A first-generation distillery in Prosecco country.

Distilleria Castagner is a young house in an old trade. Its website says the story began in 1996, when the master distiller Roberto Castagner founded the distillery that bears his name at Visnà di Vazzola, in the province of Treviso; in September 2026 Milano Finanza reported that the company was celebrating thirty years of activity that year. The distillery lies at the foot of the Prosecco hills of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene, near the Scuola Enologica Cerletti, the Conegliano wine school where, the company says, Castagner himself graduated.

The company states its aim plainly: to bring innovation to the world of grappa and to make the spirit a symbol of a modern Made in Italy, on a par with international spirits. On its website Castagner calls becoming a distiller “the fundamental decision of my life,” a choice, he says, made out of real passion and a love of the trade.

Patience was part of the plan. From the first year, the company says, part of the production was set aside to age, and its barrel room — which it calls its “caveau,” or vault — now holds almost 3,000 barriques of cherry wood and oak, with grappas resting there from 12 months up to 23 years. Those early casks supply the top of the range today: the company sells a Riserva 23 anni and a Riserva 25 anni, which it describes as grappa set aside for long ageing at the start of the founder’s career.

Acquavite and the machinery of grappa.

The business is run through Acquavite S.p.A., the company named on the grappacastagner.it website. Milano Finanza reported in September 2026 that Distilleria Castagner belongs to Acquavite and named Roberto Castagner as its founder, master distiller and chief executive. The company’s own pages describe Castagner as the founder of Acquavite and the oenologist Bernardo Piazza as a partner and its chairman. The founder, the website says, remains at the centre of the business, now joined by a second generation of the family.

Castagner has built its reputation on process. From the 2017 harvest, the news agency 9colonne reported in March 2023, the distillery has used a “Buccia Pura” system — pure skin — that separates the seeds and stalks from the grape skins before distillation. Milano Finanza describes a patented method, Grappasystem, that keeps the pomace at a controlled temperature and pressure, and reports that the seeds separated from Pinot and Glera pomace are sold to a French pharmaceutical company.

The Prosecco country around it shapes the products. Grappa Prosecco Ice is a clear grappa made from Glera, the Prosecco grape, which the company says is meant to be kept in the freezer and served ice-cold, and is distilled three times from skins with the seeds removed.

The range is wide. Fuoriclasse Leon is the brand the company reserves for bars, hotels and restaurants, with a Prosecco grappa, grappas from Amarone and Brunello di Montalcino pomace, aged grappas from three to 20 years and Amaro Leon, which it says uses more than 45 botanicals. Barrique di Ciliegio ages grappa in cherry wood, a timber the company says is rarely used for a spirit’s whole ageing because it gives so much to it and loses more to evaporation. There are also a vermouth, a bitter flavoured with Treviso radicchio, and low- and no-alcohol aperitifs under the Casta and Robì names.

Grappa and its houses.

The seven brands in this group are all Italian grappa names: Berta, Mazzetti d’Altavilla, Marzadro, Bocchino, Sibona, Castagner and Bonollo. Grappa is a spirit distilled from pomace, the skins, seeds and pulp left over once grapes have been pressed for wine, so a grappa house depends on the wineries around it, and its range is often organised by grape variety, by the wine the pomace came from, or by how long the spirit has spent in wood.

Many grappa houses still carry a family name, and several of the brands here are linked to the northern regions where much of Italy’s grappa is made, including Veneto, Trentino and Piedmont. A family name on a label does not on its own say who owns the business today, where the pomace is distilled or where the bottles are filled, and a single surname can belong to more than one company.

Each guide separates what independent sources record from what the company says about itself — its founding story, its owners over time, where its grappa is distilled and how its bottles and labels have changed — and marks plainly what rests only on the company’s own word.

A founder’s name, a prize and a squirrel.

Castagner’s identity is built around its founder. His title, “Mastro Distillatore,” runs through the company’s website; its top collection is called “Le mie eccellenze” — “my excellences” — and the MIA Amarone cuvée is presented as his personal selection from the casks of Amarone grappa.

The word “fuoriclasse” — a champion, someone in a class of their own — does double duty. It names the Fuoriclasse Leon range and the Premio Fuoriclasse, a prize the company says Roberto Castagner devised in 2006 to honour, each year, an Italian whose talent has made them a point of reference in a field from art and fashion to sport and science. Its jury, the company says, is made up of 42 honorary Fuoriclasse and a selection committee; the list on its website includes the winemaker Angelo Gaja and the philosopher Massimo Cacciari, a former mayor of Venice.

One line ties its packaging to a place. Agadeìta is made from grapes grown in the province of Belluno and carries the “Grappa Vigneti delle Dolomiti” name; the company says its name, label and packaging were designed to tell the story of that territory, and that it carries the “Cortina” mark with its squirrel, granted by the town of Cortina to link the grappa to the culture of the Ampezzo valley.

For a design guide, Castagner shows how a first-generation distillery can build a brand on a founder’s title and a single wood. Compare Nardini, the grappa house on the bridge at Bassano in the same region, and Mionetto, a Valdobbiadene Prosecco house from the same hills. For this guide we use cherry-wood red, barrique oak and a pale Prosecco gold with a serif, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep Castagner’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.