Water makes you ill and wine makes you sing. A Piedmontese toast celebrating wine's convivial power over water's pallid virtue — spoken tongue in cheek at the start of a good dinner.
Piedmont is one of Italy's greatest wine regions, home not only to Barolo and Barbaresco from the Langhe hills but also to Barbera d'Asti, Moscato d'Asti, Gavi, Dolcetto, and Grignolino — a vast vinous landscape that shaped regional culture profoundly. The Savoy royal court in Turin was a major patron of Piedmontese wine production, and the aristocracy of the Langhe built their wealth on the vineyards that still carry their family names. For ordinary Piedmontese farmers and artisans, wine at meals was not a luxury but a nutritional staple in an era before clean water was guaranteed. Well water could carry typhoid; wine, slightly acidic and fermented, was safer. The proverb thus has a historical basis in genuine public health reality, while its jovial tone belongs to the convivial culture of the cantina and the autumn harvest — the vendemmia — when entire communities gathered to press the grapes.
Rooted in the viticultural tradition of Piedmont's Langhe, Monferrato, and Asti wine zones; historically reflects the genuine public health advantage of fermented over untreated water before modern sanitation.
Opening a bottle of Barbera at a family dinner
Acqua? No grazie. L'acqua la fa mal e 'l vin al fa cantà. Riempi i bicchieri.
Water? No thank you. Water makes you ill and wine makes you sing. Fill the glasses.
A toast at a wedding in Asti
Come si dice dalle nostre parti: l'acqua la fa mal e 'l vin al fa cantà. Cin cin!
As they say in our parts: water makes you ill and wine makes you sing. Cheers!
A wine producer showing his cantina to visitors
Assaggiate tutto. L'acqua la fa mal e 'l vin al fa cantà — e qui abbiamo solo il meglio.
Taste everything. Water makes you ill and wine makes you sing — and here we have only the best.
A doctor joking about Mediterranean diet
Il mio nonno beveva mezzo litro di Barbera al giorno e è vissuto cent'anni. L'acqua la fa mal e 'l vin al fa cantà.
My grandfather drank half a litre of Barbera a day and lived a hundred years. Water makes you ill and wine makes you sing.