Cinzano of the vermouth market in Europe was measured in the low single digits, sales that placed it a distant second to Martini. As a result of a 1997 merger, Grand Metropolitan became Diageo; two years later, Diageo sold Cinzano to the privately held Gruppo Campari. The Cinzano bicycling team had a central role in the film "Breaking Away". Cinzano was well known in Britain for its humorous television advertisements featuring Leonard Rossiter and Joan Collins. One of these featured the pair on a plane journey, with Rossiter accidentally hitting the "recline" switch on Collins chair, causing her to spill a
Edward Rossiter Edward Rossiter Colonel Sir Edward Rossiter (1618–1669) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1646 and 1660. He fought in the Parliamentary army in the English Civil War. Rossieter was the son of Richard Rossiter of Somerby by Bigby, Lincolnshire and his wife Elizabeth Bourchier, daughter of Sir John Bourchier of Beningbrough, Yorkshire. He was educated at Kirton and Beverley grammar school and was a student of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge in 1636. He was a soldier in the Parliamentarian army and fought alongside Oliver Cromwell at the Battle of Naseby in