Food & wine specialties

A visit to the province of Asti it’s an extraordinary journey among delicious flavours and aromas. The taste of our wines, as the landscape of this area, varies from a hill to another, from a slope to the opposite one: for this reason, each vineyard and wine cellar will hold surprises for our visitors.

Wines are always been present in the culture and tradition of Asti and its province. Introduced in the 5th century during the Greek colonization, viticulture was then developped by the Romans. After a period of depopulation of rural areas, with consequent crisis of the agricultural activity, the recovery of viticulture in our region was supported by the episcopal authority; with the development of parish churches and abbeys and thanks to the introduction of new techniques, the Piedmontese vineyards began to revive. During feudal times, grapevines occupied about 10% of the cultivated land in the region, increasing to 18% in the 16th century and to 30% in the mid 19th century. Today, about 55-60% of the Piedmontese wine production comes from Monferrato and The Langhe areas.
The province of Asti boasts 14 D.O.C. (Denominazione di Origine Controllata) and D.O.C.G. (Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita) wines: Asti Spumante, Barbera d’Asti and del Monferrato, Brachetto d’Acqui, Cortese dell’Alto Monferrato, Dolcetto d’Alba and d’Asti, Freisa d’Asti, Grignolino d’Asti, Malvasia di Casorzo and di Castelnuovo Don Bosco, Moscato d’Asti and Ruche’ di Castagnole Monferrato.
The Piedmontese food tradition blends the everyday simplicity with exquisite haute cuisine touches.
The “stars” of this regional cuisine are the Fritto Misto alla Piemontese (a platter of different fried meats) and the Bagna Caôda, a banquet of vegetables (both cooked and raw) to be dipped into a hot anchovy-sauce mixed with oil and garlic.
As for pasta dishes, agnolotti (ravioli), risottos, vegetable soups and “tajarin”, that is a kind of homemade tagliatelle (a particular kind of egg noodles).
The kings among the main courses are bollito misto (the one prepared in Moncalvo is the best), meat and game cooked slowly in fine wines.
The best known cheeses are the robiole of Cocconato and Roccaverano, tôme and ricotte.
Among the desserts, we can mention the delicious “bunet”, the Monferrina cake, stuffed peaches or tiny pastries, such as amaretti of Mombaruzzo, finocchini of Refrancore, canestrelli of Cinaglio, astigiani with rum.

We could never forget to mention the white truffle, fruit of the Piedmontese oak woods, with its distinctive and unforgettable fragrance and, legend has it, its aphrodisiacal powers. Serve it in paper-thin slices on butter fried eggs, fonduta cheese, risottos or Albese raw meat.