatting to the locals drinking and eating at the bar while watching some kind of sport on the TV, I think it was rounders but men were playing it.

The boss (I think) was charming and crumpled Moustache Pete type with an accent and a stoop; after he took our order into the kitchen he grabbed a mike and joined the band - and boy the boss could swing! I was gobsmacked and delighted.



Dining here is not about the food, which is rather basic, but the wonderful friendly old school vibe. This is another fabulous value for money NYC experience.

Our piglet, a fine saddleback , was born Christmas day 2009 on Swillington organic farm right here in Leeds. We shall call it Natale, the name of Auntie Iolanda's late husband and also the Italian word for Christmas,



Jo, who runs the farm, will raise Natale outdoors on grassland for us but we shall be visiting regularly to monitor his progress, in fact everyone is welcome to go and see him and the rest of this working organic farm - a word of advice - don't wear the brand new white leather trainers you just got on special offer at TK Maxx as the pigs seem to like nibbling them and they will only be fit for the bin afterwards - I know this from bitter experience!

We hope to make our own prosciutto and salami with the help of our local catering college, (Thomas Danby campus at Leeds City College), and also we shall be celebrating pork in all it's glory with a special dinner in the salumeria sometime in September where we shall utilise everything the noble beast has to offer.

Swillington Organic Farm is a wonderful Leeds resource where it is possible to buy 'shares' in a pig or even the pre - Victorian Walled Orchard so as the vegetables come into season you get a share of them when they are at their best.
What a great idea and you get amazing award winning produce to boot! For more info on Community Supported Agriculture see their website http://swillingtonorganicfarm.co.uk/csa.html

The walled orchard was in a state of severe disrepair until the farm started restoration work. It had two walls of brick, like double glazing I suppose, with fires lit in the cavities to heat the wall and provide a better climate for the fruit trees.It's very interesting to see how different methods were used in the past to ensure we got our 5 a day, now the kiss ass government subsidies to International big business (hey Farmer Gilles - forget it, there's nowt for you in the pot) means we can fly apples all the way from New Zealand and they are as cheap as ones grown at the bottom of my garden - what a crying shame the only incentive local farmers have to grow nice things is.......... I don't really know of any - does anyone?