While staying in one of our villas you can easily visit Canelli, an enchanting small town in the heart of the Monferrato area. If you approach from afar, you can already see the castle of the Gancia family towering at the top of the old borgo of Canelli. Canelli is a pleasant town with a small and lively centre and some good restaurants and bars, but it is best known for its underground wine cellars, the so-called ‘cattedrali sottoterranee. The no less than 13 kilometres of cellar passages under Canelli are so special that since 2014 they have received a spot on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.
The capital of Spumante
Thanks to its underground wine cathedrals, Canelli is also known as the capital of spumante. The sparkling wine is stored in cellars excavated in the tufa hills between the 16th and 19th centuries and intact to this day.
It was Carlo Gancia who, after visiting Reims to learn the secrets of champagne, ‘imported’ the méthode champenoise. He managed to simplify the process a little and applied it to moscato grapes, which grow in the area around Canelli.
We now present you the different cellars of the families all with their own characteristics. For visits you need to make a reservation upfront.
Coppo
We start at Coppo a family business founded in the early 1900s by Piero Coppo, he started producing the sweet Moscato, in later years also more dry white sparkling wines such as the Asti Spumante and Brut Pinot Noir to compete with the populare Barbera. Currently, the company is run by the third & fourth generations of Coppo’s. Their wine range has expanded and they now also produce a very excellent Barbera aged in small oak barrels ‘il Pomorosso’ and a good Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay.The Coppo family’s cellars are not large but their friendliness more than compensates for that.
Cantine Coppo – Via Alba, 68 – 14053 Canelli (AT) Tel. +39 0141 823146 – info@coppo.com
Bosca
Next, we visit the Bosca family’s cellars. The above ground entrance to their cellars is modern and inviting. The visit to their wine cellars is didactically well developed with audiovisual support, telling you about the history of their family and the city. Afterwards, as with all wineries, there is a tasting of their products.
Cantine Bosca – Via G.B. Giuliani, 23- 14053 Canelli (AT)- cantine@Bosca.it
Contratto
Canelli’s most exclusive winery is Contratto, this winery was founded in 1867 by Giuseppe Contratto. Under his leadership, Contratto became purveyor to the Italian royal family and the Vatican, among others. In 1993, Contratto passed into the hands of Carlo Bocchino, an acclaimed grappa distiller from Canelli. He had the amazing cellars and accompanying buildings restored to their former glory.
Over a decade ago, Contratto was taken over by the Rivetti family of La Spinetta winery. They hark back to history to make their spumante and, in homage to their history, even give the wines the names and labels they carried under Giuseppe Contratto.
Cantine Contratto – Via Giovanni Battista Giuliani 52, 14053, Canelli (AT)
Gancia
Situated at the other end of the small town, we find the Gancia cellars, they are probably the most famous. Gancia is an iconic Italian winery renowned for pioneering sparkling wine production. Located in the historic town of Canelli in Piedmont, it thrives in a region celebrated for its winemaking traditions. The vineyards benefit from a unique terroir that lends elegance and complexity to every bottle, while the winery itself masterfully blends centuries-old techniques with modern innovations in viticulture. Today, Gancia stands as a proud emblem of Italy’s rich enological heritage and excellence, continuing to captivate wine enthusiasts around the world.
Cantine Gancia – Corso Libertà, 66, 14053 Canelli AT
If you want help planning your visit to one of the underground cathedrals in Canelli, you can always ask someone from the Viva! team.
These Viva! villas are very close to Canelli :
