According to legend, it was Aleramo (Monferrato’s legendary Marquis who lived during the 10th century) who “invented” the Monferrato district while he was riding at full gallop towards his emperor’s promise.

When the Roman troops reached these woody and wild lands in 616 b.c. and encountered the Ligurian and Celt-ligurian inhabitants, they soon understood why these proud and indomitable people were so feared by the Etruscans and Gauls.

People say that in Monferrato the food is better than in the rest of Piedmont. Maybe that’s why this region, for historical reasons, has always been the crossroads of several commercial routes linking Piedmont, Liguria and the Po Valley.

Who were the first ones to import vines in Piedmont? Maybe Greek or Phoenician sailors who reached the ancient coasts of Liguria in the 6th century before Christ, bringing rooted cuttings from their homeland as well as their wine-making techniques to the tribes living in the inland?

The Monferrato as we know it today was born at the height of the House of Savoy and of Napoleon’s Empire, at the very beginning of the 19th century, a century of change in few years’ time crafts, technology, society, people’s mentality and the whole profile of the territory changed completely.

Popular, generous and rough, from tavern and “pintoni”, little paid and bad to the farmers, Barbera wine is the tradition of Piedmontese drinking. A name that always means Piedmont, but even more Monferrato Asti, its land of choice.