Bellati Maria Carla - Vini Biologici dal 2001

Maria Carla Bellati farms the hill of Monterosso, just across the valley from Acqui Terme, and she's been doing it the organic way since 2001 — a decade before the EU even bothered to define what "vino biologico" meant. The family's worked this ground since the late 1800s. Everything in the bottle starts as certified-organic fruit: Dolcetto, Barbera del Monferrato, Moscato, a Brachetto, and the white she names for the vineyard, Monterosso.

It's a proper small estate — twenty-odd Google reviews and almost all of them full marks, the kind of score you earn by pouring your own wine and meaning it. Come to taste and you'll likely find Maria Carla herself, low sulphites and no theatre. The Moscato d'Asti is the charmer, but it's the Barbera del Monferrato Superiore we'd carry home.