2025 Boasso 'Grappoli' Moscato d’Asti DOCG

"Grappoli" means grape clusters in Italian — and it's also the name of the Boasso family's own farmhouse, "I Grappoli," which opened its doors to visitors back in 2010 right next to the cellar in Serralunga d'Alba. This Moscato carries that name for a reason: it's the wine the family pours for guests at their own table, the sweet, low-alcohol counterpoint to the serious, age-worthy Barolo crus — Gabutti and Lazzarito among them — that built their reputation.

The Boasso story goes back to the 1950s, when Giuseppe returned from World War II to a traditional Piedmontese farm growing a little of everything. His son Franco expanded the land through the 1970s and 80s, and the family began estate-bottling their own wine in the mid-1980s. Today it's Franco with his sons Ezio, who runs the vineyards and cellar, and Claudio, who handles tastings and hospitality at "I Grappoli" itself — a small, genuinely family-run estate where the same people crafting cellar-worthy Barolo also make this playful, aromatic white.

Moscato d'Asti comes from the Moscato Bianco grape, one of the oldest and most aromatic varieties in the world, grown just north of the Barolo zone around Asti. It's gently sparkling, low in alcohol (typically around 5.5%), and made to be youthful and fresh rather than aged — the opposite instinct of everything else in the Boasso cellar, and a nice reminder that even a serious Barolo estate knows how to have fun.