How Do You Build a Premium Vodka Brand in 2026? | Altamura Distilleries

## What if you took 2,000 years of Italian history… and turned it into vodka? This week on **The Drinks Entrepreneur Podcast**, I’m joined by **Frank Grillo, founder of Altamura Distilleries,** and this is a brilliant story of how a chance idea became a premium Italian vodka now being poured around the world. It all started with Frank baking a loaf of Pane di Altamura in his kitchen in Atlanta, using the ancient durum wheat grown around Altamura in Puglia. One thought followed: “If you boil that, it would have been a bottle of vodka.” And that was the beginning. 🥃 In this episode, we talk about: 🌾 The 2,000-year-old wheat behind Altamura Vodka, and why its provenance and terroir make it so distinctive 💡 How a completely accidental idea turned into Frank's first entrepreneurial venture 🇮🇹 Moving from the US to Italy, and discovering the realities of trying to build a drinks business there 🤝 Why convincing the local wheat-growing family to let him distil their prized grain felt like “asking for a daughter’s hand in marriage” 🍸 How relationships with some of the world’s leading bartenders and cocktail bars transformed the trajectory of the brand 🚀 Going from a small Italian launch to distribution across 20+ countries and 25 US states 🏨 Breaking into luxury hospitality and seeing Altamura behind the bars of some of the world's most prestigious hotels 🎯 Why Frank believes a great liquid is only the starting point, and that every successful drinks brand needs a story people can genuinely connect with 🦁 The story behind Altamura's lion, and the brand's growing relationship with the Born Free Foundation 🍹 And Frank's wonderfully Italian approach to entrepreneurial frustration: "Get one thing done before lunch. If you can't? Have a Negroni and try again tomorrow!" This is a fantastic conversation about provenance, storytelling, taking chances, navigating rapid growth and building a global drinks brand from an idea that almost happened by accident. 🎙️ **Frank Grillo | Altamura Distilleries** **Coming Friday on The Drinks Entrepreneur Podcast.** * * * Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.