Vincello

Vincello is the newcomer with an outside eye: Marcel Schmidlin, from Basel, started making wine on these Costigliole d'Asti hills in 2017 and by 2021 had restored the old cellar to go with it. It's a wine estate and a country house in one — a handful of rooms, a pool, and a small shop that pours his own bottles next to a chosen few from other Piemonte growers.

The place is set up for guests who want the hills for a few days, with wine-and-culture trips run in German, English and Italian — handy if your Italian's shaky. Twenty Google visitors give it a straight five, and across 56 Vivino ratings it's the highest-scored of the local bunch at 4.3. Ring +41 76 337 90 40 (yes, a Swiss number) to sort a stay or a visit.