Hyper-Local Cugini Grappa Launching This Week

​First cousins Matt McNally (chef of Laurel's Catering in North Beach) and Tony DiTocco (a lawyer living in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) grew up in a giant Italian family near Boston. Last year, the cousins were swapping family stories, and one of the topics that came up was their grandfather's habit of distilling grappa in his basement. McNally and DiTocco decided to restart the family pastime. This week, the two, working with McNally's partner, Laurel Timms, released their first 700 bottles of Cugini Grappa.

Produced by Mountain View distillery Essential Spirits, Cugini ("cousins" in Italian) is made with pommace from Cabernet grapes from the Stag's Leap appellation in Napa. The pommace ― or skins, seeds, and stems left over from pressing wine grapes ― is distilled in a French copper alembic, then bottled unaged.
 
Not surprisingly, the most complicated part of getting up and running was securing state permits, a process that had McNally and Timms posting 30-day notices on their apartment door in North Beach and reassuring the neighbors that they didn't have a still going in the kitchen. Now that the grappa is out, the partners have secured a distributor and are now approaching stores and restaurants. Their first restaurant client: Cyrus in Healdsburg. They're hoping that customers will drink the grappa like their grandfather did, as an after-dinner digestif, as well as in cocktails; the Web site gives recipes for Cugini Martinis and Cugini Mojitos. Since the grappa isn't yet available from any San Francisco liquor stores, contact McNally directly to secure a bottle (through Cugini's distributor). The suggested retail price is $42.99.