Alessandro Martini (16 May 1812 – 14 March 1905) was an Italian businessman, founder of one of the most important

vermouth Vermouth (, ) is an Italian aromatized wine, aromatized, fortified wine, flavored with various Botany, botanicals (roots, Bark (botany), barks, flowers, seeds, Herb, herbs, and Spice, spices) and sometimes Food coloring, colored. The modern ve ...

companies in the world, Martini & Rossi, which produces the Martini vermouth. In 1830 he purchased a small wine company situated very close to

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

. In 1847 several Italian businessmen started producing wine, spirits and vermouth for the Distilleria Nazionale di Spirito di Vino of Turin. Thanks to the

Risorgimento The unification of Italy ( ), also known as the Risorgimento (; ), was the 19th century political and social movement that in 1861 ended in the annexation of various states of the Italian peninsula and its outlying isles to the Kingdom of ...

, the economic prospects were bright and the organization soon began to turn a profit. A few years later, Alessandro Martini joined the small team, becoming the director in 1863 along with Luigi Rossi (who was the inventor of a vermouth) and Teofilo Sola. During this early period the Distilleria Nazionale di Spirito di Vino kept on growing and several subsidiaries were created in

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

Cagliari Cagliari (, , ; ; ; Latin: ''Caralis'') is an Comune, Italian municipality and the capital and largest city of the island of Sardinia, an Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Italy. It has about 146,62 ...

and

Narbonne Narbonne ( , , ; ; ; Late Latin:) is a commune in Southern France in the Occitanie region. It lies from Paris in the Aude department, of which it is a sub-prefecture. It is located about from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and was ...

thanks to the protection of the King of

Piedmont Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...

. In 1863, which can be considered one of the most important dates in the company's history (so much so that it is still written on the bottle), Martini, Sola and Rossi changed the name of the company to "Martini, Sola & Cia". They started exporting the bottles of vermouth around the world. New York City was given its first crates in 1867. At the same time the firm was awarded a good many prizes, which are still proudly recorded on the bottles: Dublin (1865), Paris (1867 and 1878), Vienna (1873) and Philadelphia (1876). Just thirty years after its creation, Martini was drunk in the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Greece, Portugal, Belgium, Egypt and other countries. In 1879 Sola died, and his sons sold all their shares in the company. The firm consequently decided to change its name to Martini & Rossi, the name seen today on the bottles sold in the United States. Between 1870 and 1880 the company diversified and the two directors launched Vino Canelli Spumante (now known as

Asti Asti ( , ; ; ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) of 74,348 inhabitants (1–1–2021) located in the Italy, Italian region of Piedmont, about east of Turin, in the plain of the Tanaro, Tanaro River. It is the capital of the province of Asti and ...

Martini). One of their successes was to build upon the traditions of the late 19th-century European courts' fondness for vermouth. In 1868 the company was authorized by King Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy to put the symbols of the royal family on their packaging. King Louis of Portugal (1872), the Queen of Austria, Christina (also regent of Spain) (1897) and the British Parliament did the same. The symbols of Melbourne, Anvers and Mendoza quickly followed; their marks are still seen on the packaging to this day. When Alessandro Martini died in 1905, the three sons of Luigi Rossi inherited the company. They had already launched Martini Extra Dry (1900) and Martini Bianco before his death, and had created subsidiaries around the world. In 1922 the company officially became known as Martini, except in the United States where they were compelled to keep Martini & Rossi because Martini was already an American cocktail.

References

1812 births 1905 deaths Italian businesspeople People from the Metropolitan City of Turin People from the Kingdom of Sardinia {{Italy-business-bio-stub