Why it matters
The producer
Torino Distillati operates a vermouth and aperitivo facility in Moncalieri, a town immediately south of Turin in Piedmont, the region that gave Italian vermouth its name and its tradition. The production entity is Torino Distillati, and the product line is Hotel Starlino. Carlo Vergnano runs the company with his wife Piera and daughter Rita.
The range is built on a Marsala and Trebbiano wine base rather than neutral spirit, which places the products in the aromatised wine category under European law and connects them directly to Italian wine tradition. What distinguishes the house is what happens after the botanical infusion: Starlino Rosso is aged in Kentucky bourbon barrels, a step with no precedent in traditional Italian rosso vermouth production. Starlino Rosso carries vanilla warmth and spice depth that most Italian vermouths do not have.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Moncalieri sits at the southern edge of Turin's urban sprawl where the Po valley opens out toward the Langhe hills. The town is unremarkable on the surface, but it has been part of the vermouth trade since the industry formed in Piedmont in the late eighteenth century. Vermouth di Torino, the protected geographical designation covering sweet and dry vermouths produced in the greater Turin area, draws on Piedmont's position at the intersection of Alpine botanicals and wine-producing countryside. Marsala arrives from Sicily; Trebbiano comes from across central and northern Italy. The Moncalieri plant on Via Montegrappa blends those materials with locally sourced and imported botanicals, and the resulting vermouth carries a Piedmontese address even when its components travel further.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
Production begins with a blend of Marsala and Trebbiano wines. The two are combined and infused with botanicals, including orange peel, vanilla, and clove alongside multiple varieties of wormwood, for thirty days. After infusion the liquid is distilled to fix the botanical character, then transferred to Kentucky bourbon barrels for ageing.
The bourbon casks contribute more than colour. Used bourbon wood carries residual vanilla, caramel, and baking spice from the whiskey that preceded it, and those compounds migrate into the vermouth during ageing. Starlino Rosso has warmth and vanilla depth that sits outside the flavour range of most Italian vermouth. The finish is bittersweet rather than purely herbal, and the mid-palate is fuller than Trebbiano's natural character would suggest on its own.
Wines to know
The range in view
The Hotel Starlino range divides into two production streams: the oak-aged rosso vermouth and the stainless-matured aperitivi.
Starlino Rosso is a sweet rosso vermouth on a Marsala and Trebbiano base, infused for thirty days with orange peel, vanilla, clove, and wormwood, then aged in Kentucky bourbon barrels. It pours deep bronze amber with red glints. The nose is botanical and warm: orange peel and clove lead, with vanilla from the cask behind them. The palate brings prune, raisin, and stewed tea alongside vanilla and bittersweet herbal complexity. The finish is long, bittersweet, and herbaceous.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Starlino Rosso is the bottle to open first. It is a sweet rosso vermouth on a Marsala and Trebbiano base, botanical and warm, aged in Kentucky bourbon barrels. Pour it over ice with a piece of orange peel and nothing else. The bourbon barrel ageing is immediately apparent: vanilla and baking spice sit beneath the orange peel and clove on the nose, and the mid-palate is fuller and warmer than most Italian rosso vermouth offers. Prune, raisin, and stewed tea carry the fruit; a bittersweet herbal finish holds the length.