Gentian grappa is a spirit made from the roots of the plant, which are gathered in the pastures in late summer and in any case always once the plant's life cycle is complete. The root of this species is an intense yellow, with a taproot shape. After gathering it must be cleaned without using any water, preferably with a small brush to remove the earth and dust. The root, cleaned in this way, must then be cut into small pieces and then dried for a long time so as to concentrate the bitter principles. Once the root is dry, you can go on to preparing the grappa.
The proportions for making gentian-flavoured grappa are 20 grams of already dried root for each litre of grappa.
Put the dried root inside a bottle with a couple of spoonfuls of sugar for each litre of grappa. Choose a good grappa for macerating the gentian. Close the bottle with a good cork and leave it to rest in the sun for two weeks. Once this first maceration is over, you move on to maturing the liquid, keeping it for two months in a cellar.
As for the flavour, since gentian is rather bitter, it is advisable to prepare several bottles with different quantities of gentian (e.g.: 15-20-25 g of gentian per litre of grappa).
The right moment to stop the maceration is decided by tasting the different concentrations of gentian again and again. Once you have obtained the flavour you like best, you can stop the maceration for good by filtering the liquid obtained.
Finally, according to your own taste, you can add honey rather than sugar. Should the grappa be too bitter, you can use it to cut a few glasses of wine and drink it as an excellent and highly effective aperitif.
Sources:
- La mia Grappa – Marco Simonetti – Luigi Reverdito Editore
- Come fare liquori d’erbe e Grappe Medicinali – Various authors - Demetra Editore
- Enciclopedia della cucina italiana – Vol. 16 – DeAgostini Editore for Gruppo Editoriale l’Espresso.