Baldo Baldinini

If we were to look for a metaphor for what Baldo Baldinini represents for the world of mixology, it would be that of a conductor of classical music, at once interpreter and creator. In fact Baldinini operates as a composer of aromatic accords, amidst the hills of his native Romagna, creating spirits but above all some of the finest vermouths in the world.

Gastronomy and Wine Bartending

His extraordinary olfactory gifts have been evident since his childhood when, with the aid of his synaesthesia, Baldinini discovered the world through its scents, which gradually turned into the colours of a reality with a multitude of nuances. And an obsession with the world of botany led him to study the great alchemists, like Paracelsus and Fioravanti. He ventured into the world of perfumery as an autodidact, carrying out an ever more thorough study of essences, including the very rarest, from every corner of the earth. His fragrances inebriated the memory of those who wore them, summoning up apparently forgotten events from the past. Within a short space of time, and on the advice of his friend Federico Ravelli, he turned to the production of vermouths and other aromatized wines, with the aim of creating spirits characterized by a strong olfactory background inherited from his study of perfumery. Out of this came essences to be worn on the palate, ‘fragrances for drinking’ that play with the intensity of perfumes in the realm of taste, taking the moment of the aperitif and mixology toward new aromatic dimensions and emotional vibrations.

Baldinini jealously guards the secrets learned over years of practice and study and applies them with matchless skill. First he chooses the wine, which is still just body, and then conjures up the formula that will bring it to life. In this delicate combination of harmonious sensations in ways that are not revealed to us a fundamental role is played by Tenuta Saiano, in Valmarecchia, on whose upper floor is located the Olfattorio, an ‘olfactory treasure chest’ in which Baldinini is constantly at work in almost monastic silence on the creation of a database of aromas, the largest in existence. Thousands of little bottles, one next to the other, with labels written in a refined and perfect hand, contain the herbs and spices of every sort that have made this Master of Arts and Crafts famous throughout the world of mixology.