In the heart of Piedmont there is a very special wine-growing district without equal in the world that has made Italy the leading global producer of Moscato. A record that, for the series of reasons illustrated below, will be very difficult to scratch. It is the district dedicated to sweet and aromatic wines, characterized by a complex of characters and situations that make it unrepeatable elsewhere.
The Aromatic District and its geographical and productive characteristics
It is precisely in the hilly and high-hilly areas of the provinces of Cuneo, Asti and Alessandria that the District of aromatic wines has developed over the last 150 years, from lands where compact, limestone-clay soils prevail and where the climate offers marked thermal excursions. between day and night and between summer and winter, extremely favorable to the production of precious grapes and capable of giving sweet and aromatic wines with a strong fragrance and without any yielding to exaggerated and in some ways cloying sensations.
The areas of Moscato d’Asti and Asti and Brachetto d’Acqui and Acqui Rosé first preside over this part of the Piedmont area.
The main protagonist vines of this District are five: white Moscato also called Canelli, which by extension of cultivation and profound production tradition is the main actor. He is followed by Brachetto and, then, three Malvasie: di Casorzo, di Schierano and the Lunga Nera. They are all native vines, not only for their origin, but also for the long association they have with their territories. The most important area of origin is that of Moscato d’Asti and Asti Spumante. In this case, 51 countries form its territory of origin.
The District of Piedmontese aromatic wines is completed with two denominations located further north than the area described so far. The first is the area of origin of Malvasia di Casorzo d’Asti, a sweet wine made from the vine of the same name.
The area under vines and the production
An eloquent figure is that of the vineyard area occupied by the wines of the Aromatic District: in 2021 the total was 10,985 hectares, 30.28% of the viticultural potential of all the DOC and DOCG wines of the region (36,282 hectares) and 24 , 19% of the entire Piedmontese viticultural heritage (45,420 hectares), with or without denomination in December 2021. The most significant contribution is the Moscato d’Asti and Asti Spumante DOCG with 9,725 hectares, 88.53% of the vineyard area claimed in 2021 by this group of wines.
An ideal example of a supply chain
The Aromatic District is characterized by an original and virtuous intertwining of various production figures, which respond to the organizational mechanisms of the sector and to the relationships that have gradually been consolidated between the various protagonists of the production reality. In essence, it is an “ideal example of a supply chain, where each figure carries out his task in the best possible way, integrating with the remaining protagonists of the sector”.
The basic and most widespread figure is that of the winegrowers who produce the grapes and sell them to companies that think about their winemaking. Then there is the figure of the artisan winemaker who, in addition to producing the grapes, also thinks about their vinification. Then there are on the one hand the so-called “winemakers”, generally private companies that operate by acquiring the grapes from the winemakers, the sparkling wine houses, which draw for their supplies from the various figures previously analyzed and then a very important part is that carried out by Cooperative cellars.
Lastly, the presence of those oenologists, agronomists, food technology graduates and cellarmen specializing in the production of sparkling wines who have fostered, with their commitment, their intuitions and their experiments, the development of a unique District was important.
