Wine Piedmont - Piedmont DOC wines - Piedmont wine pairing - how to pair piemonte wines - piedmont wines disciplinary

Asti DOCG white wines are produced in a large production area that includes several towns in the provinces of Asti, Cuneo and Alessandria * (note that the disciplinary includes also the fraction of Pessione, in the municipality in Chieri, Turin, home of the plant of Martini & Rossi, even if only for Vinification and bottling). Wine Asti DOCG is produced in two variants: the Spumante (sparkling wine) and Moscato d'Asti, still or sparkling white wine.

Both Asti Spumante DOCG and Moscato d'Asti DOCG wines can be produced only with grapes Moscato: the disciplinary explicitly prohibits the use of grapes from other vineyards. The cultivation and wine-making techniques must be those typical of the production area and methods of secondary fermentation solely allowed by the disciplinary are the traditional method (second fermentation in the bottle) and charmat (second fermentation in autoclave). With regards to the Spumante wine production, then, the disciplinary states that this can not last for less than a month.

Asti Spumante DOCG wines come in the glass with a fine and persistent foam, brilliant straw yellow color, possibly pale golden, strong aroma, delicate and distinctive and flavor sweet, aromatic, balanced and characteristic. Asti Spumante DOCG is the classic wine to be drunk with all the typical Christmas cake (Panettone, Pandoro,...) but not only: is excellent with all the sweet leavened dough, with cream cakes, Bavarians, panna cotta and cheese cakes; in other words with all those particularly fat and creamy desserts. One caveat: avoid the chocolate dessert! With those much better a sweet spumante red or rose.

Moscato d'Asti DOCG wines present to the tasting of a brilliant straw yellow color, more or less intense, fragrant and distinctiv aromae and flavor sweet, aromatic and distinctive, sometimes lively or sparkling. Excellent dessert wine, prefers pairings with pastry or cream cakes, where the latter, though, is not the main ingredient: fresh fruit or jam tarts, rum baba, yeast dough cakes ...

* The Asti Spumante ... that comes from Torino

More unique than rare case, the disciplinary for the Asti DOCG, provides that, quote "The operations of processing, fermentation and stabilization, as well as bottling and packaging of wines DOCG "Moscato d'Asti" and "Asti Spumante" must be made in the provinces of Alessandria, Asti, Cuneo and in the locality of Pessione, municipality of Chieri, Turin. "

Now, as it is well known, precisely in Pessione are located the manifacturing plants of the multinational Martini & Rossi: the weird thing. is not much that it is allowed to produce Asti Spumante or Moscato d'Asti outside the canonical production area (Turin it is very close to Asti), but that such permission has been included in the disciplinary ad industriam, ie substantially only and solely for the Martini & Rossi.

We remind that the European Community, in respect of designations of origin, suggests (sadly does not require) that should be observed as much as possible typicity and place of origin: it would, therefore, appropriate, according to the European Community, that when it is indicated the name a precise area of origin, the wine (or any other product) would came solely from that area, and not from surrounding areas.

Returning to our case, therefore, following the EU guidelines, wines Martini Asti Spumante and Moscato d'Asti Martini should give up the appellation Asti DOCG and move on the less noble DOC Colline Torinese, to the detriment of sales, of course.

But this did not happen, and thus one of the world's best selling Asti Spumante, in reality it is not produced in Asti, but in Turin, although in fact the grapes and musts for the production of Asti Spumante DOCG really come from the area around Asti: again the disciplinary, in fact, requires that "The operations of mashing of the grapes to produce wines with denomination of origin controlled and and guaranteed under Article. 1 (Asti Spumante DOCG and Moscato d'Asti DOCG) must take place within the territorial jurisdiction of the provinces of Alessandria, Asti and Cuneo. "