History
Piedmont’s gentle, sun-struck hills around Asti have produced sweet, aromatic Muscat wines for longer than almost any other place in Europe. Once Rome’s Apiane, later the bubbly treat of U.S. GIs, today Asti DOCG and Moscato d’Ast DOCG are rewriting their story with premium terroir bottlings, steep-slope heroics, and carbon-light viticulture.
Explore the vintage chart of Asti
Asti sits at the hinge of Mediterranean and Alpine trade routes that have ferried ideas—and barrels—north and south for two millennia. From Greek sailors to the House of Savoy, from Carlo Gancia’s 1865 spumante to today’s zero-dosage Asti Brut Nature, each era left a mark on how Piedmont grows and bottles its Moscato Bianco. The timeline below follows the key beats.
Greek Sailors Bring Muscat
Muscat vines likely first landed on the Ligurian coast with Greek navigators and then crept north into today’s Piedmont. Alternate theories point to an Iberian–Arab route, but all agree the grape’s distant cradle is the Middle East.
Roman Colonia Hasta
Rome founded Hasta (Asti), weaving Muscat—called Apiane for its bee-attracting sweetness—into Tanaro and Po river commerce, seeding a taste for sweet wines across Cisalpine Gaul.
Pliny the Elder & Columella Praise Apiane
Classical agronomists record Apiane’s aromatic charm, confirming Muscat’s prestige in early imperial Italy.
Trading City & Monastic Care
Asti rose as a wealthy trading city; monasteries in nearby Monferrato safeguarded Moscato Bianco and refined trellising, feeding exports to Genoa and Provence.
Savoy’s Capital Shifts to Turin
Duke Emmanuel Philibert moves the court to French-speaking Turin, and the influx of Francophone artisans brings barrique aging and better cellar hygiene, giving Piedmontese (and soon Asti) wines a distinctly French polish.
Moscatello in Renaissance Deeds
Records from Santo Stefano Belbo and Canelli already call the grape Moscatello, showing continuity of cultivation through turbulent wars of Savoy and Spain.
Napoleon Rules
Napoleon’s annexation of Piedmont added a lasting shock to the region. The Code Napoléon enforced equal inheritance among all children, slicing estates into today’s patchwork of small plots that still define Moscato farming economics, creating a myriad of small growers that we still see today.
Wine & Unification
Austria’s 1846 wine tariff hit Piedmont hard, and two local patriots — vineyard-owners Count Cavour and Giuseppe Garibaldi — responded by importing French pruning and barrique aging while championing the new Bordeaux-mixture fungicide. Thanks to their Risorgimento upgrades, Asti’s Moscato estates entered Italy’s 1861 unification export-ready.
The First Italian Spumante
After apprenticing in Champagne, Carlo Gancia returned to Canelli and applied méthode classique to Moscato Bianco, birthing Italy’s inaugural sparkling wine—the ancestor of Asti Spumante.
Phylloxera resets the hills
The root-louse levelled Piedmont’s vineyards; growers rebuilt on American rootstocks and, because Moscato cropped early and abundantly, many replanted more of it—reshaping today’s Asti landscape.
Martinotti’s Tank Revolution
Asti’s own Federico Martinotti patented autoclave fermentation also known as the Charmat Method (named after the French producer who industrialized it), for making lightly frizzante Moscato d’Asti viable at scale and slashing costs for sweet sparkling production.
Strucchi Maps the Heartland
Armando Strucchi's Enologia Piemontese drew the first modern Moscato zone, identifying the most suitable areas for the cultivation of Moscato Bianco, clearly flagging the sub-areas.
Birth of the Consorzio
Responding to Italy’s new “Typical Wines” law, growers and producers founded the Consorzio per la Tutela dell’Asti and fixed production borders that endure today.
WWII Interrupts Progress
Industrial-scale autoclaves put Charmat/Martinotti production within reach of every cooperative, but World War II slams borders shut, freezing the just-opened export pipeline.
G.I. Sugar Rush
Home-bound Allied soldiers acquire a taste for Asti’s “sweet fizz”, fuelling a U.S. buying spree that jump-starts Piedmont’s economy while branding the wine as cheerful and fun.
DOC Status
Asti Spumante and Moscato d’Asti were among Italy’s very first denominations to gain DOC recognition, cementing quality rules and increasing quality levels.
The Inter-Professional Agreement
Growers and wineries signed the first price-and-yield pact, a milestone that stabilised the supply chain and rewarded steep-slope (sorì) farmers for their quality grapes.
Elevation to DOCG
To shake off a “cheap & cheerful” image, producers secured Italy’s top classification and dropped “Spumante” from many labels.
UNESCO Recognition
The Langhe-Roero-Monferrato vineyard landscape—including Canelli and the “Asti Spumante area”—joined the World-Heritage list, honoring centuries of Moscato culture.
From Pas Dosé to Dolce
Revised DOCG rules now let Asti range from Brut Nature to Dolce and permit traditional-method Asti Metodo Classico, greatly widening stylistic choice.
Climate-Smart High Ground
Rising temperatures push leading families such as Gaja and Pio Cesare to plant higher-altitude Alta Langa sites, chasing acidity and longer ripening windows.
Explore their science and art, with the producers themselves
Sources
♦ Libro dei Sorì (PDF) for ancient origins, Strucchi 1904, 1932 delimitation and steep-slope viticulture.