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Raising Italian Spirits

Calls to Legalize Homemade Grappa

Two Italian senators want to make the Italian moonshine known as grappa legal. The step would keep homemade booze drinkers safe and protect commercial grappa outfits, they say.

It may soon be legal for Italians to brew their own highly alcoholic grappa at home -- at least if two of the country's senators have their way. On Tuesday Enrico Montani and Sergio Divina began their campaign to legalize the homemade production of the clear grape-based spirit.

The senators presented a bill which would allow Italians to brew the liquor at home in quantities up to 30 liters so long as they comply with hygiene requirements and do not sell it, the Italian news agency ANSA reports.

"The tradition has hardly disappeared," the senators said. Many Italians secretly distill grappa at home. The drink is made using the grape skins, pits, and stalks remaining in the wine press after grape juice has been carted away to make wine. Grappa originated in Northeast Italy, and is usually served in coffee or as a digestive after large meals.

Montani and Divina cited neighboring Austria, where it is legal to brew liquors at home, as a precedent. Moonshine is common, though mostly illegal, in other European countries. The Irish make potato-based poitín, the Germans produce their own berry-based liqueurs, Romanians go for plum brandy, while the Swiss and French favor wormwood-laced absinthe.

But imbibe at your own risk. The term "blind drunk" dates back to early moonshine accidents. People brewing rot-gut in their bathtubs run the risk of sending alcohol content through the roof or creating poisonous mixtures through measurement and heating mistakes. Even commercially-made grappa is between 50 and 80 percent alcohol by volume and burns on the way down. Italian writer Italo Calvino labelled it "suitable only for defrocked priests, unemployed bookkeepers and husbands who have been cuckolded."

The senators contend their plan would not only increase safety for home brewers but also help protect authorized grappa producers. The liquor accounts for 20 percent of the Italian spirits market, and is produced in some 140 distilleries. Homemade grappa, if legalized, would only be consumed on the brewing premises.

Montani and Divina are members of the Northern League, a populist party that advocates autonomy for Northern Italy and has been accused of racism as a result of their anti-immigrant platform. The party received 8 percent of the popular vote in the April election that returned Silvio Berlusconi to power.

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