Boozehound - Jason Wilson [51]
There is some question as to who invented Barolo Chinato. In the nineteenth century, many pharmacists and chefs in and around Torino were experimenting with vermouths and other fortified wines. One of them, Giuseppe Cappellano, is often credited as Barolo Chinato’s creator, and the Cappellano brand is available in the United States. But Barolo Chinato is also claimed by Giulio Cocchi, a Tuscan pastry chef who came to Asti and, inspired by the region’s vermouth industry, soon invented his own formula in 1891.
Cocchi’s was the Barolo Chinato I fell in love with, so I decided to visit its producer in Cocconato, near Asti. The brand name Giulio Cocchi is well-known in Italy for its Asti Spumante, but the company also continues to make its founder’s special formula. “We like to think the Barolo Chinato concept came because he put together the world of vermouth in Piemonte with the world of the Tuscan monasteries and their use of spices and herbs,” says Roberto Bava, fourth-generation winemaker with Bava Winery, which now owns Giulio Cocchi. “His formula was, and still is, very complex. One of my brothers knows the formula. It is in an old booklet, handwritten by Giulio Cocchi, and it’s in a bank vault.”
In the 1920s, Giulio Cocchi opened a chain of Barolo Chinato bars in cities including Milan and Torino (the one in Torino still exists) and as far away as Caracas, Venezuela. But by the 1960s and 1970s, Barolo Chinato had gone out of fashion, swept away by the tide of amari, mass-market vermouths, and aperitivi such as Punt e Mes that began to flood the Italian market. Cocchi persisted, selling its spumante, and eventually was bought by the Bava family in 1977. But its Barolo Chinato languished for decades.
That is, until the all-important chocolate-Chinato connection came to light. Bava is president of something he referred to as the “Italian Chocolate Association.” Several years ago, he says, the association’s members began searching for the best after-dinner drink to pair with fine chocolate, another Piedmontese specialty. After supposedly rigorous testing, Bava says, “We learned that Barolo Chinato was the absolute best match for chocolate.” Regardless of how subjective that research must have been, it seems to have been a eureka moment in the history of food and drink pairings because, believe me, it is true. “Now,” Bava says, “if you ask anyone in Italy, ‘What do you pair with chocolate?’ They will say, ‘Barolo Chinato.’ ”
Bava says the chocolate pairing concept has saved Barolo Chinato from extinction and spurred other producers to put their versions on the market. “I’m proud of this. It’s probably the only idea in this life that I will leave behind,” he says, with a wink.
While we tasted, Bava brought out a bottle of an aperitif called Cocchi Aperitivo Americano, made from a white Moscato di Asti and infused with cinchona bark. I almost flipped. Barolo Chinato had been revelation enough. But Cocchi Aperitivo Americano is a missing link in the cocktail world—a true white-wine quinquina. Many of us know, and have fallen in love with, Lillet Blanc, the lovely and refreshing white wine-and-citrus aperitif. Lillet began life as Kina Lillet, which had a much higher quinine content, then changed its recipe in 1986. Much of Lillet’s recent popularity can be traced to the 2006 film Casino Royale (based on the original 1953 novel), in which James Bond orders his famed Vesper cocktail with gin, vodka, and Kina Lillet, “shaken, not stirred.” For a while after that, you couldn’t find a cocktail menu that didn’t have some variation of