The Conegliano Enological School

5 SEPTEMBER 2014
ARTICLES | RELEASES
The Conegliano Enological School
The Conegliano Enological School was established with the Royal Decree of Vittorio Emanuele II on 9 July 1876; it was named after Giovanni Battista Cerletti, its distinguished founder and first director, on September 16, 1936. The Enoligic School is one of the ten public high schools in Italy where the art of winemaking is studied. The current Institute, designed by Eng. Bernardo Carpene ‘, was inaugurated on 24 September 1924 by the Duce Benito Mussolini. In recent years it has been renovated and enriched, so much so that it has become a reference point for national oenology. Including all the specializations, it currently has about 1300 students. In addition to the common classrooms, there are rooms for specialization subjects, such as the well-equipped chemistry, physics and science laboratories, and the cellar with the production and sale of wine and spirits of its own production. The Oenological School does not live only on past glories, but designs, researches and innovates; now its Campus houses the Professional Institute for Agriculture, the Agricultural Technical Institute, the University of Padua (for the achievement of a degree in Viticultural and Oenological Sciences and Technologies), the Regional Center for Viticulture, the winemaking and grappa from Veneto Agricoltura, the DOC Consortia of the Province, Assoenologi Veneto central-eastern Italy; a centralization that allows to promote all together fruitful synergies and collaborations of study, technical-scientific research, marketing of wine and agricultural products.

The Wine Shop

The original building, with a purely Italian architectural style, was declared a national monument with the entire body of the school building and is located to the left of the main building; it was commissioned by Arturo Marescalchi and Giovanni Dalmasso, built to a design by Eng. Bernardo Carpene ‘, decorated by prof. Enrico De Falco and furnished by prof. Giovanni Marsili. It was inaugurated in May 1927 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the Royal Enological School. The shop was then destroyed during the Second World War and reconstruction began in 1951. Subsequently over the years and up to the present day, it has undergone various renovations by and with the help of the Allievi Union, the Eastern Veneto Section of the AEI, the Foundation for Enological and Agricultural Teaching and the Province of Treviso. The Bottega has represented, from the very beginning, a demonstration, a rational example to follow of how to create other national shops and inns in which to taste the most genuine wine. Externally, the Bottega del Vino is announced by a wrought iron sign holding a flask and laterally by a rooster, also in wrought iron that supports a jug. Inside, a series of finely decorated arches branch off from two central columns partially covered with wood; at the back of the room, next to some carved barrels, there is a wooden counter for serving; all around the main room there are writings with sayings relating to wine and frescoes of vine leaves and animals. The side cells on the left are noteworthy. The first is frescoed with vines presenting bunches of grapes accompanied by birds, the second has a beautiful fireplace and the third, also called the octagonal room, has a ceiling frescoed with vine and bird motifs and in the center a wrought iron chandelier and flasks. of glass. The Bottega del vino represents a convivial meeting point and for drinks after conferences or events.

ILLUSTRATIVE CHARACTERS

CARONELLI PIETRO
(born in Conegliano-Tv in 1736 and died in Gai di S.Vendemiano-Tv in 1801)
He was President of the Conegliano Public Academy of Aspirants when Sciences and Agriculture were added to the Belle Lettere (1768).
He was a jurist, but his interests went from literature, to philosophy and to economic and agricultural sciences.
He was interested in the settlement pacts, the living conditions of the peasants. In his possessions he introduced modern techniques of cultivation. It is considered the precursor of agricultural education in the Conegliano area. For his agrarian merits in 1790 he was appointed count by the Venetian Senate and Conegliano entitled him a street in the center.

GERA FRANCESCO
(born in Conegliano – TV on 10/02/1803 and died in Conegliano – TV on 25/03/1867)
He was a doctor but he also dedicated himself to the study of agricultural matters and had his first successes in the field of bacology and silk culture. These studies of him earned him several awards. He did his utmost to assist the needy in the opitergino and the Conegliano area when a cholera epidemic broke out. In the meantime he collected the material to be able to publish a “New universal and reasoned dictionary of agriculture”. He founded the newspaper “Il Coltivatore” but opposed by

the Austrian censorship. He made other publications on agricultural topics: silk, potatoes, beets, dairy and themes of animal husbandry and rural economy. For a long time he was interested in agricultural education, to remember the proposal of a
“Illustrated agricultural catechism” for use by students.
In 1863 he managed to give life to the first experiment of the theoretical-practical agricultural school of the Venetian provinces and is therefore considered the precursor of the Enological School.
He was imprisoned by the Austrians for his activity as a patriot. A few years after his release he was attacked by the evil caused by the hardships of imprisonment, which brought about his death. Conegliano named a street after him.

BENEDETTI DON FELICE
(born in Godega di S.Urbano – TV on 08/25/1819 and died in Pianzano – TV in 1886)
An opponent of illiteracy, he set up various daytime, evening and holiday schools. He was a patriot priest in the Risorgimento. He promoted meetings and congresses to encourage farmers and, in 1867, founded the Conegliano Agricultural Committee, of which he was president until 1884. He devoted himself to the study and experimentation of: livestock, fertilizers, irrigation, grafts, sericulture, classification and description of grape varieties. In 1870 he published his “Popular Agricultural Catechism”.
Together with Antonio Carpene, he founded the Trevigiana Wine Society.

CARPENE ’ANTONIO
(born in Brugnera – PN on 17/08/1838 and died in Conegliano – TV on 23/03/1902)
His was an intense life of study and participation in national events (I also took part in the battle of the Volturno as a Garibaldian). Here we report only a few data: in 1863 he was called to teach chemistry, physics and science at the Royal Technical and Agricultural School of Conegliano founded in that year by Francesco Gera. He headed the Trevigiana Wine Society, propagating the best winemaking maxims to combat empiricism. Since 1873 he undertook his campaign in favor of the foundation of a School of Enology in Conegliano of which he was President.
With Angelo Malvolti he started the Carpene ’Malvolti winery. Numerous publications by him: “Theoretical-practical notions of viticulture and winemaking” with Professor Vianello; again with Vianello the monograph “The vine and wine in the province of Treviso”; “Critical studies on the chemical composition of wines” and many others. In collaboration with Comboni he created the enocyanine industry.
There was also intense activity in the field of laboratory instrumentation and oenological technique.

LUZZATI LUIGI
(Born in Venice on 03/01/1841 and died in Rome on 04/29/1927)
Venetian Jew, economist and politician, deputy, senator, several times Minister of the Treasury, but also of Agriculture, on which ministry then the agricultural schools depended; finally Prime Minister in 1910. he Great supporter of popular banks and cooperation.
He was tutelary deity of the Oenological School in the first fifty years of its history: he supported its institution in Conegliano, chose the director, Giovan Battista Cerletti, and later favored the establishment of the Foundation for oenological and agricultural teaching.

GRAZZI SONCINI GIACOMO
(born in Viadana – MN in 1844 and died in Viadana – MN on 21/03/1906)
Coming from the Agricultural School of Grumello del Monte (BG), which he founded, he directed the School of Conegliano from 1887 to 1891 and later that of Alba and Catania.
He was an exemplary teacher and author of various publications in the field of viticulture, fruit growing and enology. In the Coneglianese period, among other things, two series of highly appreciated notes, entitled “Tasting of wines”, “Characters and defects of wines” and “Filters”, appeared in the “New review of viticulture and enology” of the years 1889 and 1890.

CERLETTI GIOVANNI BATTISTA
(born in Chiavenna – SO on 19/05/1846 and died in Chiavenna on 12/09/1906)
He completed his first studies in Como and then enrolled in the mathematics faculty of the University of Pavia. In 1869 he won a specialization scholarship abroad for agricultural studies with Pirelli and Salmoiraghi. In the oenology congresses of Turin (1875) and Verona (1876) he also supported the proposal of an Enological School in Conegliano in the name of Antonio Carpene and was commissioned by the Ministry of Agriculture to draw up a report on the feasibility of an oenological school in Italy. He thus arrived at the institution of the Enological School in Conegliano to whose activation costs he personally contributed. He was its director for a decade, bringing it to an unparalleled prestige. He founded the “Viticulture and Oenology Magazine” with Carpene; he created the first Italian Enophile Circle; I reactivate the local Comizio Agrario; he wanted the first International Exhibition of wine making equipment and machines (1881). In 1886 he was called to the General Society of Italian winemakers in Rome. He was an authoritative member of the Superior Council and of the Agricultural Education Committee; he had various government posts, the last of which was

ardent Italian emigration to the states of Central America.

COMBONI ENRICO
(Born in Limone sul Garda – BS on 29/10/1850 and died in Asti on 26/03/1900)
He was the first Chemistry teacher of the School, founder and first director of the Chemistry Laboratory attached to the Institute, for almost twenty years.
For three years he also directed the School; he dedicated the last five years of his life to the direction of the Asti Wine Station, the most important research institute in the sector.
Illustrious chemist, author of a Treatise on Enochemistry, known for his studies on the coloring substance of wines and for having, in collaboration with Antonio Carpene ‘, developed the industrial production of enocyanin. His works on alcohol distillation, his “distiller Conegliano, Comboni system” and the Comboni alembic also had great notoriety.

GIUNTI MICHELE
(born in Sanguineto di Cosenza on 11/06/1854 and died in Naples on 24/07/1934)
He graduated in Agricultural Sciences at the Higher School of Agriculture in Portici. He gave his work to him in Avellino and for twelve years in Rome at the Agricultural Chemistry Station. He spent the most significant part of his life in Conegliano from 1896 to 1924. Director of the Institute, he saved the School from the crisis at the end of the century by bringing the School itself and the company back to perfect efficiency. In 1917, he avoided the transfer of the School to Florence and in the following years made it rise from the ruins of the war in a new large building. He promoted the Constitution of the Foundation for oenological and agricultural teaching to make the school autonomous.
Next to it, he built the Experimental Station of Viticulture and Oenology that was still missing in Italy and took over its management until 1924 when, due to the age limit, he left the responsibility of both institutes to Giovanni Dalmasso. The municipality of Conegliano conferred honorary citizenship on him and named him a street.

MARESCALCHI ARTURO
(born in Baricella – Bo on 10/30/1869 and died in Gardone Riviera – Bs on 11/6/1955)
Born into a very modest family, he managed to enter the School of Conegliano as a pupil following a competition for scholarships in 1886. Graduated in winemaking, he worked in Bordeaux and Parendo but returned to Conegliano in 1892 with the position of assistant Chair and at the Laboratory of Phytopathology and teacher of Natural Sciences in the lower course. He founded the Italian Enotechnical Association in Conegliano, assuming its presidency and the periodical “L’ Enotecnico “, which has now become” The Oenologist “. He carried out his intense activity through publications and conferences throughout Italy and abroad. Four times he was elected deputy and held government posts as undersecretary of the Ministry of Agriculture; since 1934 Senator of the Kingdom.
His activity was vast and always in favor of the School.
Despite his fame and his functions as a statesman, he liked to define himself as a “simple winemaker from Conegliano”.
And Conegliano named him a street and applauded him as an honorary citizen.

DALMASSO GIOVANNI
(born in Castagnole Lanze – Asti on 10/07/1886 and died in Turin on 13/12/1976)
I arrived teaching at the Conegliano School on 11/11/1911 after winning the competition for the chair of viticulture and enology. After the interval due to the First World War, he resumed his service in Conegliano and flanked Professor Giunti in the direction and in the long commitment to the rebirth of the School, of which he became director in 1924. He energetically continued the project to build an Experimental Station for Viticulture and Oenology (today the Experimental Institute for Viticulture). In 1931 he officially took over the management of the same “by call”, thus abandoning teaching in our school. In those years, in collaboration with Marescalchi, he completed the monumental “History of the vine and wine” in three volumes. In 1939 he left Conegliano to go and direct the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Turin.
In 1949 he founded “The Italian Academy of Vine and Wine”, continuing his activity as a writer and carrying out innumerable positions always in the agricultural and viticultural field in Italy and abroad, considered by all to be the dean of viticulture scholars. in the world.
For the merits of him towards the city of Conegliano, he was solemnly conferred honorary citizenship and a street named after him.

resumption of the School after World War II as well as the constitution of the Alumni Union. Alongside the work of the teacher, that of the researcher and experimenter developed.
His research work is documented by about seventy publications; well known are the works on the anatomy of the vine accompanied by surprising micro-photographs and those on the water consumption of plants, these carried out in collaboration with prof. A. Puppo. He also dedicated his studies to the pathologies of grapevine and genetics, successfully creating the famous “Manzoni Crossings”. Many were the titles that he obtained and the searches for him.
He was also Mayor of Conegliano from December 1946 to February 1949 and Conegliano named a street after him.

RONCHI VITTORIO
(Born in San Dona di Piave – Ve on 09/22/1892 and died in Rome on 07/3/1987)
Wine technician of the Enological School of Conegliano in 1911, he returned to the school as a very young teacher, even if for only two years, winner of the chair of Agriculture.
His great skills as a technician and official quickly led him to the management of the Venetian Agrarian Renaissance Body, to the rank of Inspector General of the Ministry of Agriculture; then Director General of Food and, after World War II, High Commissioner of Food in the De Gasperi Governments and President of the Superior Council of Agriculture.
To remember its merits, the Alumni Union has established the Vittorio Ronchi Gold Medal, a coveted prize awarded each year to the best graduate Agricultural Expert of the School.

PUPPO AGOSTINO
(born in Voltri (Ge) on 10/07/1900 and died in Padua on 13/05/1985)
Genoese engineer, winner in 1929 of the chair of Topography and Construction in the Oenological School, he immediately distinguished himself in the reconstruction work of the Meteorological Observatory attached to it and for his research in the field of biometeorology and plant biomathematics.
An exceptional figure as a teacher and researcher, he distinguished himself particularly in the field of solar radiation, earning very soon, in 1932, the free lecturer in Meteorology and Climatology, with positions at the University of Padua. He headed the school in the year 1944-1945.
After the war, after leaving school, he worked as a geophysicist in the Hydrographic Office of the Venice Water Authority, then teaching mathematical analysis and rational mechanics at the University of Venice.

MORETTI AURELIO
(born in Moglia – MN on 8/10/1913 and died in Conegliano-TV on 12/11/1990)
Wine technician of the Conegliano Wine School, he returned there in 1939, winner of the chair of Agriculture; of the School itself twenty years later he became headmaster, guiding it with competence and firmness for almost twenty years.
He was a great supporter of the legal recognition of the enotechnical diploma, he was interested in the improvement of teaching programs and the organization of national refresher courses; he introduced the practical training of graduates in the cellars; he was therefore interested in the training of the future Oenologist at an international level, suggesting teaching programs and methods, foreseeing subsequent developments.
He was founder and first president of the Consortium for the protection of Prosecco di Conegliano and Valdobbiadene wine.The texts relating to the Famous People are taken from the site: www.scuolaenologica.it

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