{"id":642994,"date":"2026-08-18T05:10:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T05:10:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/642994\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T05:10:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T05:10:27","slug":"a-long-gone-trattoria-in-italy-yields-a-treasure-trove-of-rare-whisky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/642994\/","title":{"rendered":"A Long-Gone Trattoria In Italy Yields A Treasure Trove Of Rare Whisky"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a private room known as \u201cThe Connoisseur Room\u201d at Collezione New York<\/a>, the rare wine and spirits boutique on Madison Avenue, about two dozen bottles of single malt Scotch sit on a few shelves. The names are mostly familiar \u2014 Bowmore<\/a>, Talisker<\/a>, Ardbeg<\/a>, and Springbank<\/a>, among others \u2014 but the labels look unlike anything seen in a typical liquor store. The bottles appear brand new, but a closer look reveals that these whiskies were bottled decades prior, in some cases more than a half century ago. They\u2019re part of an extraordinary find that took place in a warehouse in Italy earlier this year, and now they\u2019re for sale to the public. <\/p>\n

A taste of the Cantarelli whisky collection.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy Collezione New York<\/p>\n

The Italian Connection To Single Malt Scotch Goes Back Decades<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many modern collectors are unaware of the Italian connection to Scotch single malts, but it\u2019s impossible to tell the story of Scotch whisky in the 20th century without including Italy. From the late 19th century until the 1960s, single malt whiskies barely existed on a commercial level. Distilleries rarely bottled their own whiskies, instead selling casks to blending houses or to independent bottlers, where they would wind up in blended Scotches. Even after single malts started to become a viable proposition, first with the release of Glenfiddich<\/a>\u2019s Straight Malt in 1963 and then with the launch of Gordon & MacPhail\u2019s Connoisseur\u2019s Choice<\/a> series in 1968, they were still a tiny niche market until the early 1990s. <\/p>\n

One notable exception to the rule was Italy. Much as Japan spearheaded the revival of bourbon in the \u201880s, the early single malts found a receptive audience in the Italian market in the \u201860s and \u201970s. Forward-thinking importers like Silvano Samaroli, Nadi Fiori, Ernesto Mainardi and Armando Giovinetti aren\u2019t household names in the world of whisky, but they\u2019re the ones who planted the seeds of the single malt revolution that are still flowering today. <\/p>\n

Single malt wasn\u2019t considered a luxury spirit in those early days. \u201cIn the past, you\u2019d go to any coffee bar in Italy to get an espresso,\u201d says Stefano Pileggi<\/a>, the owner of Collezione. \u201cAnd then on the top shelf, you\u2019ll find Glen Grant<\/a> from the \u201860s, and Macallan<\/a> from the \u201970s. People were drinking like that! That was the beautiful thing. It was not expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n

A native of Calabria, the 42 year old Pileggi is too young to have experienced the golden age of single malts in Italy firsthand. But as he developed a passion for whisky \u2014 before opening Collezione, he was one of the foremost Macallan collectors in the world \u2014 he befriended and learned from many of the original importers. Even though he\u2019s lived in America since 2011, he still has close ties to the Italian whisky community. It was through that community (from whom specifically he won\u2019t say, preferring to keep his sources confidential) that he first learned of a potential once-in-a-lifetime find.<\/p>\n

Stefano Pileggi, owner of Collezione New York, in the Connoisseur Room.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy Collezione New York<\/p>\n

A Legendary Italian Restaurant, And A Secret It Kept For Decades<\/strong><\/p>\n

Trattoria Cantarelli<\/a>, or I Cantarelli, as it was known, opened in 1953, in the back of a small and well-curated grocery store founded in the early 20th century by the parents of the restaurant\u2019s founder, Giuseppe \u201cPeppino\u201d Cantarelli. Peppino ran the store and restaurant with his wife, Mirella del Nevo Cantarelli, who was also the primary chef. The store was a wonder of its own, carrying a range of esoteric English, French, and Scottish delicacies, including whisky: Dario Zanasi wrote in 1965<\/a> of \u201cthe crowded shelves\u201d containing “Barnetts smoked salmon, Bruchladdich malt whisky, Strasbourg p\u00e2t\u00e9s, and Scottish jams.”<\/p>\n

I Cantarelli\u2019s legend has endured. It was a groundbreaking restaurant in its time. Located not in a big city but in the small town of Samboseto in lower Parma, it was the first trattoria featuring simple, provincial cuisine and an unfussy atmosphere to earn two Michelin stars, a status it kept from 1970 until its closing. The out-of-the-way restaurant became an international destination spot, not just for gourmands but for intellectuals, artists, and celebrities including Burt Lancaster, Gerard Depardieu, and Robert De Niro<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The food wasn\u2019t the only focus at I Cantarelli. The trattoria also had a formidable wine selection \u2014 and a deep and well-curated selection of Scotch single malts. I Cantarelli closed the last day of December, 1982. The store remained open for the next decade until Peppino Cantarelli died in 1992, following Mirella, who had passed away in 1986. At that point, the remaining stocks of whisky went into storage and stayed there, forgotten, for more than thirty years. <\/p>\n

The Find Of A Lifetime<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fast forward to 2026. Pileggi, who still travels to Italy regularly, recalls, \u201cThis guy tells me, \u2018Stefano, there is the possibility of this crazy collection that this restaurant, Cantarelli, had for many, many years, and the family had, in this warehouse, cases\u2019\u2026. I said, look, it\u2019s too good to be true. Like, it\u2019s dream stuff. So when I went to Italy and I went to see the things, I was like, whoa, I want all of it.\u201d <\/p>\n

The cases turned out to be cardboard boxes. \u201c[That\u2019s how] the whiskey was delivered to the importers,\u201d Pileggi says. “Remember, it was cheap stuff.” When he opened the boxes, \u201cThe bottles were packed in there, brand new, had never been unpacked.\u201d <\/p>\n

The definitive history of I Cantarelli, along with some of the bottles from the trattoria’s collection.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy Collezione New York<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Old Stock\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pileggi marvels at the condition of the bottles. \u201cThese are like, in the language of collectible watches or vinyl, \u2018new old stock.\u2019 In 40 years, these bottles, this is the second time someone apart from this family touched [them].\u201d<\/p>\n

Apart from the condition in the bottles, the liquid in them is the stuff of collectors\u2019 wildest dreams. Highland Park from the 1970s, bottled at 57% ABV<\/a>. 12 year old Ardbeg, laid down in 1954<\/a>. Macallans distilled in the 1930s<\/a> and \u201840s<\/a> and bottled by Gordon & MacPhail in the \u201970s. Back then it was called \u201cMacallan-Glenlivet<\/a>;\u201d Glenlivet was the standard bearer for Scotch whisky and its name was legally used in hyphenated form by other distilleries. <\/p>\n

Asked if he has any favorites among the Cantarelli bottles, Pileggi quickly names three. A 12 year old Clynelish bottled in the late \u201860s or early \u201970s at 57% ABV, when almost all whiskies were bottled at 40% or 43% (“I only had one time the possibility of drinking the 57, and I was blown away”). A 15 year old Port Ellen, distilled in 1977 \u2014 six years before the fabled Islay distillery closed for good \u2014 and bottled at 63.6% ABV, one of the highest-proof Port Ellens ever produced. And a Springbank, aged in sherry casks, bottled at 57% ABV, distilled in 1972 and bottled in 1982 (“I\u2019m in love with this whisky. All the full proof Springbanks\u2026. I\u2019m a sherry cask guy. the old ones”).<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most important bottle from a historical viewpoint is a bottle of Rosebank<\/a>, estimated to be from the 1970s. It\u2019s not just that the distillery has been closed since the early \u201890s (a new Rosebank distillery has since opened). A label on the back indicates that it was imported into Italy by Edoardo Giaccone for his establishment, Whiskyteca Edward & Edward<\/a> in Sal\u00f2. Whiskyteca wasn\u2019t just one of the first whisky bars in Italy (it opened in 1958), but it was also the biggest, stocking more than 1,500 whiskies. Giaccone\u2019s whisky collection was, for a time, the biggest in the world<\/a>, even making it into the Guinness Book of World Records. The fact that one of his bottles wound up in the Cantarelli collection shows the connection between the various importers, merchants, and enthusiasts at the time. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s Like They Knew The Future\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe view of these big Italians back then, I don\u2019t know, it\u2019s like they knew the future,\u201d Pileggi marvels. \u201cAnd there was no future in the \u201860s and \u201970s. These guys were buying pallets [of whisky]. It\u2019s difficult sometimes, even for me, to explain to the public. You don\u2019t know Italians back there. We\u2019re f***ing nuts! <\/p>\n

Bottles like this are rarely found at auction, and when they are they\u2019re usually less pristine, with scuffed labels, damaged or missing display boxes, torn tax strips and the like. And anyway, Pileggi isn\u2019t a fan of auctions, especially online auctions, which is part of why he opened a brick-and-mortar store. \u201cThe things that you experience \u2014 the bottles, the beauty of them, you touch them, you see them, you can see the label, you like it, you don\u2019t like it\u2026. And in this case, if you think that provenance is important, you\u2019re going to be the third [person] touching that bottle. You think about, it will be pretty premium excitement, at least for a collector.\u201d For New Yorkers, or visitors to the city from out of town, visiting Collezione is a singular experience, though the store\u2019s stock, including the Cantarelli bottles, is also available to purchase online.<\/p>\n

Pileggi values the personal interactions that come with the shop, and while he doesn\u2019t always match the lowest prices online, he makes sure the perks are worth the extra money. \u201cFor me, I always wanted to build relationships in life. That\u2019s why I\u2019m, God bless, 15 years in New York. I\u2019ve built good relationships that allow me to meet people, that allow me to meet collectors. And now I can do what I can do. There are people that prefer to build their relationships, to have an experience on Madison Avenue. I spent money on the floor, I spent money on walls, I spent money in the cabinetry to make the stuff beautiful for [the customer], not for me.\u201d <\/p>\n

He brings it back to I Cantarelli: \u201cI\u2019m pretty sure, if I could time travel and see a picture of it, they didn\u2019t save money in making the trattoria, either. They made the trattoria, really, the best they could have gotten. And back then, even the whiskies, they were the best they could have gotten. They didn\u2019t [go] to their supplier and say, oh, I can find cheaper. They want the best Parmigiano, the best meat, the best, the best, the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pileggi is proud, he says, not just to have acquired the Cantarelli collection, but to have established a connection with one of the great Italian restaurants of the 20th century. \u201cI\u2019m giving a touch of life to the family, thanks to this collection. Cantarelli, they don\u2019t exist anymore. They are dead. But now, they\u2019re probably going to get a little bit of life again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a private room known as \u201cThe Connoisseur Room\u201d at Collezione New York, the rare wine and spirits…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[75],"tags":[168943,272018,18,117,19,17,272023,272022,272020,204048,272025,272019,272024,272021],"class_list":["post-642994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ardbeg","tag-collezione-new-york","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-macallan","tag-port-ellen","tag-rare-scotch-whisky","tag-scotch","tag-springbank","tag-stefano-pileggi","tag-trattoria-cantarelli","tag-vintage-whisky"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117114793078691389","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}