Today’s wine—and it is a wine, albeit one that has been fortified and ‘aromatized’ (like vermouth)—is something most Barolo producers make but don’t necessarily sell. “Chinato” (pronounced key-NAH-toe) wines are typically made according to secret family recipes and dispensed either as gifts or as nightcaps at private dinners.
When these wines are released commercially, it tends to be in small quantities, and as such they are treated as curiosities—with way more confusion over what they are than there needs to be. By way of clarification, Barolo Chinato is essentially sweet vermouth—albeit a sweet vermouth made with a much higher class of wine than is typical. Infused with an assortment of botanicals and spices and fortified with a small amount of grape spirit, today’s Chinato from Fratelli Alessandria captures in sweet(ish) form what we love about their classic Barolo wines: aromatic complexity and finesse. Much as we’ve all embraced Italian ‘amaro’ culture, not all occasions call for a rich, extremely bitter, full-on liqueur; this is only slightly stronger than a typical wine but blessed with some of amaro’s exotic flavors and digestive properties. For those who love ‘soup-to-nuts’ wine experiences, this is a fantastic end-of-meal pour to have in your repertoire.
Alessandria, and its home village of Verduno, have been on a hot streak of late. Verduno, which borders La Morra at the northern tip of the Barolo DOCG, isn’t typically mentioned as one of the “key” villages in the region, but it should be: While it is one of Barolo’s smaller-production towns, what does come out of here is some of the most perfumed, pretty, and ‘Burgundian’ Barolo. Essentially an ‘extension’ of the La Morra vineyard area, Verduno’s vineyards include at least one bona-fide “grand cru”—a site called “Monvigliero”—which Fratelli Alessandria counts among its diverse vineyard holdings. Spanning about 12 hectares, most of them in Verduno, the estate has been in the Alessandria family since 1870; these days it’s Gian Battista Alessandria running the show, with help from his wife, Flavia, brother, Alessandro, and son, Vittore.
Having offered several vintages of Alessandria Barolo over the years, we were thrilled to get their take on chinato. This style of fortified, aromatized wine is widely believed to have invented in the late-1800s in a pharmacy in Alba; it was originally created as a medicinal tonic infused with various botanicals, including quinine, which is extracted from cinchona bark (china in Italian; chinato essentially means “quinined”). Over the years, as it has evolved into a digestivo, different producers have naturally put their own spin on it. With the huge rise in interest in vermouth and amaro among crafty bartenders, Barolo Chinato has occasionally been called into service as a cocktail ingredient, but I find that blasphemous: In the case of this bottling (a 500ml size, as smaller, Port-like portions are the norm), it is crafted from 100% Nebbiolo sourced from Alessandria’s estate vineyards in Verduno. You’re going to drown that in booze? I don’t think so.
The Alessandria family recipe for their Chinato includes some 35 different herbs and spices, which are infused in neutral grain spirit to extract their flavors/aromas and then added to a base of Barolo wine (bringing the overall strength to 16.5% a.b.v.). Among the flavorings are quinine bark, licorice, ginger, cloves, vanilla, rhubarb, and orange peel, all of which are layered with the dried cherry fruit and ‘tar and roses’ character of the Nebbiolo grape. Aged in barrel and lightly sweetened, its combination of elevated alcohol and sweetness lends it a long, but not indefinite, shelf life once opened—but c’mon, this is only a 500ml bottle, perfect for a glass each for four people. Serve it a little cooler than cellar temperature (around 45-50 degrees) in all-purpose white wine stems or Port glasses, and if you really want a low-budget, high-impact presentation, get yourself a block of good dark chocolate and dispense it in chunks with one of those stubby Parmesan knives. This is the ultimate ‘chocolate wine’ and a truly special way to cap off a great meal. Enjoy!
