- 33
- Wineries within 5 km
- 29
- Of them do tastings
- 2 km
- To the regional enoteca
- 7 km
- To Canelli's cellars
Barbera is the grape of these hills. It covers the slopes around the cascina, it is poured in every bar in Nizza, and in its most serious form it carries the town's own name: Nizza DOCG, made only from Barbera grown on the hills around here.
You don't need a car to taste it. Within five kilometres of our gate there are 33 wineries, from houses that have been bottling since 1900 to families where the winemaker may come in off the tractor to pour, and 29 of them welcome visitors for tastings.
“Within five kilometres of our gate there are 33 wineries. Most of them will pour for you if you call ahead.”
A few things help. The small producers are working farms, so call or book a day ahead. September is harvest, when the cellars are at their busiest and most exciting. And if you'd like to start closer to home, ask us: we make our own wine too, and we're happy to open a bottle in the cellar.
The regional enoteca
Palazzo Crova, in the centre of Nizza, holds the regional enoteca: more than 600 local labels and a tasting room where you can compare producers side by side before choosing where to go next. In the old cellars underneath is one of the best places in town for dinner.
- 1
Tasting at the Enoteca Regionale di Nizza (Palazzo Crova)
If you want to get your head round Barbera d'Asti DOCG and Nizza DOCG, start at the regional enoteca in the 18th-century Palazzo Crova: over 600 local labels in the cellar, six of them open to taste each week.
- 2
La Signora In Rosso
An osteria and wine bar down in an atmospheric cellar beneath the Enoteca, with Piedmontese dishes, a deep wine list and a sommelier on hand.
- 3
Ristobottega Da Necco Vino & Cucina
A small deli and wine bar run with real passion by owner Marisa: homemade Piedmontese dishes and platters of local cheeses and cured meats.
The historic houses
Nizza's big names are a short ride from the piazza. Their cellars run deep and their tours are the most polished; book ahead, especially at weekends.
- 4
Scarpa Wine
Antica Casa Vinicola Scarpa has stood in Nizza Monferrato since 1900, and it's one of the most traditional houses in Piedmont: known for wines it ages slowly and a cellar archive that goes back more than 150 years.
Book a tasting ↗ - 5
Bersano cellar tour & Nizza DOCG tasting
€25 ppBersano has been going in Nizza Monferrato since 1907, and the visit walks its historic cellars and wine museum before you sit down to taste.
Book a tasting ↗ - 6
Guasti Clemente
Guasti Clemente & Figli has been making wine in Nizza Monferrato since 1946, and now pulls fruit from Monferrato, Roero and the Langhe.
Book a tasting ↗ - 7
Cantina Di Nizza
Cantina di Nizza is the town's cooperative, founded in 1955 and now pooling the work of several hundred grower-members who farm the hills around Nizza Monferrato.
Book a tasting ↗
Family cellars you can ride to
The real pleasure is the small estates in the hills around the cascina, most of them within ten minutes by bike. All of them do tastings; book a day ahead.
Distance from the cascina, as the crow flies
- 8Cantina Sant'Evasio0.8 km
- 9Giovanni Piacenza Vini1.2 kmSince 1918
- 10Cascina Lana1.4 kmSince 1937
- 1.4 km
- 1.4 km
- 1.5 km
- 14Azienda Vitivinicola Erede di Chiappone Armando1.5 km
- 15Cascina Collina2.3 kmSince 2016
The underground cathedrals
One valley over, Canelli is where Italian sparkling wine began. Its historic houses age their bottles in tunnels cut deep into the tufa, the Cattedrali Sotterranee, now part of the UNESCO wine landscape, and several open them for a tour with a tasting at the end.
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Contratto Underground Cathedral tour & tasting
€50 · 90 minutesContratto has been making classic-method sparkling wine since 1867, and its UNESCO-listed underground cathedrals go over 5,000 m² deep: tunnels cut as far as 32 m into the hillside marl.
Book a tasting ↗ - 17
Casa Gancia historic cellars tour & tasting
€50 · Tour Classico ~2 hoursCanelli's spumante story started at Gancia in 1865, and its UNESCO-listed underground cathedrals run for over four kilometres of tuff galleries, a steady 12–14°C down there.
Book a tasting ↗ - 18
Coppo cellar visit & Canelli DOCG tasting
About 1–1.5 hoursCoppo is one of the historic houses whose tufa cellars make up Canelli's UNESCO Cattedrali Sotterranee.
Book a tasting ↗ - 19
Underground Cathedrals tour & sparkling-wine tasting (Bosca)
About 1 hourThe Bosca cellars are part of Canelli's UNESCO-listed Cattedrali Sotterranee: tufa tunnels cut as much as 32 metres under the town, where sparkling wine has aged for over a century.
Book a tasting ↗
Out in the hills
Between Nizza, Calamandrana and San Marzano Oliveto the producers get smaller and the tastings more personal: natural wines, a walk through the vines with a donkey, an open-air art park in the middle of a vineyard.
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Reserved wine tasting at Tenuta Olim Bauda
€20 pp · About 1½–2 hoursBook ahead and the Bertolino siblings will walk you through the estate on Via Prata, just outside Incisa Scapaccino: five wines and a turn among the vines, most tastings running about ninety minutes.
Book a tasting ↗ - 21
Wine tasting at VIV Winery
€20 pp · About 1.5 hoursVIV means "alive" in the local dialect, which fits: Alessandro and his daughter Ilaria make natural wine on the hill above San Marzano Oliveto: orange skins, pet-nat, a few limited labels, alongside the straight Barbera.
Book a tasting ↗ - 22
Natural wine tasting & donkey vineyard walk at Carussin
Carussin has been Barbera country for the same family for nearly a century: Bruna and Luigi, now their sons Matteo and Luca, farming fifteen biodynamic hectares above San Marzano Oliveto.
Book a tasting ↗ - 23
Family wine tasting at Cascina Guido Berta
Guido Berta might come in off the tractor to pour for you: that's the register here, a family cantina above San Marzano Oliveto run by Guido, Patrizia and their daughter Alessia.
Book a tasting ↗ - 24
Cellar tour & tasting at Michele Chiarlo
Family-run since 1956, Michele Chiarlo is one of the names Piedmont measures itself by, with cellars right on the Nizza–Canelli road in Calamandrana.
Book a tasting ↗ - 25
La Court open-air art park visit
Michele Chiarlo turned the vines of his La Court cru into an open-air art park, a short drive from the Calamandrana cellars at Castelnuovo Calcea.
Book a tasting ↗
When to come
Spring and autumn are the wine seasons here: open cellars on the Giro del Nizza in April, Nizza è Barbera in May, the harvest in September and the Nizza DOCG weekend in October. Coming up:
- Oct 30 – Nov 2RossoBarbera ↗
The biggest tasting bench dedicated to Barbera: over four days around All Saints', the castle of Costigliole d'Asti pours more than 400 Barberas from some 200 wineries, with masterclasses, a historic-vintage tasting, Barbera food pairings, a grappa salon and a walk through the old Rocca quarter.
- Nov 6Masterclass 2026 (BAart, Agliano Terme) ↗
BAart's 2026 masterclass season in Agliano Terme: eight guided evenings from May to early November.
Stay among the vines
Eight rooms on a restored wine estate, our own Barbera in the cellar and dozens of wineries within cycling distance.