Coppo since 1892: the story of our winery in Canelli of the cellar

Coppo since 1892: the story of our winery in Canelli

Coppo’s story is woven into the story of Piedmontese wine, and above all into that of Canelli — the birthplace of Italian sparkling wine, and still one of the country’s most important winemaking centers. It isn’t a story we put in a museum: you walk through it, and it’s under your feet.

The beginning, 1892

The winery was founded in 1892, making Coppo one of the oldest wine estates in Italy—so much so that in 2012 Unioncamere entered it in the national register of historic Italian businesses: more than a century of unbroken activity in the same trade.

The founder is Piero Coppo. He follows every step himself: the work in the vineyard, the pressing, the fermentation, the aging. A hundred and thirty years later, in the same rooms, it is still done that way — and anyone who comes down into the cellar sees it firsthand.

Canelli, where Italian sparkling wine was born

At the time, Canelli was the key marketplace for Piedmont’s grapes, where growers and winemakers met. It was here, in the second half of the nineteenth century, that the first Italian sparkling wine to undergo a second fermentation in the bottle was made, from Moscato grapes — an idea that changed the course of Italian winemaking and turned a hill town into an industrial center with customers around the world. It was into that Canelli that Piero Coppo brought his own production, in 1892.

That story hasn’t ended: our Metodo Classico sparkling wines still rest in the very tunnels where it began.

Two houses, one hill, 1910

In 1910 Piero married Clelia Pennone, heir to the Pio Pennone cellars, a house that had been producing and exporting wine for two generations. The Pennone buildings, between via Giuliani and via Alba, joined the Coppo cellars in the center of Canelli. That is where we still are.

The tunnels beneath the hill

From the eighteenth century onward, the tunnels and passages now known as the Underground Cathedrals were cut by hand into the tufa beneath that hill. Since 2014 they have been part of the UNESCO World Heritage site “The Vineyard Landscape of Piedmont: Langhe-Roero and Monferrato,” of which Canelli is one of six components.

Forty meters down, the temperature settles between 12 and 14 °C (54–57 °F), the air changes, and today’s barrels stand exactly where the barrels of a century ago stood. This is not a reconstruction. It’s the working cellar.

Two wines for the founders

Two of the house’s most prized labels, made in limited quantities, are dedicated to Piero and Clelia: Alta Langa Piero Coppo Riserva del Fondatore and Rosé Metodo Classico Clelia Coppo. They carry their names because everything started with them.

Anyone who makes it this far finds no archive — a place of work with a hundred and thirty years on its shoulders, and a journey through the wines of Piedmont at the end of the walk.

COPPO WAS ALREADY EXPORTING AND SHIPPING ITS WINES ALL OVER THE WORLD AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 20th CENTURY.

Production ranged from sparkling wines to the typical red wines of Piedmont, most notably Barbera. These were joined by Vermouth, an aromatised beverage made from wine that became a social phenomenon and a milestone in the history of aperitifs and cocktails between the 19th and early 20th centuries.

As the decades went by, the company’s reputation grew, accompanied by an increasing awareness of its identity and a focus on quality: greater care in the vineyard, lower yields thanks to bunch thinning, elimination of pesticides and growing attention to cellar processes.

Following the example of the French vignerons, the winery launched its first experiments with the use of small oak barrels, capable of conveying great complexity, elegance and longevity to both red and white wines. The 1980s were decisive for the rebirth of Barbera: and Coppo was the standard-bearer of that rebirth. 1984 was the first vintage of what was destined to become the company’s signature wine, Pomorosso.

In 2014, the Coppo cellars were recognised by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

In 2017, the journey towards the finest expression of the Barbera grape variety continued. Coppo promotes the specificities of the vineyards owned in the Nizza appellation, which was acknowledged in 2014.
Following the entry of the new ownership in 2021, investments are growing in the Langhe with Nebbiolo vines, and with new acquisitions in some of the Langhe’s finest cru vineyards for the production of Barolo.

130 years on, the quest for quality, respect for tradition and the ambition to achieve excellence continue to be the winery’s founding values.