A day in Incisa Scapaccino — Barbera, Nizza DOCG & the Belbo hills

Incisa Scapaccino comes in two halves — the old borgo on the ridge with its castle stump and church, and the newer part down by the Belbo where most of the daily life happens. Barbera is the thread between them. This is a small comune in the Nizza hills, province of Asti, mostly known for one grape done seriously and one strange, sweet vegetable done once a year. You can taste your way through it in a day without hurrying. Here's how we'd go about it.

Morning — coffee, then Barbera at the source

Start slow at Bar dell'angolo, a little local counter where the croissants come out warm and the coffee's the real reason to stop. It's a euro or two, and it sits right where the walking paths peel off into the hills — regulars use it as the launch pad for a hike. Fuel up here first.

Then get among the vines, because that's most of what's here. The Ceretti family has been bottling out on Via Crose since 1952, three generations in now, and their house names — Cèret, Cèret-One — tell you where their heads are: Nizza DOCG and Barbera d'Asti Superiore, with Langhe Nebbiolo, Grignolino, Chardonnay and Arneis filling out nine labels. There's no showroom to wander into, so message ahead through their site rather than turning up; a note that says what you're after tends to get you a proper welcome. If you only try one wine, make it the Barbera d'Asti Superiore — it's the clearest read on what this corner of the hills can do. They're shut Saturday and Sunday, so this is a weekday stop.

A few minutes on, Antiche Cantine Brema is the older hand — the family's worked these slopes between Nizza, Mombaruzzo and Fontanile for more than two centuries, around fourteen hectares tended by hand and without herbicides. The cellar tasting is what people remember more than any single label, which tells you where the attention goes. Ask for the two crus: Bricco della Volpettona and Bricconizza, both Barbera d'Asti Superiore aged in barrique, with a Gavi and a little Brachetto alongside. There's no booking page — ring first on 0141 74019, because it's a small working house and someone's usually out among the vines. Bring your Italian.

Up to the castle and the ridge

Walk off the wine before lunch. Climb into the old borgo to the Resti del Castello — the castle's mostly a ruin now, a stretch of medieval brick wall and a round tower, but standing there you get why anyone bothered fortifying this hump of hill. A few steps on, the Pozzo Magna panoramic path opens the view out: three valleys and, on a clear day, the Alps behind the vine rows. It's a short loop, not a trek. Do it before you eat, not after.

Lunch at La Piola del Borgo

You've earned lunch, and there's one obvious place for it. La Piola del Borgo is a small kitchen up in the old village — thirty covers inside, a good stretch of tables out under the hill view — run by a young team who plate a trio of antipasti, charcuterie boards and Roman pinsa, with the odd surprise combination that lands. People come back for the vitello tonnato and the hazelnut cake; the wine list leans, of course, on the local reds. Figure €30–40 a head, book ahead for a weekend evening, and go for one of the outside tables if the weather's with you. Parking near the borgo is tight, so leave the car below and walk up.

Afternoon — a second cellar, a saddle, or a lake

Three ways to spend the afternoon, depending on your mood. If you've time for one full, sit-down tasting, give it to Tenuta Olim Bauda, just outside town on Via Prata with vines in every direction. It's the ambitious one of the three — fourteen wines that read like a map of Piemonte, from Nizza DOCG Riserva down through the everyday Barbera (La Villa) and the serious one (Le Rocchette) to Grignolino, Freisa, Gavi, a Moscato called Centive and even a bone-dry Metodo Classico brut nature. Nearly twenty thousand Vivino ratings make it far and away the most-reviewed estate in the village. The reserved tasting runs about ninety minutes, five wines and a turn among the vines, from €20 a head, and it's offered in English as well as Italian — so your Italian doesn't need to be good. Book ahead; there's a sales point open daily, roughly ten to six with a lunch break, if you only want a bottle.

Not in the mood for more wine? Stefano Chiapello has kept horses at the Centro Equestre Tenuta Madonna since 1999, and he's a FISE-certified instructor, so beginners and kids get taught properly rather than handed a pony for a photo. The real draw is the trail rides — long passeggiate along the paths between the borgo and the vineyards below. It's open daily, roughly 9.30 to noon and half two to six; ring ahead on 389 2163452.

Or just slow all the way down at Lago Valtiverno, a quiet fishing lake tucked in the hills west of town — a place to sit with a book and let the afternoon go nowhere.

Aperitivo at Sofi Bar

As the light drops, head back down to Sofi Bar. It's the town's all-day counter — coffee and brioches at dawn, sandwiches and focaccia at lunch — but late afternoon is when it comes into its own. The aperitivo has a small local reputation, and the service is the friendly, remembers-your-face kind. A good place to sit with a glass and watch the day close.

Time it to a festa, if you can

Incisa saves its best day for late October. The Sagra del Cardo Gobbo e della Barbera has been running since the mid-1970s, and it hands the town over to the cardo gobbo — the hunchbacked cardoon, blanched under earth until it's pale and sweet, eaten raw with bagna càuda and poured alongside the local Barbera. There's pappardelle in a cardoon sauce and the fried friciula handed round warm in the afternoon, out across Borgo Villa and Piazza Ferraro. Come hungry and bring a little cash — the stalls don't take cards and the friciula doesn't hang around.

The summer showpiece is the Cena in Bianco con Concerto on 25 July: long tables in Borgo Villa, everyone head to toe in white, dinner at 8:30 and a jazz set from trumpeter Felice Reggio around ten. Wear white — that's the whole conceit — and book through the Pro Loco. Earlier in the year, the town marks its patron with the Festa di San Feliciano on 8 June, lately a free evening concert in the Chiesa del Carmine. And every February the Carabinieri come back to lay a wreath for Giovanni Battista Scapaccino, born here in 1802, the first of the Arma to be awarded Italy's Gold Medal for Military Valour — a formal ceremony at his monument, and the reason half the town's name is what it is.

None of it is famous. That's rather the point — a working valley where the Barbera's the star and the tractor still has right of way.