What the hill kept hidden
The tunnels beneath the hill of Canelli were cut by hand into the tufa from the nineteenth century on. More than a century later, we picked up the pickaxe again: different tools, the same idea.
What we’ve done
We have reopened passages that had been walled up for decades, restored buildings left empty for years, doubled and modernised our production space, and rebuilt the visitor route through the Underground Cathedrals from scratch — today it can be walked in full, and safely.
What’s still to come
Two chapters remain, and they are the finest.
One is the stretch of tunnels still closed: a part of the Cathedrals no visitor has ever seen, which we will open to the tour route in autumn 2026.
The other is Palazzo Pennone, the home of Clelia’s family — one of the oldest buildings in Canelli, facing the winery. The Pennone had founded their own wine house, Pio Pennone, in 1800, and were long established by the time Piero Coppo started his in 1892; it was the marriage of Clelia Pennone and Piero Coppo, in 1910, that brought the two houses and the two cellars together beneath the same hill.
Now the Pennone home returns to what it was built for: Suites Palazzo Pennone 1872, apartments for those who want to stay in Canelli and sleep above the tunnels where the wine rests. During the works a fresco resurfaced on the ceiling, dated 1872 — the year that gives the palazzo its name — hidden there for generations.
