 The famous Italian patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi was a winemaker who in the 1850s introduced the use of the Bordeaux mixture to control the spread of oidium that was starting to ravage the area's vineyards.Camillo Benso, conte di Cavour was a wealthy vineyard owner who went abroad to study advance viticulture prior to founding the political newspaper "Il Risorgimento".He was highly influential in the adoption of many French viticultural techniques among the Piemontese vineyards.