A day in Mombaruzzo — amaretti, grappa & Barbera

Mombaruzzo hands you two things to taste at the source — the soft amaretto and grappa — and then a whole hill of Barbera to go with them. It's a small comune in the Basso Monferrato, province of Asti, and you can do the lot in a day without hurrying. Here's how we'd spend it.

Morning — the amaretto at the source

Start with the biscuit the town is named for. Francesco Moriondo wrote down the Mombaruzzo amaretto recipe back in the late 1700s, and the family still keeps it — book the amaretti workshop visit and tasting at Moriondo Virginio on Via Saracco and you'll see how the soft almond-and-apricot-kernel macaroons come together, then taste them with a glass of Moscato d'Asti. It's about an hour, reservation needed, and they'll host you in English. Production runs on weekdays, so a morning visit catches the ovens going.

Late morning — Barbera on the hill

This is Barbera country, and there are two very different ways in. For the polished version, drive up to Pico Maccario on Via Cordara, where Lavignone — an everyday Barbera d'Asti that drinks well above its price — made the name, and Tre Roveri comes off the Nizza cru above it. Look down the rows for the giant pencils they use as vine posts, a nod to the pencil-shaped tins the wine ships in. Tastings here are paid and guided, so come for the wine rather than a free pour, and there's a picnic area to linger in afterwards.

Or stay in the village and go straight to the source of half the region's house red. Tre Secoli grew out of the Cantina Sociale di Mombaruzzo, founded in 1887 — the first grower association in Piemonte. Hundreds of members feed it, so the shelves run wide, from Moscato and Cortese to Barbera up to Nizza DOCG, and the staff will sit you down and steer you toward what suits. It's honest, fairly priced wine, the kind regulars come back to stock up on at Christmas.

Lunch — in the vineyard

Book ahead and eat where the wine's made. Out in the Casalotto frazione, Armando Piana runs Azienda Vitivinicola Piana the way you'd hope — a merenda sinoira in the late afternoon, meat grilled among the rows, and in November a bagna càuda that people drive up from Milan for. Come hungry rather than in a hurry: it's kids, dogs, harvest-day grape pressing, and a Barbera Superiore and Moscato worth the trip, with the farm's own honey and vinegar on the same table. Since 2024 there's an eco-park of pollinator plants strung between the vines to walk off lunch.

Afternoon — grappa and the still-house

Now the other half of Mombaruzzo. Distillerie Berta has been distilling in the Casalotto hamlet since 1947, and the distillery tour and grappa tasting is the reason to come — you walk among the working alambicchi, then through a museum that visitors rate as highly as the grappa itself. It closes on three aged distillates, Tre Soli Tre from Nebbiolo and Roccanivo from Barbera among them, paired of course with the town's amaretti. Tours run daily by reservation, in Italian, English or German.

If you'd rather get your hands in it, BertaLab lets you bottle and label your own grappa from the Primaneve line and take it home — four to a session, no more — and there's a mixology masterclass that walks you through building three cocktails from the distillery's own spirits. Book that one at least a week ahead.

Before you go — one last cellar

Two quieter stops if there's light left. Il Sogno is a one-man organic cellar on the terra rossa east of town, where Rudi Längauer came down from Austria and now works single-varietal Barbera, Freisa and Nizza alongside barrel-aged whites and his "Istooh" cuvée. He takes real time over the tour, there are apartments with a pool if you want to stay, and he moves between German, English and Italian without missing a beat — ring ahead, it's just him. And if you want to drink the way the village does, Betti Carlo still sells much of its wine sfuso, straight from the tank; there's no shop counter, so call first, bring an empty demijohn for the bulk Grignolino, and someone will open the cantina and pour.