The Italian city with a wonderful secret

It's super strong, fennel-scented, clear as water – and in many households across Sardinia it's still produced illegally.

"Filu 'e ferru", or "iron wire", is an old drink with a dangerous past and an alcohol concentration of up to 45 percent that knocks down even the most stable of people.

Rosa Maria Scrugli was 23 years old when in 1970 she was sent on a work mission to the small town of Santu Lussurgiu, located in the wild Oristano area of ​​western Sardinia among rocky hills and caves.

For 400 years, this country with almost 2000 inhabitants has made a powerful "filu 'e ferru" locally called "abbardente" - a word derived from the Latin meaning "overwhelming water", Telegrafi reports.

The mayor greeted Scrugli at noon with a few welcoming shots, but by the time she had her second toast, she nearly fell over the city's first, who was a little clumsy.

“The next thing I knew, someone had dragged me away and I woke up in my hotel room with the worst hangover ever. The mayor was also not feeling very well, but he was used to drinking filu 'e ferru. It was my first time, and it was a shock," Scrugli told CNN.

Santu Lussurgiu is considered the cradle of the oldest Sardinian tradition of “acquavite” – literally “vine water” in Italian, and denoting a premium alcohol distillation.

A secret code

"Acquavite and abbardente are simply synonyms for filu 'e ferru, which is a metaphor, part of a secret code invented at a later stage to refer to acquavite to escape police checks," says the distiller only (legal) of Santu Lussurgiu, Carlo Psiche.

It became an "outlawed" drink in the 19th century when the royal house of Savoy imposed taxes on the production of alcohol, starting an illegal trade that in Santu Lussurgiu continues on a massive scale.

Until a few decades ago police raids were frequent, farmers had to hide bottles of filu 'e ferru either in some secret place at home or underground in their garden, marking the spot with a piece of iron. That's why it was named "iron wire".

In creating such a nickname, the locals may also have been inspired by the nearby rock ranges of volcanic origin called Montiferru - "iron hill".

What has always made the acquavite of Santu Lussurgiu exceptional, compared to those produced in the rest of Sardinia, is that it is distilled from wine and not from "marc", a drink made from the remains of skins and seeds of the grapes after the wine has been extracted.

Psiche claims that its Distillerie Lussurgesi, with copper alembic stills used for old-style distillation processes, is the only one of five filu'e ferru distilleries in the wider region that uses real wine instead of marc, or “ vinacce".

Meanwhile, families in the countryside have been producing filu 'e ferru at home since the late 16th century, after monks from the local abbey introduced this powerful alcoholic distillate to the area.

"At first it was used for medicinal and therapeutic properties, especially for toothache, then people realized it was also great as an alcoholic drink," says Psiche.

Police raids and secret signals

Everyone in the village still secretly makes abbardente at home. None of them pay taxes on it, except Psiches, who runs a business.

Nowadays things are less dangerous than in the past. After all, many Italians make wine and all sorts of liqueurs at home, and the authorities no longer knock on people's doors unless they have set up a large-scale business.

Psiche recalls that until the 1960s, when the tax police patrolled the countryside in search of clandestine producers, people would rush to hide their bottles and alembics, shouting the emergency code "filu 'e ferru" to each other. It was like a curfew signal.

"I was only a child, but I remember the elders describing the policemen who would park their cars in front of the town hall and wander around hunting like hounds for illegal producers," he said.

Fennel seeds are added to filu 'e ferru to soften the pungent aroma, and given its intense aroma, the smell of fennel wafting from homes occasionally helped the police track down illegal activity.

“There was a village herald whose duty it was to announce laws, events and local measures with a trumpet. When the uneven raids happened, he used a different key to alert people," says Psiche.

Italians and foreigners who knew about the filu 'e ferru secret would flock to Santu Lussurgiu to buy whole bottles of it, says Psiche, but they asked too many questions at the risk of exposing the producers.

So finally the locals decided to go completely underground, Telegrafi reports.

The village had about 40 distilleries until the late 1800s, when filu 'e ferru became a popular drink and was exported throughout Italy. However, the distilleries were closed at the beginning of the XNUMXth century and the production became only "local".

Psiche, a former mechanic, decided to recover the old village tradition of aquavite 20 years ago.

Its Abbardente, made with fresh local white grapes, comes in two versions – both aged for at least 12 months.

Water-clear Abbardente has an intense enveloping flavor with a light taste of dried fruit and almonds, and is diluted with water from a nearby village spring. It is aged in steel tanks.

Amber colored Abbardente is aged in oak barrels. The aging of the wood gives it a sweet aroma reminiscent of honey and homemade bread.

A female issue

Psiche's craft distillery features old stills and an original acquavite bottle from 1860. He has some American customers in Ohio and Chicago, where many of the countrymen immigrated.

"Our village has always used wine instead of brandy because the vineyards here tend to produce too much, so the best way to avoid any waste was to use the wine to make abbardente," says Psiche.

While men tended the fields, filu 'e ferru production in Sardinia was a women's business. Wives, daughters and grandmothers became experts in distillation. At first, large copper vessels, traditionally for milk, were used and sealed with flour dough to heat the wine. Later, ladies turned to copper stills.

Sardinians have a love affair with their "hot water", just like Neapolitans do with coffee.

Although it's great as an after-dinner digestif, whenever it's toast time, a glass of abbardente works just fine.

According to Psiche, it is also a drink with which to observe death: when someone dies, it is customary to enjoy a glass of filu 'e ferru at midnight to honor the deceased.

Filu 'e ferru is as fiery as the Sardinians who continue to make it at home, like their ancestors, adhering to tradition. They believe it can be drunk just like pure water.

A woman from Santu Lussurgiu, who spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity for fear of being hit by the authorities, says it's not just for special occasions, "Those who like it drink it at any time of the day, even in the morning ".

Making filu 'e ferru strictly for personal consumption, she uses a large alembic belonging to her grandparents that has been in the family since the 1960s.

"It takes me half a day to distill the wine, which grows on our land. In addition to fennel, I often add absinthe as well," she said.

The woman says she has now included her son in the daily preparation of their homemade filu 'e ferru – perhaps a sign of changing times that men like Psiche must play a key role in preserving the alcoholic heritage. /Telegraph/