Grappa or water

What kind of drink is Bonasera being served when he can't speak anymore?

Don't know, but probably whiskey, scotch. I don't think it was wine or liquore.

It could have been any spirit--scotch, rye, bourbon, brandy, irish...In the novel, Bonasera doesn't get a drink. But Nazorini the baker gets Strega.

Does anyone know why pre-war scotch was better than post war as Bruno Tattaglia suggests?

It's definetely not whiskey, because it's a clear liquid.
I think it's grappa or another Italian liquor, perhaps the same like Nazorine and Sollozzo.
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Pre-war scotch should be better, because old whiskey is almost always better.
Secondly, I think there was the assumption that anything pre-war was better quality. This was definetely so in Germany, perhaps not so much in the US, since the American economy was not so much affected by the war. But still there might have been some feeling that old stuff is quality stuff.

Bonasera's drink could have been just about anything. It could have been Grappa because Grappa is clear. But I don't see Grappa being something that Vito would keep close at hand.

Pre-war meant that it was aged.

Brown spirits can improve with cask ageing, but do not improve once they're bottled. Sol's little cachet about "pre-war" was meaningless: the scene was set in late 1945. Probably no Scotch had reached America during WWII, so any Scotch on hand had to have been pre-war.

True Scotch is aged for at least 3 years. So Bruno's offer would have been for possibly 4 year old scotch which would not have been all that unusual.

Maybe that's the horse-piss they drink in Texas, but a good scotch is aged a whole lot longer than three years.

Exactly right SC.

Johnnie Walker for example :

Black Label — a blend of about 40 whiskies, each aged at least 12 years.
Gold Label — a rare blend of over 15 single malts, and is bottled at 15 to 18 years.
Blue Label — bottled and aged up to 60 years.

SC, you are usually better at reading posts than many Board members. This is one of those unusual times, however. You might note the phrase "at least" in my previous post. Now, I don't mind pointing our such things to you, but I draw the line at explaining them.

By the way, to carry the "scotch" applellation, one requirement is the three year ageing in a cask. And a good scotch can be had having aged only three years.

Your original post also included a reference of four year old scotch:


That leads me to believe you are referring to a four year old scotch. That's still horse-piss.





See above.

So, what was it then? I don't think it's water, because the glass was too small for being a water glass. Also, I think that Don Corleone preferred Italian drinks. That's why I gues it could be grappa. But I'm not familiar with the drinking habits of Italian families in America, therefore I ask you guys.

Hell yeah. If, in 1945, he offered Luca pre-war scotch then he could have been offering him scotch that was four years old. What's so hard about figuring that out? Again, those that appellate scotch only require that it be aged three years to be so appellated. Given the variables associated with the distillation process, a scotch aged beyond three years is no guarantee of a better scotch.

Save it for your students... you're talking to a scotch drinker.

In any event, I can't believe I'm arguing this point with you. No more for me.

The novel said one of Vito's many friends supplied him with home-made anisette.
Many Italian-Americans, immigrants and first generation, made wine at home. Making grappa (or anisette) would have required a still. Difficult, not impossible.

Great thread. Mineral water in a small glass. Mos def.

I'm not sure if I'm reading this right but I don't think Grappa and Anisette are the same. I think Grappa is made from grapes. Anisette and Sambuca are the same and made from Anise seed.

I thought what Vito gave to Bonasira was Anisette/Sambuca. Also, I thought it was Anisette that Tom was pouring himself before he had to tell the Don about Sonny's death.

Believe me, grappa and anisette are NOT remotely the same. My guess that all the italians in the movie who are drinking in the daytime are either srinking wine, or if drinking from small galsses anisette.

Back in the day Grappa was considered a working class drink. It is made from the residue of the worst wine grapes and then distilled and more or less filtered. Until the '80s it tasted pretty much like gasoline. First time I drank it in '69 I thought I was going to go blind. And what a hangover!

For some reason in the '80's and through now, Grappa has become fashionable to drink and they have greatly improved the distilling process, and of course with smart marketing have made some brands of Grappa very expensive. Still, to borrow a psrase, you cannot put lipstick on a pig and call it something else.

Grappa is a strong drink, not for the feint of heart. It is most definitely an acquired taste.

One benefit of drinking a lot of grappa is that once you've downed your first glass, your tongue and mouth goes totally numb, and you can drink lots of it without having to taste it or feel it burning your esophogus and stomach lining.

I think it was probably Anisette which would be more of a social drink considering the occassion and it is a stiffer drink than many others which is probably what Bonasera needed at the time.

Some 20+ years ago after my divorce, I was essentially homeless for a short time. I moved in with my friend in the Bronx. He was born in Italy and his father used to make his own grappa.

One night we decided to put a dent into the LARGE bottle of this grappa. By the end of the night I had acquired a taste for it. The next morning I swore off grappa.

You're not reading it right--I didn't say grappa and aniesette are the same.
dt is right when he says grappa used to be a third-class spirit. But in France, grappa is called marc, and "Marc de Borgogne" is made from the dregs of Grand Cru wines like Echezaux and Romanee-Conti. It's all hokum anyway: like most brandies, Marc retains almost nothing of the flavor of the original grapes, and derives all its character from ageing in wood--if it's aged at all.

Alright, I think very probable it's supposed to be anisette.
But for some reason when I watched the movie the first 4 or five times I always wondered why they don't give him a larger glass of water
Perhaps because Bonasera's mouth seemed to be dry, so I took it as given that he's being served water.

Could be water. But I think among immigrants that water was less of a choice under such circumstancecs that an alcohol based drink.

...and since Bonasera was weeping at that point, an alcoholic drink would "brace him up," as was the custom. Carlo got a "bracer" at a critical moment, too.