Ernesto Mondo started this on Via Umberto I in 1945, back from the war, and the family has been at it ever since — Franco, and now his son Valerio, working about a dozen hectares on the San Marzano hills. Roughly sixty per cent of that is Barbera; the rest goes to Moscato Bianco, Dolcetto, Cortese, Chardonnay, Favorita and a little Cabernet Sauvignon. They bottle around 65,000 a year and most of it leaves Italy, which tells you the wine travels well.
The one to ask about is Il Salice, a single-vineyard Barbera d'Asti Superiore that spends its months in wood, and the Le Rose pair of Nizza DOCG — the Riserva is the patient sibling. There's Moscato d'Asti for the sweet-toothed and an Alta Langa spumante if you'd rather have bubbles. The cellar keeps unusual hours, Friday evenings and both weekend days, so it doubles as a wine shop; regulars come back year after year and the welcome is in English as readily as Italian. Book ahead on +39 333 153 3922.