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Antica Torino

Turin house reviving traditional Piedmontese aromatized wines from historic recipes, with a range built on named Langhe base wines and botanical macerations that include thirteen-ingredient Vino Chinato and a Vermouth di Torino Bianco.

The producer

Antica Torino was founded in Turin in 2016 by Vittorio Zoppi and Filippo Antonelli to recover the aromatized wine tradition that Piedmont built across the nineteenth century and largely abandoned in the twentieth. The range is not a winery offering: no still wines, no vineyard estate, no classification. What Zoppi and Antonelli make instead are vermouth, chinato, and wine-based aperitivi assembled from historic recipes, with base wines sourced from named Langhe producers and botanical blends drawn from the same herbs, roots, and bitter agents the original formulas called for.

The flagship Vino Chinato uses Langhe Nebbiolo from Luigi Voghera, a producer in Neive in the Barbaresco commune, as its base. Thirteen botanicals, including chinotto, gentian, rhubarb, and rose, macerate into the wine over at least fifteen to thirty days, producing a dark, layered digestivo with a dry bitter finish. The Vermouth di Torino Bianco takes a different route: six botanicals, among them wormwood, iris, and liquorice, macerate in high-proof alcohol for thirty days before blending with base wine, resting in steel for up to sixty days, and ageing in bottle before release. Across both products the flavour comes entirely from botanical infusion and time, with no oak contact at any stage.

Known for

Vermouth di Torino, Vino Chinato, aromatized wines and aperitivi from historic Piedmontese recipes

Notable facts

The story

The Call That Built a Company

In 2014 a San Francisco wine distributor telephoned Vittorio Zoppi looking for vermouth. Zoppi had spent twenty years managing sales networks across North America for Italian wine and liqueur companies. He knew the American market for aperitivi as well as anyone in the trade. He also had nothing to sell the caller. He did not have a vermouth. He thanked the distributor and put the phone down. Over the next two years he tracked down historic Piedmontese formulas, found a Barbaresco producer in Neive willing to supply Langhe Nebbiolo, assembled a botanical list of thirteen ingredients for the chinato and a separate six for the vermouth, and worked through the maceration and ageing sequences until the results matched what the recipes described. Antica Torino's first product was bottled in 2016. The San Francisco call that produced nothing produced the company.

The Call That Built a Company

In 2014 a San Francisco wine distributor telephoned Vittorio Zoppi looking for vermouth. Zoppi had spent twenty years managing sales networks across North America for Italian wine and liqueur companies. He knew the American market for aperitivi as well as anyone in the trade. He also had nothing to sell the caller. He did not have a vermouth. He thanked the distributor and put the phone down. Over the next two years he tracked down historic Piedmontese formulas, found a Barbaresco producer in Neive willing to supply Langhe Nebbiolo, assembled a botanical list of thirteen ingredients for the chinato and a separate six for the vermouth, and worked through the maceration and ageing sequences until the results matched what the recipes described. Antica Torino's first product was bottled in 2016. The San Francisco call that produced nothing produced the company.

From the atlas

Antica Torino

At A Glance

The Producer

Antica Torino is a small Turin house making aromatized wines from historic Piedmontese recipes. Vittorio Zoppi and Filippo Antonelli founded it in 2016, not as a vineyard estate but as a production house for the category of drinks that Turin once made famous and then largely abandoned: vermouth, chinato, and wine-based aperitivi built from botanical macerations.

Zoppi spent twenty years managing sales networks in North America for wine and liqueur companies. Antonelli holds a degree in Agricultural Sciences from Perugia University and is the great-great-grandson of Giuseppe Giacosa, the librettist who collaborated with Puccini on La Bohème, Tosca, and Madama Butterfly. The two men arrived at the same project from different directions and with complementary knowledge of what it takes to make and sell a category product.

The founding logic is recovery. Piedmont built its reputation for aromatized wine across the nineteenth century, with Turin at the centre. That production largely contracted over the twentieth century. Antica Torino treats the original formulas as a starting point, sources base wines from named Piedmontese growers, and adds botanical blends assembled from the same herbs, roots, and bitter agents the old recipes called for.

Place

Turin sits at the southwestern edge of the Po Plain, with the Alps to the west and the Langhe hills to the south. The city gave its name to the Vermouth di Torino designation, which requires that the vermouth be produced within the Piedmont region and carry a minimum wormwood content traceable to local practice. The designation is a legal category as much as a geographical one: it marks a specific production tradition, not a vineyard address.

Antica Torino is a Turin producer in that legal sense. The base wines come from the Langhe, the hill country south of Alba where Nebbiolo and Moscato Secco grow. The botanicals travel further: chinotto, gentian, rhubarb, and rose are not Piedmontese crops, but their combination in a Nebbiolo or Moscato base is the regional act.

Soil And Site

Antica Torino does not own vineyards. The agricultural anchor of the range is the sourcing relationship: Vino Chinato uses Langhe Nebbiolo DOP from Luigi Voghera, a producer based in Neive, the Barbaresco commune in the Langhe. Voghera supplies the grape material; Antica Torino handles the aromatization. The Nebbiolo grown on the calcareous clay soils of the Langhe brings tannin, body, and a certain bitter depth that carries the macerated botanicals without losing shape.

Vino alla China Bianco draws on Moscato Secco from the same Langhe hills, where the Moscato grape grows on the chalky soils around Santo Stefano Belbo and Canelli. Moscato Secco is a drier expression of the grape, used here as a base wine rather than a finished aromatic white.

Story

In 2014 a wine distributor based in San Francisco called Zoppi asking about vermouth. Zoppi had spent his career selling Italian wine and liqueurs across North America and had no vermouth to offer. The call stayed with him. Over the next two years he and Antonelli researched the historic Piedmontese formulas, sourced botanical blends, and identified growers for the base wines. In 2016 they bottled the first product.

The decision to work from historic recipes rather than invent a modern aperitivo range shaped every subsequent choice. The botanical lists are long by contemporary standards: thirteen botanicals in the Vino Chinato, six in the Vermouth di Torino Bianco. The maceration times are extended. The base wines are named and sourced rather than anonymous. Antica Torino is making the category argument that the original form of these drinks was more complex and more interesting than what replaced it.

Vineyards And Cellar

Production at Antica Torino follows botanical maceration rather than vinification. For the Vermouth di Torino Bianco, wormwood, marjoram, sage, coriander, iris, and liquorice macerate in 96-degree alcohol for thirty days. That high-proof alcohol extracts the aromatic compounds from the botanicals more completely than wine alone would. The botanical infusion is then blended with base wine and rests in steel tanks for forty-five to sixty days before filtration and bottling. The finished vermouth ages in bottle for a further thirty to forty-five days before release.

The Vino Chinato follows a similar sequence but with a more complex botanical bill and a Nebbiolo base that adds colour, tannin, and bitterness. Thirteen botanicals, including chinotto, wormwood, gentian, elderberry, rhubarb, laurel, chamomile, marjoram, cinnamon, vanilla, coriander, rose, and nutmeg, go into maceration. Gestation runs at least fifteen to thirty days. Vino Chinato has a bouquet of rose, nutmeg, and aromatic herbs, with bitter aromatic herbs shaping its backbone.

Steel tanks throughout means no oak character in any product. The flavour development comes entirely from botanical infusion and bottle rest, not from wood contact.

Wines

The range runs to four products, each built on a different base wine and botanical combination.

Vermouth di Torino Bianco is the white vermouth. The botanicals, wormwood, marjoram, sage, coriander, iris, and liquorice, macerate in high-proof alcohol for thirty days before blending with base wine. The finished liquid sits in steel for up to sixty days, then rests in bottle before release. On the palate it is floral and lightly bitter, with liquorice running through a softly spiced, rounded finish. It drinks cool, straight or with a splash of water, and is the most aperitivo-forward product in the range.

Vino Chinato is the most characterful and historically grounded bottle in the range. Langhe Nebbiolo from Luigi Voghera of Neive provides the base, and thirteen botanicals build the aromatic frame. The nose opens with rose and nutmeg before the bitter herbs take over: chinotto, gentian, and wormwood give the palate a dry, persistent bitterness that is cut by cinnamon and vanilla sweetness. The finish is long and herbal. Vino Chinato is traditionally served neat after dinner, chilled in summer.

Vino alla China Bianco uses Moscato Secco from the Langhe as its base. It is lighter in body and fresher in character than the Chinato, with lime zest, star anise, and Thai basil lifting the nose. It drinks at a lower bitterness level and works better as an aperitivo than as a digestivo.

Stellare Primo and Secondo are two wine-based aperitivi. Stellare Secondo carries 17 percent ABV. Both are lighter and more immediately approachable than the Chinato and are aimed squarely at the aperitivo moment.

In The Glass

Across the range, the drinks share a botanical depth that distinguishes them from commercial vermouth and aperitivi. The Vermouth di Torino Bianco opens with camomile and dried flowers on the nose, then delivers liquorice and a soft spice on the palate; the finish is round, with no hard edges. The bitterness is present but gentle.

Vino Chinato is darker and more demanding. The Nebbiolo base adds tannin and a faint dried-fruit weight beneath the botanical layers. Rose and nutmeg come first, then the bitter root compounds, chinotto and gentian in particular, tighten the mid-palate. The finish is dry, long, and bitter in the Campari sense, but with more complexity and less sharpness. It asks for attention.

Vino alla China Bianco is the most immediately food-friendly of the three. The Moscato Secco base keeps the body light and the acidity fresh; star anise and lime zest give it a savoury lift that opens appetite rather than closing a meal.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with Vino Chinato. It is the bottle that most fully explains what Antica Torino is doing and why: a named Nebbiolo from a specific Barbaresco grower, thirteen botanicals assembled from a historic recipe, and a production process that takes at least fifteen days of maceration before any blending begins. On the nose it opens with rose and nutmeg. In the mouth the bitterness of chinotto and gentian dominates, balanced by cinnamon and vanilla so that the finish is long and complex rather than simply austere. Serve it chilled and neat after a meal. It is recognisably in the same category as Barolo Chinato, but at a different price point and with a production transparency that rewards curiosity.

Anecdote

In 2014 a San Francisco wine distributor telephoned Vittorio Zoppi looking for vermouth. Zoppi had spent twenty years managing sales networks across North America for Italian wine and liqueur companies. He knew the American market for aperitivi as well as anyone in the trade. He also had nothing to sell the caller. He did not have a vermouth. He thanked the distributor and put the phone down. Over the next two years he tracked down historic Piedmontese formulas, found a Barbaresco producer in Neive willing to supply Langhe Nebbiolo, assembled a botanical list of thirteen ingredients for the chinato and a separate six for the vermouth, and worked through the maceration and aging sequences until the results matched what the recipes described. Antica Torino's first product was bottled in 2016. The San Francisco call that produced nothing produced the company.

Final Word

Antica Torino is making the case for a category of drink that Turin once owned and then largely forgot. The range is small and the production is transparent: named growers, named botanicals, and published maceration times. A buyer arriving here for a still Nebbiolo will leave disappointed. A buyer arriving for a historically grounded aromatized wine from the city that invented the form will find exactly that.

Sources

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