Barbaresco wine production in the Langhe
THE STORY OF OUR LABELS
Italo Stupino recalls:
«I was invited to a dinner with Veronelli; we hadn’t printed the labels yet, so I took the mock-ups and cut them up by hand.
The work held me up and I arrived late. There were no seats left, so they put me close to Gino, who I hadn’t yet met.
When he asked me how many bottles of wine I had labelled, I had to admit to just: ….four !!
We became firm friends from that day on.
How did we decide on our label and how has it changed?
Who can tell us if not Italo?
“The neoclassical Empire Style reached its greatest splendour during the reign of Napoleon and had an extraordinarily long life in Italy, until 1850 and beyond. It seeped in until it decorated homes in every social class.”
The Return from Egypt Empire Style
We are used to living with Empire-style furniture inherited from our great-grandparents on both sides. Furthermore, the main salon of the Castello has the walls decorated in the Return from Egypt style, with sphinxes to commemorate Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign, all the furniture, including tables and sofas, is Empire-style.
I’ve always been attracted by the sober and restrained elegance, the linear surfaces and columns, and the beauty of the bronze accents of Empire-style furniture.
The label designed by Italo
When I decided to print the first labels of our Barbaresco in 1964, I was attracted by the bronze frieze of a writing desk at home.
I copied it and gave it to the graphic designer. The label font was Augustea or something similar, the bottle, a bordelaise, because it was the most linear and didn’t swell outwards as Burgundy and Albeisa bottles do.
How the Castello di Neive label got its start and changed over the years
The first engraving of the Castello was etched by Marcello Peola and went on the bottles from the 60's and 70’s.
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It was followed by Franco Bruna's etching in the 80’s.
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And then again in the 90’s by
Vinicio Perugia, which is the one we use today.