Shortly before his death, he asked to be taken to the distillery. Forced to be in a wheelchair for a time, Benito Nonino has passed away in his original company in Percoto (Udine), the center where he was born on February 6, 1934. The entrepreneur will be remembered among other things for having transformed the company grappa from tavern liqueur to a high quality product and he did it with his wife, Giannola. Over the years, the two men managed to run a small business that produced “sgnapa” – as they say in Friulian – with a national and international brand.
Benito and Giannola had three daughters: Antonella, Cristina and Elisabetta who work in the company with some nieces. Passionate about the distillery business since childhood, in 1973 Nonino created the first grappa “Monovitigno Picolit”. A shy but active man, over time and especially with the growth of the brand, in addition to distilling Benito, he created the homonymous Nonino Prize. A prize which, thanks to a high-level international cultural jury, rewarded five writers who would later receive the Nobel Prize.