was in the middle of a pandemic-fueled cooking binge of specialties from Southern Italy’s Puglia region when he decided he could do better than the typical flour in his pantry. The 58-year-old Grillo felt compelled to sample an ancient wheat he had been reading about, one that makes the only bread in the world with its own protected designation of origin.
Bootstrapping the second phase came with some big decisions, such as holding off on building their own distillery in Puglia due to the expense. For its initial production runs, Altamura vodka has been distilled by an independent manufacturer in Poland, using the wheat shipped directly from Italy, but that will change. The business now leases space in Ostuni as a distribution center. The facility will also soon house Altamura’s gin experiment.
Altamura Distilling is, of course, a long way from any kind of exit, but its already quite profitable.estimates that the brand has more than 50% net profit margins, though it’s very early in the startup journey. “Making vodka is the easiest thing we do,” says Grillo, who now resides in the Pugliese town of 36,000 called Francavilla Fontana.distilling, he says, such as securing bottles and boxes.
“It was never in the culture here to look at wheat as something you would boil and distill,” says Grillo. In New York City, Tokyo-born mixologist Takuma Watanabe has paired the vodka with avocado and lime. “Compared to other vodka, it has texture, and it’s smoother,” says Watanabe, the co-founder and beverage director at downtown Manhattan bars Martiny’s and L’Americana. “Because of the texture, once we shake it, it gets more body.”
He settled on three distillations and five filtrations. Because Altamura’s durum wheat is much starchier than northern varieties of soft winter wheat, there’s a sweetness and creaminess to Altamura vodka—unlike other traditional vodka brands.