Museo Martini di Storia dell'Enologia
At the Martini & Rossi estate in Pessione, a hamlet of Chieri in the Piedmontese hills south of Turin, a museum of wine history opens 4,000 objects across a former agricultural complex: amphoras, wine presses, Roman glass vessels, medieval winemaking tools, and the archive of Martini vermouth from its 1863 invention to the globalised aperitivo culture it helped create.
At a glance
The Museo Martini di Storia dell'Enologia (Museum of Winemaking History) opened in 1961 at the Martini & Rossi production estate in Pessione, a small community in the municipality of Chieri, 15 kilometres south of Turin in the Monferrato foothills. The museum occupies part of the estate's historic farm buildings and holds one of the most extensive private collections of wine and viticulture objects in Italy: more than 4,000 items spanning from prehistoric cultivation evidence through the Roman period, the medieval monastic winemaking tradition, and the development of the vermouth category in nineteenth-century Turin, to the industrial production history of Martini & Rossi itself. The estate remains an active production facility; the museum is accessible by appointment and by organised visit.
Key facts
- Museum opened: 1961
- Collection: 4,000+ objects, prehistoric to twentieth century
- Address: Piazza Luigi Rossi 1, Pessione, 10023 Chieri (TO)
- GPS: 44.9656, 7.8409
- Martini & Rossi founded: 1863 by Alessandro Martini, Luigi Rossi, and Teofilo Sola
- Owner: Bacardi Limited (since 1992)
- Reference: martini.com
History
Vermouth — wine aromatised with wormwood (Artemisia absinthium, whose German name Wermut gives the drink its name) and other botanicals — was formalised as a commercial category in Turin in 1786, when Antonio Benedetto Carpano produced the first recorded branded vermouth at his shop near Piazza Castello. The Piedmontese hills provided both the local Moscato wines used as the base and the Alpine herbs that gave the category its character; the drink became a fixture of the Turinese rito dell'aperitivo and spread internationally through the wine trade in the mid-nineteenth century.
Martini & Rossi was founded on 22 November 1863 when Alessandro Martini, Luigi Rossi (a herbalist and wine specialist), and Teofilo Sola purchased the Distilleria Nazionale di Spirito di Vino in Turin and began commercial production of vermouth under the Martini, Sola & Cia brand. The company was renamed Martini & Rossi after Sola left in 1879. The estate at Pessione was acquired as the production base; the Monferrato hills provided both the wine supply and the visual context for the brand's identity (the label's landscape imagery references the hills visible from the estate).
The brand expanded internationally through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, becoming one of the first Italian products with global distribution and systematic advertising: the Martini bottle, the cocktail glass, and the terrace bar became a visual shorthand for Italian lifestyle in international consumer markets. Bacardi acquired Martini & Rossi in 1992; production at Pessione continues, and the museum established in 1961 has been maintained as both a heritage facility and a brand anchor for the international visitor trade.
What you see
The Museo Martini is housed in the estate's historic agricultural buildings at Pessione — a hilltop hamlet with views across the Monferrato vine country toward the Alps and the Po plain. The estate complex includes the original cellars, the production facilities, and the museum wing arranged across the farm buildings around a central courtyard.
The collection is organised chronologically, beginning with prehistoric viticulture evidence (seed samples, carbonised grape pips, ceramic fragments with vine imagery) and moving through Etruscan and Roman wine culture (Greek and Etruscan amphorae, Roman glass vessels, pressing equipment), the medieval and Renaissance period (monastic winemaking tools, illustrated manuscripts, ceremonial vessels), and the emergence of the Turin vermouth industry in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Martini & Rossi section covers the brand's production history from the 1863 founding, including original bottles, advertising posters, early bottling machinery, and the archival documentation of the company's international expansion.
Practical information
- Visits: By appointment; contact via martini.com or the Chieri tourist office
- Time needed: 1.5–2 hours
- Highlights: Etruscan and Roman amphoras; medieval winemaking tools; 19th-century vermouth production archive; Martini advertising poster collection
- Combined visit: The estate visit often includes a tasting of current Martini vermouth products in the historic cellars
Getting there
Pessione is 15 km south of Turin and 5 km from the town of Chieri, which is served by a local bus from Turin (Via Roma direction Chieri). By car from Turin: take the SS10 toward Chieri, then follow signs to Pessione; or the A21 autostrada toward Asti, exit at Chieri, then 5 minutes to Pessione. There is no direct public transport to Pessione itself; most visitors arrive by car or taxi from Chieri.
Nearby
- Chieri — 5 km, medieval hill town with Gothic Duomo (1405) and 16th-century porticoed streets
- Torino — 15 km north, Mole Antonelliana, Museo Egizio, MAUTO, Pininfarina
- Monferrato wine hills — 20 km east, UNESCO-listed wine landscape; Barbera d'Asti DOCG territory
- Canale d'Alba / Barbaresco — 60 km south-east, Nebbiolo di Barolo and Barbaresco production
Sources
- Wikipedia (Italian): Martini & Rossi
- Wikipedia (English): Martini & Rossi
- Nominatim / OpenStreetMap: GPS 44.9656, 7.8409 (Piazza Luigi Rossi, Pessione)
- Wikimedia Commons: File:Chiesa di San Leonardo, Chieri, CC BY-SA 3.0. Courtesy image — the CHO community is invited to contribute a photo of the Museo Martini at Pessione.
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