Everything started
from Clemente...
Clemente Guasti, immediately after the war, founded a winery for the production and sale of fine wines in the heart of Nizza Monferrato in the province of Asti, one of the most important wine-growing centers in Piedmont.
Already in the first years of activity he was responsible for an important and innovative intuition aimed at the world of Barbera, when he began to report the origin of the grapes on the labels of the bottles.
A precise indication linked to the concept of “cru”, referring to important and selected proprietary vineyards. Thus was born the “Barbera delle Cascine Nicesi” which is still a flagship of the house today, like the Barbera d’Asti Superiore Docg “Cascina Boschetto Vecchio”.
...and then evolution
Clemente was always very attentive to the evolution of production techniques and was among the first in the town to adopt the steel autoclaves to produce sparkling wines with the method Martinotti-Charmat, where we find evidence of it in a rare film from 1958 made by Rai (Italian radio and television)”Italian sparkling wine”.
In the following years the business continued and grew steadily, increasing both the national and international markets, where for decades the main wines produced have boasted a good presence in various countries around the world.
The third generation
Today, his grandson Enrico Piantato, who has always loved the great work of his grandfather Clemente, runs the business in the historic winery located in Via IV Novembre in Nizza Monferrato with the same vision and passion.
The most recent history referring to the new millennium has seen the convinced adhesion to the “Nizza” project aimed at identifying a special reserve of the Barbera vine, cultivated in a very specific and particularly suitable viticultural area.
Since 2014 an important production of Barbera wine leads as the “Nizza”, which within the Italian wine classification body “Denomination of Controlled and Guaranteed Origin (DOCG)” was officially born in that year, making “Nizza” an important and exclusive place of high-level vineyards, consequently the the number of producers belonging to the Association has constantly increased, also following the great success achieved by this wine on the market in Italy and abroad.
The third generation
Today, his grandson Enrico Piantato, who has always loved the great work of his grandfather Clemente, runs the business in the historic winery located in Via IV Novembre in Nizza Monferrato with the same vision and passion.
The most recent history referring to the new millennium has seen the convinced adhesion to the “Nizza” project aimed at identifying a special reserve of the Barbera vine, cultivated in a very specific and particularly suitable viticultural area.
Since 2014 an important production of Barbera wine leads as the “Nizza”, which within the Italian wine classification body “Denomination of Controlled and Guaranteed Origin (DOCG)” was officially born in that year, making “Nizza” an important and exclusive place of high-level vineyards, consequently the the number of producers belonging to the Association has constantly increased, also following the great success achieved by this wine on the market in Italy and abroad.
Historical curiosities
The family’s viticultural vocation has distant origins, in fact, the pioneer was Secondo Guasti who in 1881 emigrated to California bringing with him Barbera cuttings and in the space of a decade planted “the largest vineyard in the world”. Signs of his hard work can still be found in the city that he founded and, which still exists today, retains its name of the same name.