Drop the Gevalia – when you have unexpected guests you should do like the Piedmontese farmers and offer Chinato! This flavored wine, which when made from Barolo is called Barolo Chinato, is one of the spirits world’s best kept secrets. It is a superb pre- or after-dinner drink: deep, complex and with a satisfying bittersweetness. Cocchi’s version is made with, among other things, gentian, cardamom and rhubarb.
Colour: Deep brown.
Scent: Beautiful scent of cardamom, cocoa, black pepper, fruit and camphor.
Tasting notes: Full-bodied with notes of chocolate, spices and dark fruit. Ends really bitter.
Serving suggestion: Enjoy it neat, in cocktails or try it heated with a twist of orange peel.
Cocchi was founded by the young confectioner, Giulio Cocchi, in 1891. Ever since, the company has been making sparkling wine, vermouth and other flavored wines in Piedmont, always with quality at the forefront. The good track record, with 121 years of uninterrupted operation, got Cocchi entered in Italy’s National Register of Historic Companies in 2012. Among other things, the company has helped lift Barolo Chinato out of the mists of oblivion and was one of the driving forces behind vermouth’s renaissance. The current head of Cocchi, Roberto Bava, has also been elected president of the Vermouth di Torino Institute, which brings together a number of producers with the common goal of ensuring the identity and continued survival of Torino vermouth.
