Dr. Giuseppe Cappellano, Piedmont

Dr. Giuseppe Cappellano is revered as one of Serralunga d’Alba’s founding fathers, and after whose family the largest square in the village is justly honoured: ‘Piazza Cappellano’. Founded in 1870, the Cappellano family led by lawyer Filippo owned 150 ‘giornate’, or 60 hectares, around the village. His son Giovanni developed the family estate, renovating the vineyards and finding the time to build two hotels in Alba. For his ‘travails’ Giovanni’s vineyard was awarded bronze at the 1889 Paris Universal Exhibition, which enabled him to developed sales (of grapes?!) in a French market devastated by phylloxera. Giuseppe, Giovanni’s brother, graduated as a chemist. Consequently he leaned more towards the more pharmaceutical side of wine production, inventing none other than Barolo Chinato; a fortified ‘aromatizzato’ wine that combines fine Barolo and spirit steeped in twenty herbs.