Wine, a family passion.
The vine-growing and wine-making company Montalbera, owned by the Morando family, has believed and invested in viticulture in the Piedmont region for six generations. Born at the beginning of the 20th century in a location composed of the seven towns of the Monferrato region of Asti, with Castagnole Monferrato at its center. Montalbera Wines has been dedicated since 2003 to the production of the rare and precious native wine Ruchè, becoming its flagstaff producer and making an icon and one of the engines of its growth on the national and international market.
Thanks to this constant effort, today Montalbera has rightfully earned a position among the great winemaking institutions of Piedmont. The foundations of its success lie in solid and distinguishable values, which translate into great sincerity of the wines produced by the farm. Precision and design, interpretation and terroir: these are the pillars of Montalbera’s production philosophy. A mentality that places the “winefruit” at the center, exalting the unique peculiarities of the vineyards, by interpreting its characteristics and expressing them in multi-colored ways, from steel to wood, from overriping to withering, as to nurture the multi-faceted personality of each vineyard.
The Morando family has a history rooted in the Langhe region in Castiglione Tinella, Enrico Morando’s hometown and the place where the first vineyards were planted. Around the mid-1980s, the family embraced a philosophy of expansion – still ongoing – initiated with the purchase of bordering land and direct seeding of new vineyards. Today Montalbera, resting between the Monferrato and Langhe areas, is the largest vine-growing and wine-making farm in terms of hectares in a single plot of land. In fact, Montalbera expresses itself in two important terroir locations: Castagnole Monferrato (Asti), boasting 160 hectares (about 400 acres) with an amphitheater-like layout in a single plot of land that UNESCO has named World Heritage, and Castiglione Tinella (Cuneo, Langa terroir), boasting 15 hectares (37 acres) also in a single plot of land. The first part of restoration of the farm begun in late-2016, while the enlargement of the technical area is still underway and will be completed in the summer of 2017. Its investments in equipment and technology have made Montalbera recognized as one of the most innovative wine-makers on both a national and international level.
THE RUCHÈ
Ruchè: the other face of Piedmont; the face of innovation and ability to look beyond classic, traditional wine-making and historic designations.
Montalbera’s Laccento 2016 Ruché di Castagnole Monferrato has proved itself to be a Ruché that knows how to distinguish itself, winning the 2018 Vini d’Italia wine guide’s Tre Bicchieri award. For the second year in a row, the Gambero Rosso publishing group has bestowed an award on the Ruché designation. In 2017, this prestigious honour was bestowed on La Tradizione 2015 Ruché di Castagnole Monferrato, the first time this designation had ever received this authoritative prize.