Hotel Cipriani Grape Harvest Brings Back the Venetian Tradition of 'Vin Salso'

Casanova's romantic adventures are the inspiration for a  wine  made from grapes grown at the Hotel Cipriani, the first vintage produced in Venice for 200 years.

The tradition of “vin salso” production on Giudecca island where the Hotel Cipriani is situated, goes back centuries and this harvest at the hotel is considered rare.  The vineyard is adjacent to the hotel’s Casanova Garden, one of the old “salted” vegetable gardens of Venice (similar to the “prés salés” of France) that supplied not only vegetables to the noble families of Venice, but also wine.

In 1753, when the great lover Giacomo Casanova was living in Venice, he visited the Giudecca, the island upon which the Hotel Cipriani now stands, in pursuit of yet another seduction. But a recently-discovered reference to the visit in Casanova's writings has had the effect of reviving Venice's wine-making tradition - at the Cipriani's own vineyard.

Casanova had become friendly with a disreputable family, the Caprettas. The son of the house wanted Casanova's endorsement on a bill of exchange and decided to bribe the lothario with the promise of love. He gave him the key to a "pavilion" on the Giudecca with the suggestion that Casanova invite Caterina Capretta, the young man's sister, to taste the famous wines produced on the island.

At the time, the Giudecca was known as "Venice's garden of delights", a place of parks, orchards and wineries where citizens came to take the air and enjoy the island's "vin salso". The wine was famous for its salty (salso) aftertaste which resulted from the vineyard's proximity to the lagoon.

In Casanova's record of his tryst with Caterina, he wrote: "It was Pentecost Monday and there were plenty of people about, a dozen groups seated at the tables!"

This reference tells of the presence on the Giudecca of open-air coffee shops and wine booths at which the "vin salso" was served. It was discovered, along with the story of Casanova's love for Caterina Capretta and his connection with the Giudecca wine, by the historian of cuisine Massimo Alberini, who first raised the possibility of reviving Venice's wine-making tradition.

"There used to be a vineyard at the back of the hotel, but it had long been abandoned," explains Hotel Cipriani's managing director Dr Natale Rusconi. "When Mr Alberini mentioned the Casanova story to me, the idea of using the area to create a new vin salso took root."

In 1997, Dr Rusconi rented the old vineyard land and began planting the vines which three years later have just produced their first vintage. On a beautiful day in September 2000 professional grape pickers joined 30 staff from the hotel including chambermaids, cooks and bell boys, to harvest more than 3,000 kgs of black grapes.

"We decided to make a party out of the harvest by doing all the picking in a single day and inviting the hotel staff to join in," said Dr Rusconi. "In the event we had the most perfect day imaginable and celebrated with a banquet for everyone."

The grapes were transported by barge across the Venetian Lagoon and then onto refrigerated trucks in a delicate transport operation which took them to the Capanelle vineyard in Gaiole in the Chianti region of Tuscany.

Under the guidance of expert winemaker Simone Monciatti, 1,500 bottles were produced for delivery to the Hotel Cipriani’s cellars in spring 2002. The new wine, which was called Casanova Salso, was aged in oak casks and available for consumption from 2002 onwards.

To find our more about the tradition of Vin Salso please click here.

March 2001