Tenute RaDe

The name is a family knot: RaDe joins RAimondo and DanielE. Raimondo Cusmano left Sicily and the city behind in 1988 to make wine in Monferrato, and the dream has grown into some fifty hectares scattered across the hills around San Marzano Oliveto. His son Daniele, the winemaker, now shapes the top selection under the Tenute RaDe label — the parent house is Poderi Cusmano, out on Regione Saline, in a building that was an apple cold-store before it became a working cellar with its own lab and bottling line.

The reds are the backbone: Barbera d'Asti in two guises, La Pruma and the Superiore La Grissa, then the more serious Nizza DOCG they call Storica, and a Monferrato red named Sort. What sets them apart is a run of Timorasso — the stubborn white grape from the Tortona hills — bottled still and again as a Metodo Classico, with an Alta Langa Pas Dosé that rewards the patient. Andrea and Jelena run the visits, in Italian and English, and they'll happily walk you from the vines through to the tasting; some days there's a horseback ride or lunch at the farmhouse tacked on. Ring ahead on +39 0141 769091, since the cellar keeps working hours and shuts at the weekend.