The Ascheri family has been making wine in Italy’s Piedmont since the beginning of the 19th century.  A locality with the family name still exists in the township of La Morra, marking the spot of their original vineyard holdings.  In 1880, the Ascheris moved their wine cellar to the town of Bra, near Alba.  This town offered fine road connections to the city of Turin, the principal market for their wines.  The cellar has remained in Bra to this day,  together with a hotel and trattoria within the same walled courtyard.

Since the mid-1990s Matteo Ascheri, the current manager,  has focused his energy on replanting the family vineyards at Bra, La Morra, Verduno and Serralunga d’Alba with best available clones of native grape varieties.  (Only the small experimental vineyard at Bra is planted with non-native Syrah and Viognier). The combination of tested grafting material, favorable hillside exposures, and correct vine spacing and training guarantees that Ascheri wines will be among the best available representatives of the vineyard sites from which they come.  Only Ascheri’s vineyards are used to make the wines.

The hilly region around the town of Nizza Monferrato in the heart of Asti province has a long history of producing excellent Barbera.  Along with Canelli, Nizza and its surrounding towns also have been for generations a center for Piemontese wine production. One of the rising stars in this area is Malgra’ winery,  surrounded by its 100 hectares of vineyards at Mombaruzzo, a small village near Nizza. Malgra’s consulting winemaker is Giuliano Noe’, "Winemaker of the Year," Gambero Rosso, 2005. Considered the grandfather of the modern style in Piemontese wines, having developed together with Giacomo Bologna the paradigm-changing Bricco dell’ Uccellone, Noe’ was one of the first independent consultants in the country, opening his own office in 1978.  Among other prize winning wines to his credit is Agnelo Sonvico’s La Barbatella.