Later this month we expect our first arrival of the Barolos of Teobaldo Cappellano. Originally we had decided not to pursue an estate in Barolo. We wanted to concentrate our efforts in Italy on less exposed and controversial denominations in Italy. Wines that had more innate charm than pedigree. However, we stumbled into the wines of Cappellano and the man himself and were immediately attracted to them.

Teobaldo Cappellano is a tall, pensive and imposing man, until you speak with him and realize that his genuine warmth and gentle passion show through in the wry smiles that often apear during his conversations.

But it would be wrong to mistake your impression. He is a maverick and a staunch Barolista. His family has been producing Barolo since shortly after the unification of Italy. He has only 3 hectares of vine and very small, hand-crafted production.

The estate produces 2 Barolos, 2 Barberas and a Dolcetto. In the late 1800’s, Teobaldo’s ancestor Dottore Giuseppe Cappellano invented Barolo Chinato, a medicinal tonic from a proprietary recipe of herbs, bark, sugar and Barolo wine that became fashionable in the Court of the Italian Savoy Kings and now remains the best and most sought after version, used as a digestive or a match for chocolate. Teobaldo guards the production of this wine and seems at the same time to love it and find it its success absurdly amusing.

The Barolos, and one of the Barberas, come from the Gabutti vineyard of Serralunga d’Alba and referred to as Otin Fiorin, in reference to the vineyard tender for many years by the name of Fiorin. The two Barolos are differentiated by their vines. The first, Barolo Pie Rupestris – Per Nebioli, is from vines planted over 40 years ago on American rootstock (Rupestris). It is not certain which particular strain of Nebbiolo was planted then and so the reference Per Nebioli refers to its unidentified clone. The second Barolo, Pie Franco – Michet, is from vines planted 20 years ago by Teobaldo himself, without grafting onto American rootstock, hence Pie Franco (Franc de Pied, as it referred to in French), or “french foot”.

The wines are fermented along traditional lines for 2- 3 weeks, without added yeasts, in stainless steel (ones designed by Cappellano himself) and glass-lines cement vats. Then they go into barrels of interdeterminate age for a minimum of 3 years, sometimes longer. They are bottled without filtration.

Each of the Barolos has this to say on the back label:

To wine “Guides” – humbly speaking:
In 1983 I asked the journalist Sheldon Wasserman not to publish scores for my wines. Not only did he not publish the scores: he also wrote that I had asked not to be included in “classifications” in which a comparison becomes a divisive numerical term rather than expressiing human toil. I have not changed my mind: my tiny farm producing 20,000 bottles of wine a year interests only a small number of customer/friends. I believe in freedom of information, even if the judgement is negative. I think of my hills as an anarchical arena, with no inquisitors or opposing factions, whose inner richness is stimulated by severe, thoughtful critics. I strive for community that can still express solidarity with whoever has not been so well rewarded by Mother Nature.
Wishful thinking? Allow me to dream… Teobaldo

In researching more, I came across this article written by Italian journalist, Paolo Rossi. I felt it captured the spirit of the man and the wines perfectly and so I translated it and have printed it here with the author’s permission:

The inner life of wine: an encounter with Teobaldo Cappellano

By Paolo Rossi, trans. by Kevin McKenna*

I arrive at his table in the evening when most of the public has already passed by, and when the winemakers in the room can breathe a little, exchanging words and glasses, and the atmosphere is a little more relaxed. Teobaldo Cappellano is beside his wines reflecting internally; it is the right moment to make an advance and get to know this celebrated winemaker. There are two of his wines to taste – Barolo Gabutti Rupestris 1999 and Barolo Gab"utti Franco 2000 (otherwise there is the Barolo Chinato) – the first is a wine, like almost all wines today, from vines grafted on to the rupestris, or american, rootstock. The second, on the other hand, is made from ungrafted European vines, or as it is known in the trade, on franc de pied, and which, in theory, runs the risk of phylloxera.

It’s no wonder that after an entire day standing on his feet talking about his wine, he pours my glass and asks, excusing himself:
“Would you mind if I sit a bit …it’s been a long day?”

Why not? …in the meantime I taste and try to understand what is in my glass. The difference between the two wines is vast. It starts to become interesting…

“You produce wine from ungrafted vines..In Italy, there are very few vines that survived the phylloxera epidemic..did you inherit these ancient vines, or…?”

“No, in truth, those were already grafted vines. I planted the ungrafted vines on my own. You can’t imagine how much it takes to understand this old method, how many books I had to track down.”

Someone interrupts with the question: “Aren’t you afraid of phylloxera?”

He doesn’t respond with words, but the expression on his face is beautiful: arms crossed, and his look conveys all the passion that this risk involved to make a wine such as this.

Then he breaks his silence and with strong and clear broadside: “ Answer me this: who told you that grafting was the cure for phylloxera? Are we positive that grafting is without blame, that in fact grafting wasn’t the cause of phylloxera?”

The bystanders have no response.…..

The second broadside comes, just as strong..
“Let’s look at two points…the practice of grafting with american rootstock began in Europe around 1850. The phylloxera began to devestate vines around 1880. Could the rush to graft vines have imported the phylloxera; that's the question.”

A challenger (by now I notice a small group forming) asks: “Then why did they begin grafting vines?”

A knowing smile and then the third broadside: “Do you know how to produce one vine of Nebbiolo franco (i.e, an ungrafted vine). With half of a grafted one. Then how do you fulfill more demand? I leave it to your imagination. It is a matter of economics that is at the root of the introduction of grafting, nothing more. But it’s in the quality of the wine that it becomes apparent.”

Then he turns to me and says, both serious and joking: “But don’t write such things, it’s better left unknown.”

Then his expression calms and passes to constuctive philosophic words of which it pleases me greatly to record the following: "We do not do anything new. There is nothing, that we do in the world of wine, that was not done for thousands of years in the East. We have not invented anything. And we must try to understand this: that our culture is not at the center of the world.”

Teobaldo Cappellano is extreme but sensible, strong-willed, but gentle. One could willingly spend hours and hours with him. I am not a professional taster and I certainly can’t analytically describe Cappellano’s wines, but in the face of a difference like this I can say two things: the Barolo Rupestris 1999 is a classic traditional Barolo, strong, well-made and sincere; the Barolo Franco 2000, hits you immediately and persists with a sense of depth, and wows you with the an evocativeness that is multifaceted. It gives a sense of the stimulus of its inner life, its profundity. It’s big-bodied and alive, but please excuse my inability to use words more clearly. The beauty is that this wine (forgetting that it is obtained from a single type of Nebbiolo, the Michet) is pretty much unknown: Cappellano refuses entirely a system of valuation and does not submit the wine to any Italian wine guides.

I should speak a little of the Barolo Chinato, also an authentic masterpiece, sensual and intellectual at the same time, a fine example of the inner life of wine which I was just pondering. And now there is the son of Teobaldo (Augusto Cappellano) a young engineer returning to the warm, hospitable vineyard, who brings back to it the experience that other things extend and flow from wine.

Allow me to close with another saying from Teobaldo Cappellano, a phrase that he said to me at the beginning of our conversation, too good to not recall until the end, and said as if in conspiring gossip over a pleasant glass of wine.: “If there is one thing that makes me crazy, it’s spitters of wine…the ones who taste a wine by rolling it around in their mouths and then they spit it out. I worked my butt off to make wine to drink, not to spit.!”

Dolcetto d' Alba Gabutti Nebiolo Barolo Gabutti Otin Fiorin Pie Rupestris - Michet 1999 in 750ml and 1.5L Barolo Gabutti Otin Fiorin Pie Franco - in 750 ml and 1.5L (very limited) Barolo Chinato

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*This article was originally published at L'Acquabuona, an internet site on Italian wine, published and edited by Luca Bonci. For more articles like these (in Italian) go to acquabuona.it