classical quirky vino
Cappellano created the category of Barolo Chinato and remains the standard-bearer. Cappellano's Chinato is one of the most complex, layered and simply delicious things on earth.
'It was the closing of 1870 when Giuseppe Cappellano, pharmacist of Serralunga d’Alba with a shop in Turin, perfected the original recipe of Barolo Chinato marketing as “medicinal and anti-malaric liniment” what would shortly after become one of the classics of Italian oenology. We talk of recipe and not of formula because this great aromatic wine for meditation is born out of artisanal wisdom, handed down in our family generation after generation, which has much in common with the knowledge of the land and countryside culture. The preparation is well-known ‒ the extract of china calissaia mixed with other aromatic herbs, sugar, and alcohol is added to the aged Barolo ‒ whereas the list of spices used for the aroma is secret. The equilibrium of contrasts, the gusto-olfactive complexity, and an endless persistence constitute the charm of a wine which is seductive as few others, capable of sustaining the nigh-impossible match with dark chocolate.'
APPELLATION: Barolo Chinato
VINTAGE: NV
STYLE: Red
GRAPE: Nebbiolo
FARMING: Organic
FERMENTATION: stainless steel
MATURATION: wood
FILTRATION:
ALCOHOL: 13%
CASE SIZE: 6
Augusto Cappellano is the 5th generation running this iconic estate in Serralunga. He took on the legacy of his father Teobaldo, whose vision was a ‘backward evolution’: the use of traditional practices to create elegant and age-worthy wines, but where ‘traditional’ is not synonymous of ‘conservative’. Teobaldo was also a pioneer in low intervention and environment friendly farming, and on of the first to embrace the natural wine movement. They produce the best Barolo Chinato, a flavoured wine similar to vermouth, using the family secret recipe created by their ancestor Giuseppe Cappellano at the end of the 19th century.