About Casa Capaldi

Casa Capaldi is a small wine shop from Amsterdam. We only source from producers we have visited ourselves, and only sell wine that we have tasted ourselves.

Why this store exists

There are a thousand bottles on an average wine shelf, and not one of them tells you anything. The labels are designed, the names are invented, and the wine comes from a tank larger than the village the grapes originated from. You’ll find decent wine there. You just won’t ever discover anything.

Alongside that, there is another world of wine. Smaller, more headstrong, hard to find. Families who make a few thousand bottles of something because that is exactly what that one hillside yielded that year. Makers who simply won’t release a wine if the year was disappointing. People who know their vines the way you know your own street.

Those wines almost never make it to the Netherlands. Not because they aren't good enough, but because the quantities are too small for anyone who thinks in terms of volume. Casa Capaldi exists to get them here anyway. One producer at a time.

How a wine arrives here

There is no purchasing department and no assortment plan. A wine only makes it onto our shelves if three things are true at the same time.

The wine. Tasted ourselves, and not just one sip at a trade fair, but a whole bottle, at the table, with food.
The maker. Met in person, on their own land, with enough time to ask questions.
The story. Not a marketing story, but the reason why the wine tastes the way it does: the soil, the year, the choice someone dared to make.

If one of these doesn't fit, it doesn't happen. Not even if the wine is delicious.

What you won’t find here

Wine we haven't tasted ourselves
Wine from a house we have never visited
A bottle that is only there to fill a gap in the assortment
Points, medals, and scores as a selling point

We are small, and that will remain the case for a while

At the moment, seven wines from two Italian families. That is not false modesty, nor is it a phase we are looking to quickly outgrow. It is simply what remains when you only sell something after you have gone to see it for yourself. The list grows slowly. Every new bottle has to earn its place.

Where the name comes from

My surname is Kabalt. That sounds Dutch, and by now it is. But it hasn't always been.

In our family, the story goes that someone once moved to the Netherlands from a small village between Rome and Naples, and that the name slowly became Dutch along the way. A few generations later, Capaldi became Kabalt.

Casa means home. Casa Capaldi is about returning that name to where it came from and making the journey in reverse. This time, something is coming from there to here.

An Italian name for a Dutch shop, then. The list also happens to start in Italy. But it doesn't end there.

The founder

Martijn Kabalt

I am Martijn. I taste, I select, I purchase, and I pack your order.

It started with my father. He always had a thing for wine, and it was from him that I learned to drink. And more importantly: learned to taste.

But where it truly began is a hotel in Austria that we returned to every year. The owner had a wine list as thick as any I have rarely encountered in a restaurant since, and a cellar you could only dream of. If you asked him what you should drink that evening, he would walk away and return with a bottle that fit you perfectly. Without hesitation. I thought that was impressive. I still do.

Once a week, he would hold a tasting, always blind. It wasn't about guessing what was in your glass—it was about discovering what you personally enjoy. Sometimes the famous bottle did nothing for you, and the unknown one turned out to have it all. The results were often unexpected, and we could all laugh about them afterwards. But what has stayed with me most is something else: the fact that you can talk about a bottle of wine with such passion.

In the years that followed, I visited many tastings, wineries, and wine regions to learn more. Vintages matter to me, but not as a status symbol. Every year is different. That is exactly what makes it beautiful.

Eventually, I wanted to do it myself. Selling wine from small, lesser-known producers. Houses where the owner speaks about their own wine with passion, where there is a story behind it, and where they aren't afraid to do things just a little differently than their neighbors. A bottle full of passion and stories.

So here I am, starting with seven wines. Ottomani from the Val di Pesa in Tuscany: four friends, biodynamic, wine aged in terracotta amphorae made from the same clay as the soil their vines grow in. And Il Dosso, a Pinot Nero from Franciacorta.

If you ask me what you should open tonight, you will get an answer from me. No contact form, no standard list. Just like that man in Austria, I try to listen to who is standing in front of me first, and only then do I suggest a bottle.

What I promise you: I won't sell you anything I wouldn't open myself on a Tuesday evening. If a bottle disappoints you, let me know and we will resolve it.

What is yet to come

Casa Capaldi has just begun. That seems like a good moment to share where things are headed.

More producers, the same standard. A few wines added each year, only from houses I have visited myself. Including outside of Italy.

Travel with us. I want you to be able to sit at those tables yourself one day. Small trips, a handful of people, to the producers you find here in the shop.

Blind tasting, the way I learned it. Not to guess what is in your glass, but to discover what you enjoy. One evening, about ten people, all labels out of sight. It will be fun, because there is always an outcome no one expected.

And there is one more plan on the shelf that I will only talk about once it is finalized.

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