The history of Anselmo

Carlo Anselmo was born in 1847 into a fairly wealthy peasant family. His father Cesare was able to turn a vision into reality: a country man, he wanted to bring the best of the values and certain atmospheres of rural life to the city. He therefore moved with whole his family to Turin, at that time not yet the capital of a united Italy.


Working without sparing himself, he managed to open, one after one, several inns in the city centre. In a small workshop in Via Mazzini, young Carlo took the family business in a new direction. He experiments all night and day long, until he finds the ideal blend of herbs and spices to infuse in a Moscato di Canelli wine of the highest quality and calls the result of his research ‘Vermouth Anselmo’.



 

Gradually, the bottles began to show up more and more often in the patisseries and elegant liquor stores in the centre of Turin. Towards the end of the 19th century, Anselmo expanded production: his new establishment at Barriera del Martinetto now looked like a real factory. From 1908 onwards, it was the turn of his daughter Carola Alba Anselmo, a cultured and energetic woman, to lead a company that continued to grow, exporting worldwide. Carola Alba, with her husband Carlo Montiferrari, moved the factory outside Turin, to None. Here, in the early 1900s, they created two new specialities destined for foreign markets: Vermouth Dante Excelsior and Aperitivo Pinocchio.


  
 

At the same time Prohibition caused sales in America to plummet and Anselmo, now run by Aldo Bachi, suffered a major downsizing. With the war came a real tragedy: Aldo Bachi was deported by the Nazis, like other Jews from Turin, and did not return. In the post-war period, the economy of an Italy that had finally returned to freedom struggles to get back on its feet, Anselmo's production restarts and the company is led by a family of industrialists from Turin.



Back to the present day..the rural company Vecchio Magazzino Doganale, which has taken over the historic brand, will ensure that the artisanal vermouth ‘alla moda di Torino’ returns home, respecting the values of the Vermouth Consortium. The historic Carlo Anselmo company, in addition to vermouth, produced various liqueurs belonging to the Italian liqueur tradition. Alongside the production of Anselmo Vermouth, the following are reborn today: Bitter Italiano, Fernet Classico, Bitter Italiano ‘Peated Wood Finish’, Gin Italiano and Grappa Moscato made from the muscat marc used for the Vermouth base. Future projects will include Noisette di Chivasso, made from the prized Piemontesi hazelnuts, Dante, Pinocchio and Chonusia.