Asti and Monferrato
Continental
The gentle hills around Asti, Barbera's heartland and the home of sweet, lightly sparkling Moscato d'Asti and Asti.
Overview
About Asti and Monferrato
The hills of Asti and the Monferrato are softer and lower than the Langhe, and they are Barbera's stronghold. Barbera d'Asti DOCG makes red wine of bright acidity, dark cherry fruit and low tannin, from fresh and youthful styles to fuller, oak-aged ones. Nizza, a smaller DOCG around the town of Nizza Monferrato, is reserved for Barbera from its best hillsides and is aged for longer.
The area is also where Moscato Bianco becomes Asti and Moscato d'Asti: aromatic, sweet and low-alcohol, with peach and orange-blossom scents. Moscato d'Asti is lightly fizzy and often around 5% alcohol, while Asti is fully sparkling. The zone is centred on Canelli and the surrounding villages, whose deep cellars, dug into the tufa, are part of the UNESCO-listed landscape of Langhe-Roero and Monferrato.
Asti and Monferrato is marked on the map.
Italy
Shaded: Asti. Map units are states, provinces or départements, so a smaller place appears as the larger area that contains it.
The land
Climate & terroir
Climate
Continental
Continental, with hot summers and cold, foggy winters. The hills are lower than the Langhe's, so ripening is a little easier, which suits Barbera and the aromatic Moscato.
Terroir & soils
What the vines grow in
Calcareous marl and sandy clay. The best Barbera sites, including those of the Nizza zone, are on south-facing slopes with marly soils, and the tufa hills of Canelli are riddled with historic cellars.
Go deeper
Rules, years & producers
Barbera and Moscato each have their own DOCGs here, with Nizza as a stricter tier for Barbera.
Nizza DOCG
Barbera from a defined hillside zone around Nizza Monferrato, aged longer than the standard wine.
Barbera d'Asti DOCG
Barbera-based red, made in styles from young and fruity to oak-aged.
Moscato d'Asti DOCG
Lightly sparkling, sweet and low in alcohol, from Moscato Bianco.
Asti DOCG
Fully sparkling sweet Moscato, made in large volumes.
What's grown here
Grapes
Each grape's page links back here.