The fine wines of the Langhe > Barolo Chinato wine

Barolo Chinato wine is a special type of wine which is produced with DOCG Barolo wine, aromatized with quinquina cortex, rhubarb and gentian root, whose active principles are extracted through maceration (at ambient temperature), with a final adding of aromatizing spices, among which there is the precious seed of cardamom. This wine was born in Piedmont in the last century; immediately it spread, due to its well-dosed bitter-sweet taste, and above all, due to the name of “Barolo”, which collocated it among the noble products, comparing with the other quinquina alcoholic beverages. Giulio Cocchi, who was the inventor of this original recipe, was the protagonist of the diffusion of Barolo Chinato wine, by starting its production in 1891 in Asti. In 1913 there were five companies (which later became seven) in Piedmont, Liguria and Lombardy: these “companies” were bars with a liquor distillery, and nowadays they are called “Cocchi Barolo Chinato Wine Bars”, or “Cocchi Barolino Wine Bar”. In the same years exportations began, which through the sea, reached also distant places such as Addis Abeba, Caracas, New York, etc. In Italy, the consume of Barolo Chinato wine was helped by its fame of medicinal wine. In Piedmont production it became the main antidote against some small illnesses, especially colds: if it is drunk as mulled wine, so hot and corroborant, it has antipyretic and digestive properties: this was enough for convincing people to have always a bottle in their houses and to justify also its assumption in more than therapeutic doses by housewives. Serving it to guests became in the countryside a deed of farmer hospitality, which was made of simplicity. As the time went by, this aromatized wine was reached and overcome by many competitors, which were more or less publicized, but nowadays, following the revival of traditions, it has been re-discovered, although with a different attitude than the past. The most interesting segment of consume could be called “cultural-young”: the new consumer has not an historical conscience of the Barolo Chinato wine, and sees it for what it represents nowadays; it is in fact collocated among the meditation wines, alternatively to Porto, Marsala Vergine or passito wines. People like its balance and the harmony of its smell, the immediate pleasantness of its taste and the persistence of its organoleptic sensations. The occasions for its consume are diverse: it has very much success in High level restaurants, where it is presented on the Grappa trolley, as an alternative for the end of the meal. Surprisingly, it is recent the discovery of Barolo Chinato wine as “ideal liquid” to reach and complete the persistent taste of chocolate. Andrea Slitti, who was the winner of the Grand Prix de Chocolaterie in Paris in 1994 (and gold medal at the Chocolate Olympics in Berlin in 1996), produced a craft praline flavoured with a very high quality Barolo Chianto wine, which Giulio Cocchi distributes to accompany the tasting and to demonstrate its marriage.