Vignale Monferrato

Ask around Vignale for a serious Barbera and someone points you up to Ca' Cima, where the Accornero family has worked these hills since 1897. Their Autenticità Monferrina runs about ninety minutes for €25 — a walk through the fermentation and ageing cellars, then five native wines with a few local bites. Spend a little more for the full ACCORNERO 360° (€35, two hours) or the €60 vineyard tour that ends on four wines from the Grand Cru selection, Bricco Battista among them — the single-vineyard Barbera del Monferrato Superiore the estate built its name on. Book ahead through their site; they pour Monday to Saturday and want a proper appointment, not walk-ins.

Hic et Nunc is the glass-and-steel cantina you can see straight through — while your nose is in the glass the view runs one way to the vine rows and the other into the barrel room. Start small with Vice e Versa, two wines on the panoramic terrace for €18, or take the hour-long Carpe Diem tour and four single-varietal wines for €30. The one to book is In Vino Veritas (€50, about two hours): the full winery, five wines and a board of Monferrato salumi and cheese. They run themed nights through the year too — star-gazing in August, a truffle hunt in November — and everything's bookable from their site. Your Italian doesn't need to be good here.

A private balloon flight that lifts off near Vignale Monferrato and drifts over the UNESCO vineyard hills of the Basso Monferrato. You're aloft about an hour inside a three-hour outing — pilot briefing, the ride back, and an Italian breakfast or aperitif of local products, with a flight certificate to take away. Year-round, just your group of two to four.

If you want to understand Grignolino — the pale, thorny, gloriously local red most of Italy overlooks — this is where to taste it. The Gaudio family has farmed Bricco Mondalino for generations and built its name on the grape, poured alongside the Barbera d'Asti Zerolegno and the sweet Malvasia di Casorzo, Dolce Stil Novo. The tasting's a family affair, with typical Monferrato flavours put out to go with the wine; more than one visitor has left surprised at how many languages get spoken across the table. Call or email to fix a time — it's a working farm, not a shop, and worth the drive up the hill.

This is about as far off the tourist track as Vignale's wine gets — Cascina Cappelletta farms organically and biodynamically, and is Demeter-certified, which in Piemonte still makes it a rarity. The tasting's usually thrown in when you buy, and you can without guilt: the Barbera, Freisa and Grignolino tend to sit under €10 a bottle and drink well above it, low on sulphites and honest about it. Call ahead before you turn up and someone will walk you through the range with more patience than the price suggests. They're open most days, Sunday afternoons included, and there's no gift shop — the point is what's in the glass.

Grignolino's the reason to come — brothers Marco and Andrea Buzio are the latest of several generations on this organic estate on Via Piave, and their Grignolino tends to change the minds of people who've written the grape off as thin. The tasting happens down among the infernot, the old cellar niches cut into the hillside, with local salami and cheese put out alongside the Barbera, Freisa and Chardonnay; a walk through the vineyard and cellar usually comes first. It's honest, generous and fairly priced, the kind of place town locals send you to. They're shut Mondays, so call or email ahead and someone in the family will show you round.

Right on the town square, with a wine list so long it takes two hands to hold. The kitchen keeps things simple and traditional — the battuta di fassona, the agnolotti, a nut cake to finish — and Laura, one of the three sisters, runs the room in good English. Book ahead; people tend to come back.

The pasta comes cheap and the beer list runs surprisingly deep — Cantillon and 3 Fonteinen alongside the local wine, which you don't often find around here. The kitchen keeps the Piedmontese classics but leaves room for a good burger and a proper IPA, and the welcome is genuinely warm.

The draw is the view: a climb up tight, steep stairs brings you to a dining room over the Monferrato hills. In autumn the kitchen leans into white truffle, with tagliatelle in butter and the battuta among the plates people single out. Rustic but dressed up, and worth booking a table.

No menu and no choosing — you sit at the top of the village and the courses just start arriving, eight or nine of them, seasonal and traditional. Salami and lardo, ravioli di plin, a roast with julienne vegetables, all with the local wine and the vineyards in view. Come with time to spare.

A la carte by day, pizzeria by night, with a courtyard that earns its keep in summer. The farinata gets singled out, and the cooking runs to generous, no-frills Piedmontese plates; the waitress talks you through the menu, and there are cookies for sale in the café corner.

Half wine bar, half deli, run by two women who know their regulars — order a glass of Barbera, a sandwich, or an Aperol spritz and settle in at a table indoors or out. There's a little shop attached for local bottles and provisions, and Rocchina keeps the prices fair and the welcome warm.

A small café for an unhurried aperitif in good company — the kind of place you happen upon and mean to come back to.