A First Taste of Grappa
I was at an outdoor family event on a sunny afternoon. There were lots of people there I didn’t know, but they all seemed to know me. Everyone was a close relative on my mother’s side. They were warm, friendly people, and some of them still very old country. Since we were outdoors, it was probably on my great Uncle Tony’s property in Staten Island. Or it could have been upstate in Peekskill. We had relatives there too. I was too young to remember, but it doesn’t matter. I was looking at an interesting old guy. He had white hair and could have been an uncle or cousin. He saw me staring, smiled, and said, “What’s your name?” He looked all right to me, so I told him it was Robert.
“Ah!” he said, “Concetta’s little boy.”
That threw me because I knew whose little boy I was, and it wasn’t Concetta. Besides, “Ma,” my mother’s name was “Connie,” so he must have had me confused with some other kid. I decided to let it go because he seemed like a good guy.
I noticed a small, sort of child-sized glass sitting next to him on the table. It looked like it was filled with water.
He said, “Not water. That’s grappa. You want to taste it?”
He smiled, raised his eyebrows, and nodded to the glass. I picked it up. My father had once given me a sip of beer, and I was interested in trying grappa. When it got near my nose, it smelled so strange I couldn’t believe the aroma was coming from that little glass. I didn’t have words to describe it, but I think of it now as a fermented fruit sort of smell. It wasn’t bad and maybe an indication of how it would taste.
As the grappa touched my lips, it burned a little but not too much. The fruit aroma was gone, and the taste made me think of gasoline. I tried not to show surprise. I didn’t want to act like a little boy in front of this dignified old man. He got me a glass of water.
“You’re a pretty tough kid. I’m not so tough when it comes to Concetta, so don’t tell your mother who gave you your first taste of grappa.” Then he laughed, but I didn’t get the joke and never told my mother either.