Grappa Advent Calendar with Chocolate

Grappa Advent calendar with chocolate. Four bottles of Diciotto Lune, 24 dark chocolate squares.

Grappa Advent calendar with chocolate is Marzadro's Advent calendar for adults, featuring four barrel-aged grappas of 200 ml each and 24 dark chocolate squares. No 24 miniatures, no calendar with chocolates, no unrelated spirits sampler.

Grappa Advent calendar with chocolate is a spirits Advent calendar from Distilleria Marzadro in Trentino, combining four grappas from the Le Diciotto Lune range with 24 dark chocolate squares in four cocoa levels. Otherwise, a spirits Advent calendar means 24 tiny bottles, each providing two sips, none long enough to get to know. Here it is the other way around. Behind the doors is chocolate, and the four full bottles sit open in the box, so you can decide every evening which grappa goes with which square. A countdown becomes a tasting that lasts throughout December.

One grappa, three barrels, four characters

All four grappas in the calendar are Le Diciotto Lune, a grappa stravecchia aged for 18 months in small barrels made of cherry, ash, oak, and robinia. Three of them are additionally aged in barrels that previously held port wine, whisky, or rum.

The classic Diciotto Lune at 41% ABV is amber-colored, soft and spicy, with vanilla and dried fruit and a silky, warm finish. The Riserva Botte Porto at 42% ABV brings dark fruit from the port wine barrel, plum and berries, and feels the roundest on the palate. The Riserva Botte Whisky adds a smoky edge and toffee, the Riserva Botte Rum cane sugar and exotic fruit. The differences are distinct but not overpowering, as the house lets the wood season rather than dominate.

Anyone who appreciates a clear, unaged grappa with fresh grape and pomace fruit will find the four barrel variants too soft and too sweet in the aroma. The calendar is intended for lovers of aged spirits, not purists of white grappa.

One square, one glass, different every evening

The 24 squares come in four stages of six each: dark chocolate with 64%, 71%, and 85% cocoa, as well as a dark chocolate with honey. This allows the four grappas to be recombined every evening.

A suggestion for the first week: The 64% squares with the classic Diciotto Lune, because the mild chocolate picks up the vanilla of the barrel. The 71% with the Botte Porto, whose fruit balances the bitterness of the cocoa. The 85% with the Botte Whisky, because smoke and bitterness support each other. The honey square with the Botte Rum, where cane sugar and honey meet. The square comes first, then a small sip at 16 to 18 °C from a bulbous glass that narrows towards the top. A goblet like the calibrated liqueur glass is sufficient; a cognac snifter is too wide.

From experience: Do not put the chocolate in the refrigerator; it loses its melt and fogs up. A grappa from the freezer completely seals its barrel aromas. If you open the calendar with two people, you have one square per evening for two small pieces, which is barely enough; a second calendar or a bar of the same variety solves this. The calendar is not suitable for children at the table, as the chocolate is also in the same box as the bottles.

After December 24, there is still plenty of 150 ml left in each bottle. The Botte Porto then accompanies blue cheese and walnuts, the Botte Rum a chocolate cake, the Botte Whisky a cigar or simply the evening, and the classic Diciotto Lune an espresso, two centiliters poured directly into the cup as a Trentino-style caffè corretto.

Eighteen moons in Nogaredo

Distilleria Marzadro was founded in 1949 by Attilio Marzadro and his sister Sabina in Trentino's Brancolino and has been distilling in nearby Nogaredo since 2005. The Le Diciotto Lune range owes its name to the 18 full moons that pass during barrel aging.

The pomace, i.e., the pressed berry skins, seeds, and remains of the winemaking process, comes from five Trentino grape varieties: Marzemino, Teroldego, Merlot, Muscateller, and Chardonnay. Marzadro distills continuously, the bladders are filled one after another and heated in a water bath so that the pomace does not burn and the fruit aromas are preserved. After distilling, the distillate goes into small barrels made of four woods, each giving something unique: cherry color and sweetness, ash structure, oak vanilla and spice, robinia a light, almost floral note. For the three Riservas, a limited number of used port wine, whisky, and rum barrels follow, giving the grappa its second character.

Today, Andrea, Anna, and Stefano Marzadro lead the house in the third generation. Behind some of the doors of the calendar are QR codes that lead to tasting videos from the distillery. Anyone who wants one of the Riservas in a large bottle afterwards will find it under our grappas from Trentino.

An Advent calendar that continues after Christmas

The unusual thing about this calendar is the division: The chocolate sets the daily pace, the grappa remains. Four 200 ml bottles together make 800 ml, more than a standard bottle, and none of them is empty on December 24. The 200 ml bottle is also the format in which Marzadro bottles his grappas for tasting, with the same bottling as the large bottle.

As a gift, it is aimed at people who already like grappa and are interested in barrel aging, whether as a thank you to colleagues, an Advent package for parents, or for a friend who gets the same calendar every year. The blue box with the starry sky stands under the tree without packaging. Anyone looking for a selection without chocolate will be better served by the grappa tasting set with five miniatures.

Twenty-four evenings with chocolate and four grappas that are in no hurry to be emptied.