Carpenè Malvolti

Foundation

Antonio Carpenè, a chemist trained in Pavia, wanted to do in Italy what only the French were then doing with sparkling wine. The money came from Angelo Malvolti, a landowner and family friend, who left after about twenty years; Carpenè kept his name on the company.¹ The house dates itself to 1868 in Conegliano.¹

The school

In 1876 Carpenè and Professor Giovanni Battista Cerletti founded in Conegliano the first School of Viticulture and Oenology in Italy.¹ Conegliano later named a street after him and placed his bust in front of the school.¹

Tank method and the name Prosecco

The Prosecco DOC consortium credits Martinotti with refermentation in large closed tanks and names Antonio Carpenè as the first to use it for Prosecco (tank method).² The house says that after France reclaimed the name Champagne in 1923, the second generation, Etile Carpenè, put the grape name on a label: the 1924 bottle read 'Prosecco Vino Pregiato Amabile dei Colli di Conegliano'.¹

The house calls this the first label in the world to say Prosecco. This is its own claim; the variety is now called Glera.

Family

The house lists five generations: Antonio (1868), Etile (1924), Antonio (1944), Etile (2018) and Rosanna (2026).³ Conegliano lies in the Conegliano Valdobbiadene hills.³