Poli Distillerie

Segretario di Stato, best Italian whisky

Pure malt, artisanal care and patient waiting: these are the elements that define the whiskies of Poli Distillerie, awarded by the jury of the Falstaff Trophy Whisky Italia.

With 96 points, Segretario di Stato placed first among Italian whiskies in 2025. The new Conclave whisky also entered the prestigious ranking, with 91 points.

“The recognition from Falstaff, one of Europe’s leading magazines dedicated to wine and spirits, comes a few months after the award received from the renowned International Spirits Challenge. These important international signs of appreciation make us proud and encourage us to continue along the same path,” says Jacopo Poli, owner of Poli Distillerie.

Segretario di Stato whisky was created to celebrate a historic event that took place on October 15th, 2013: the appointment as Secretary of State of the Holy See of the most illustrious citizen of Schiavon, a small town in Veneto, home to Poli Distillerie since 1898. It is a single malt whisky, pleasantly peated, artisanally distilled with a bain marie pot-still and aged for 5 years in oak barrels, followed by a finishing period in Amarone casks.
An international spirit with a Venetian soul.

Conclave whisky, from the Latin cum clave, “room closed with a key”, is inspired by the place where cardinals of the Catholic Church gather when electing the new Pope, locked in, just like the casks in which Poli whiskies age for many years. It is obtained from peated and unpeated malted barley, distilled separately in a bain marie pot-still. The new make spirits then rest in medium toasted white oak barrels, used and regenerated, allowing only the softest tannins to be extracted from the wood’s pores.
After 5 years of aging, the individual barriques are blended together.