A friend of mine’s son is the Cub Scouts and they recently had a big fund raiser for the pack. He found three ceramic wine bottles, that still were sealed and he thought of me. I went and picked them up to do some research for him. These ceramic bottles are something I remember seeing in the stores when I was a youth, they are similar in concept to the Jim Beam Bourbon bottles that people collect, only more ornate, at least these three are.
Two of the bottles are from Casa Vento winery from Italy. The decanter with the hunter and his dog is Casa Vento Chianti, but there is no black cockerel on the bottle. The other of a Falstaffian individual sitting on a couple of wine barrels, while he holds another wine barrel above his head with the tap open is a Casa Vento Vino Santo Duca d’Asti. Both of these bottles have no vintage years on the labels, so I can presume that the wine was bulk table wines made for immediate drinking, and the decanters were more costly than the wine. Both of these wines were imported by Vento Wine Import Inc. of Cleveland, Ohio, and I wonder if this was a vertical structure of the winery at one time. I did a search of the import company and the last listing I could find was 1972. There is a Casa Vento Winery in Italy at the present, but I could not verify, if this is the same winery on the decanters.
The third ceramic wine bottle which also has the cork intact with the wine enclosed is of an inebriated Fiddler with one hand holding a Wicker Chianti bottle while he is trying to keep a lamp post erect. The label on this decanter says Vino da Tavola Rosso which just translates to as Red Table Wine. There is also an importer’s label of the General Trading Company of Detroit, Michigan. I could not find any information about this wine distributor.
I would not even attempt to open these bottles, and for sure I would not try the wines that they hold, but they are great curios of past marketing endeavors. I am sure they were marketed for the non-wine drinking masses, who thought that it would make a charming gift. I did see some other examples of these decanters being offered on EBay for amounts that I am sure far exceeded the original price of the wine bottles, when the wine was fresh. Sometimes it is just fun to do the research.
The Wine Raconteur 
Did you ever get a from quote someone that knows these decanters as to value. I have one that was my dads and have it in my china cabinet and would like to know value.
Teri,
I never bothered checking for a value, to me they are more of a curio. I am sure that you could get some idea of value, by checking a site like EBay.
Hi I recently inherent a whole bunch of wines and liquors that are very vintage I have a cameo rose wine unopened just wondering if there’s any value on this
Tania,
Thank you for stopping by. I would not venture a guess on the value of your wines and liquors. Most liquors should be drinkable as age doesn’t affect most of them. Wines on the other hand can be nothing but curios for the labels, depending on the wine and the storage of the wines. I wish I could tell you more.
Hi i liked the research story on the wine bottles. I have one of those bottles. The hunter &dog.I’m interested in selling it.if interested contact at 951)235-8606.Alvin
Alvin, thank you, but I really do not collect the ceramic bottles, but I am sure that there is a market for them. Thank you for stopping by.
I have a wine bottle i have been doing research on and cant find any information at all on it its a casa vento vino santo white wine collectors item
If anyone is fimilar with wine bottles can you help message me at movementkids1@yahoo.com and i will send you some pictures of the bottle
Thanks
Brandon, thank you for stopping by. I am not aware of any catalogue or listing of the series, but you might want to search Ebay as I am sure that these bottles will be listed, some with and most without any additional information. Good luck. – John
What’s the price for man sitting on barrel + holding one on his head.
Decanter is full.
No cracks.
Thanks !
Sue, I have no idea, and that is the condition of the one in my photo as well. I do not think that there is a catalogue for pricing of these curios, but I may suggest searching a site like Ebay to see if they have any being offered for sale. Thank you for stopping by.