Grappa gets a bad rap as cheap and coarse, but a new wave of refined styles emphasizes its kinship with wine.

"Jet fuel." That's what Americans think grappa tastes like, and that explains its failure to launch, surmised Alessandro Boselli of importer Premium Brands.

Yet the craft spirit scene has been pretty accommodating of drinks falling on the flavor spectrum from "acquired taste" to "openly hostile" (not unlike the somm-driven segment of the wine scene, come to think of it ...). Here in New York, we have bars devoted to tequila, mezcal, bitters, even baiju, a Chinese spirit that tastes like chicken feed fermented in a mud ditch (because that's what it is).