Ingredients
A base of DOCG Barolo wine infused with cinchona (china) bark and a spice bill of roots, seeds and citrus, then lightly sweetened and fortified.
- ✦Cinchona bark (china calissaya)
- ✦Rhubarb root
- ✦Gentian root
- ✦Cardamom
- ✦Cinnamon
- ✦Clove
- ✦Bitter orange peel
- ✦Coriander seed
- ✦Vanilla
History of the Brand
Chinato was born in nineteenth-century Piedmont, when pharmacists infused cinchona bark — the source of quinine — into local wine as a tonic against fever and poor digestion.
In the Langhe those pharmacists had Barolo to work with, and the resulting Barolo Chinato became the region's own elevated version of the style: a serious wine treated as a medicinal base.
Giulio Cocchi and Giuseppe Cappellano are the names most often cited in its early history, and both houses' descendants still bottle chinato today, alongside grappa producers such as Marolo.
Modern Piedmont treats it as the natural close to a meal — poured with dark chocolate, hazelnut desserts, or simply on its own by the fire.
Tasting Characteristics
Dried cherry and rose from the Nebbiolo, then clove, cardamom and cinnamon bark.
Silky and moderately sweet, with the tannin and red fruit of Barolo underneath the spice and a clean quinine bitterness threading through.
Long, warm and softly bitter, with mulling-spice aromatics and dried fruit.
Flavor meter
How to serve it
- 01Neat at cool room temperature in a small tulip glass with dark chocolate.
- 02Slightly chilled after a rich winter meal.
- 03In place of sweet vermouth in a Manhattan for a spiced, lower-proof version.
- 04With hazelnut cake or torta di nocciole, the Langhe pairing.
Where to Get It
Sold in good wine shops rather than the amaro aisle, since it is legally an aromatized wine. Widely exported by the larger Piedmontese houses.
Wine shops
Look in the fortified or dessert-wine section, $35–$70.
Online retailers
Cocchi and Marolo bottlings ship most reliably.
In the Langhe
Many Barolo estates sell a house chinato at the cellar door.
Affiliate buying links coming soon.
Barolo Chinato FAQ
What is Barolo Chinato?
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An aromatized wine made by infusing DOCG Barolo with cinchona bark, roots and spices, then lightly sweetening and fortifying it.
Is Barolo Chinato an amaro?
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Not technically. It is wine-based rather than spirit-based, but it plays the same after-dinner role and shares the same bitter botanicals.
What do you pair it with?
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Dark chocolate is the classic match, along with hazelnut desserts from the Langhe.
How strong is it?
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Usually 16–17% ABV, much lower than a spirit-based amaro.