The Nonino Prize, often anticipating Nobel winners, taking place at the historic Nonino family distilleries

The Nonino Prize is one of the longest-running and most prestigious awards in Italy. It was an innovative prize established in 1975 by the Nonino family to give value to rural civilization and to save the ancient native Friulian vines in danger of extinction. Since then, it has been awarded to the most influential personalities in the cultural, literary and food and wine fields. To its merit the prize has anticipated the Nobel Prizes six times over the years, awarding the Guatemalan pacifist leader Rigoberta Menchù (Nonino Special Prize in 1988 and Nobel Peace Prize in 1992), the Trinidadian naturalized British writer V.S. Naipaul (Nonino International Prize in 1993 and Nobel Prize for Literature in 2001), the Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer (Nonino International Prize in 2004 and Nobel Prize for Literature in 2011), the Chinese writer Mo Yan (Nonino International Prize 2005 and Nobel Prize for Literature in 2012), the British physicist Peter Higgs (Nonino Prize “A Master of our Time” and Nobel Prize for Physics in 2013) and the Italian physicist Giorgio Parisi (Nonino Prize “An Italian Master of our Time” in 2005 and Nobel Prize for Physics in 2021). On January 27th, the Nonino Prize will be held at the historic Nonino Distilleries, in Ronchi di Percoto, which invented single-variety grappas. The Distilleries are now led by Benito and Giannola Nonino together with their daughters Cristina, Elisabetta and Antonella, as well as the newest generation, their granddaughter, Francesca Bardelli Nonino.
They have been distillers in Friuli since 1897, but it was in 1973 that Giannola and Benito Nonino created the First Single Grape Variety Grappa, revolutionizing the world of grappa until then little more than a "warmer-up" for the farmers in Northern Italy. They decided, against the customary distillation of pomace mixed and preserved for a long time, to distill in purity the freshly fermented pomace of the most noble grape variety of Friuli, the Picolit.
The Nonino family celebrated fifty years in 2023, and to share the magic of the art of distillation, they transformed the iconic blown glass ampoule of that legendary grappa into a still, a serpentine that connects two dates 1973-2023 and from which a drop comes out. And, it is the same drop of Grappa Picolit that when it flowed from the distillation columns on December 1, 1973, in the presence of Luigi Veronelli, Master of Italian food and wine journalism, made Giannola Nonino scream (“Our Lady of grappa” as the great journalist Gianni Brera called her, who was one of the most revolutionary and volcanic personalities sharing his ideas for the company and for Made in Italy with the most important intellectuals of our era), “Benito, Benito we did it!”. In that drop she had found the scents of quinces and acacia honey, and the emotion she felt for having chosen those vineyards.
An all-Italian saga, consecrated by continuous awards – “Spirit Brand-Distiller of the Year” in 2019 by the influential US magazine, „Wine Enthusiast”, the most important International Wine & Spirits award in the world, first time for Italy and for grappa, the “Best distillery in the world”, and case history study of one of the top academic journals in the world, the “London School of Economics (LSE) Business Review” - always looking to the future and keeping up with the times as few historic brands do.