The Pilzer distillery was founded in 1957 by Bruno Pilzer’s father. It is situated in the Val di Cembra in the heart of Trentino (not far from Cesconi). The majority of the grapes used in the production of their grappe come from the Val di Cembra or Lavis so are distilled soon after the fermentation is complete. Pilzer looks out for the very best raw materials, saying ‘You cannot make a good grappa from poor grapes’. Another of Pilzer’s ‘secrets’ came from a visit to Scotland many years ago: “I saw that in the production of whisky, they dispensed with the ‘heads’ and ‘tails’ of the distillate, as these contained greater levels of unclean higher alcohols. Although this is not standard in the production of grappa, when we introduced it we found we produced a much cleaner grappa.” Each variety is distilled in a different way in order to retain as much of the character of the grape as possible. The grappe are then held in tank at a high alcohol level until just before bottling to keep them fresh.