Asti, town and province in piemonte in north-west Italy whose name appears in local varietal reds made from Dolcetto, Freisa, and Barbera d’Asti. Unlike its counterpart Barbera d’Alba, made from vines traditionally planted in lesser sites where Nebbiolo will not ripen, Barbera has always been given supreme vineyard sites in Asti. Barbera d’Asti was elevated to docg in 2010, with three superior subzones: Tinella, Colli Astiani or Astiano, and Nizza.
However Asti’s name is most commonly associated with playful, aromatic, lightly sparkling wine with modest alcohol levels that is Italy’s biggest-selling wine. In 1993, along with the superior moscato d’asti, Asti Spumante was elevated to docg status and renamed Asti, largely in an effort to distinguish it from the host of frizzante or sparkling wines produced in Italy from a host of grape varieties of very varying quality.
Both Asti and Moscato d’Asti are produced from Moscato Bianco (muscat blanc à petits grains) in the provinces of Asti, Cuneo, and Alessandria, where vineyards total 9,490 ha/23,440 acres shared by 4,000 growers spread over 152 communes. Production has increased from 40 million bottles in the 1970s to 107 million bottles (or 800,000 hl/17,597,539 gallons) in 2011, made possible by a vine density of 4,000 vines/ha and a permitted yield of 10 tonnes/ha, although average vineyard size is just 2.45 ha/6 acres. Due to this fragmentation, large bottlers and négociant houses have traditionally dominated production. With the invention of the tank method (see sparkling winemaking) at the end of the 19th century, industrial production of Asti became a reality. The combination of large-volume production and small-scale viticulture has necessarily made Asti a blended wine from many sources, masking geographical differences in sites and zones. However, more and more producers are bottling their own produce, resulting in more artisanal wines, with single-vineyard bottlings becoming increasingly common.
Asti comes in several versions, each determined by its alcoholic content, residual sugar, and intensity of sparkle. Asti differs significantly from Moscato d’Asti: it is more alcoholic (6 to 9.5% rather than Moscato d’Asti’s maximum of 6.5%), and it is fizzier (at least 3 bar of pressure in the bottle rather than Moscato d’Asti’s maximum of 2 bar). The best and ripest grapes are normally reserved for Moscato d’Asti.
Often scorned for the many mediocre wines released under the Asti name, the wine never lost its popularity. The image and sales of Moscato in general and Asti in particular received a huge boost in the 2000s when several rap artists who had formerly praised the virtues of Champagne switched to mentioning Moscato in their songs. The subsequent boom in the US led to increased demand, and a call from the larger producers to enlarge the vineyard area. The Asti Consorzio has expressed doubts, fearing that expansion may prejudice quality.
