"Gentian, Juniper and Masterwort: three distillates encapsulating the spirit of the mountain" by Franco de Battaglia
The pride and joy of typical local products in the Val Rendena (Trentino) is gentian grappa. This is no mere infusion, but a distillate of the fermented root of yellow gentian (Lutea), the magnificent flower adorning the high altitude pastures. Traditionally produced since time immemorial by the Boroni family of Spiazzo Rendena, it is a remarkable product that stands apart from grappas made from distilled grape pomace. As other grappas tell the story, in every single precious drop issuing from the alembic still, of the dry sunlight accumulated by the grapes on the vine, gentian spirit expresses the essence of a mountain wind, and of the almost gruff and unsettling caress of the crests and peaks.
This is not the straightforward dryness of the vine, but the mystery of the essence of roots, of the scent and flavours of the mountain, of pebbles smoothed by glaciers, with nuances of the nearby pines seemingly intertwined with the gentian roots themselves, and evocative sensations of snow melting just before flowering time and of hardy, uncut grass.
Gentian spirit is sipped reverently – it has digestive qualities and carries you away to distant places with its flavour. Distilling it without distorting its flavour, diluting its character or rendering it excessively harsh is an extremely difficult process. Every instant in the distilling process must be painstakingly supervised – but one also needs to know when to let nature take its course, like when a sudden gust of wind surprises you in the saddle of a mountain pass. There are no shortcuts.
The Boroni family, which revived this time-honoured tradition before it fell into disuse, also produces two other exceptional distillates. The first is a rustic juniper distillate, a highly aromatic product with a slight woody aftertaste, evocative of when, during a walk through the woods, you pick a juniper berry and chew it in your mouth. While gentian expresses a sensation of the wind and the sky, juniper embodies the forest.
Then there is masterwort – a distillate produced from an umbelliferous plant with large white flowers and renowned for its calming properties that was very much in vogue in the Nineteenth Century, and which Boroni has resurrected from the past.
This “grappa” is perhaps a little difficult to grasp at the first sip, but by the second it is unquestionably clear that this is a fully rounded distillate – almost the essence of every story of witches, every legend, every apprehension and every adventure and perilous fantasy associated with the mountain. It is almost as if the spirits that still dwell in mountains when the clouds descend from the high valleys and the lightning rains down, have borrowed the great copper cauldrons used by the alpine cheesemakers, and used them to extract all the essences of the mountains, of their deepest soils and of the substrate deposited by the glaciers and enriched by the crushed plants and trees that are reborn here century after century.
With its flavour of the mountain earth, masterwort rewards you with a sensation of almost physical contact with the territory. While gentian expresses the sun and wind, and juniper embodies the scents of the forest, masterwort conveys an impression of the mists, of the unsettling distance of the clouds, of the electric spark of storms and of the tempest through which the mountain is reborn. Enjoying a sip after – perhaps – a dish of polenta in a mountain farm is an initiation rite that re-establishes the ancient pact between mankind and the mountains.
The pride and joy of typical local products in the Val Rendena (Trentino) is gentian grappa. This is no mere infusion, but a distillate of the fermented root of yellow gentian (Lutea), the magnificent flower adorning the high altitude pastures. Traditionally produced since time immemorial by the Boroni family of Spiazzo Rendena, it is a remarkable product that stands apart from grappas made from distilled grape pomace. As other grappas tell the story, in every single precious drop issuing from the alembic still, of the dry sunlight accumulated by the grapes on the vine, gentian spirit expresses the essence of a mountain wind, and of the almost gruff and unsettling caress of the crests and peaks.
This is not the straightforward dryness of the vine, but the mystery of the essence of roots, of the scent and flavours of the mountain, of pebbles smoothed by glaciers, with nuances of the nearby pines seemingly intertwined with the gentian roots themselves, and evocative sensations of snow melting just before flowering time and of hardy, uncut grass.
Gentian spirit is sipped reverently – it has digestive qualities and carries you away to distant places with its flavour. Distilling it without distorting its flavour, diluting its character or rendering it excessively harsh is an extremely difficult process. Every instant in the distilling process must be painstakingly supervised – but one also needs to know when to let nature take its course, like when a sudden gust of wind surprises you in the saddle of a mountain pass. There are no shortcuts.
The Boroni family, which revived this time-honoured tradition before it fell into disuse, also produces two other exceptional distillates. The first is a rustic juniper distillate, a highly aromatic product with a slight woody aftertaste, evocative of when, during a walk through the woods, you pick a juniper berry and chew it in your mouth. While gentian expresses a sensation of the wind and the sky, juniper embodies the forest.
Then there is masterwort – a distillate produced from an umbelliferous plant with large white flowers and renowned for its calming properties that was very much in vogue in the Nineteenth Century, and which Boroni has resurrected from the past.
This “grappa” is perhaps a little difficult to grasp at the first sip, but by the second it is unquestionably clear that this is a fully rounded distillate – almost the essence of every story of witches, every legend, every apprehension and every adventure and perilous fantasy associated with the mountain. It is almost as if the spirits that still dwell in mountains when the clouds descend from the high valleys and the lightning rains down, have borrowed the great copper cauldrons used by the alpine cheesemakers, and used them to extract all the essences of the mountains, of their deepest soils and of the substrate deposited by the glaciers and enriched by the crushed plants and trees that are reborn here century after century.
With its flavour of the mountain earth, masterwort rewards you with a sensation of almost physical contact with the territory. While gentian expresses the sun and wind, and juniper embodies the scents of the forest, masterwort conveys an impression of the mists, of the unsettling distance of the clouds, of the electric spark of storms and of the tempest through which the mountain is reborn. Enjoying a sip after – perhaps – a dish of polenta in a mountain farm is an initiation rite that re-establishes the ancient pact between mankind and the mountains.