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Antica Cantina Di Calosso

A cooperative winery in Calosso, Asti province, founded in 1898 by Moscato growers. Member of the Consorzio dell'Asti DOCG. Its Monlusso Barbera is a full-fruited, low-tannin Barbera d'Asti at 14.5% alcohol.

The producer

Antica Cantina Di Calosso was formed in 1898 when an agronomist named Giuseppe Guaita gathered Moscato growers from Calosso, a village in the Asti province of Piemonte where vines cover two-thirds of the land across some 380 farms. The cooperative has operated continuously from the same village for more than 125 years, producing Moscato Bianco under the Asti DOCG appellation that governs two wines from that grape: the fully sparkling Asti Spumante and the gently fizzy, sweetly perfumed Moscato d'Asti.

Its confirmed export bottling is Monlusso Barbera, a Barbera d'Asti red made from a grape that carries low tannin and a firm acid backbone naturally. The 2022 vintage shows dark cherry, plum, cinnamon, and cocoa at 14.5% alcohol, with enough body to feel substantial and enough acidity to keep the fruit moving through a clean, warm finish.

Known for

Moscato d'Asti DOCG, Barbera d'Asti DOCG

Notable facts

The story

The cooperative and the house

In 2011, the organisers of the 150th anniversary celebrations of Moscato d'Asti's modern commercial production placed two names on the same stage. One was Gancia, a house that had turned Moscato into a commercial category traded across markets worldwide. The other was the Antica Cantina Di Calosso, a cooperative from a village of 380 farms that had been making wine since 1898, founded by the agronomist Giuseppe Guaita to keep the value of Calosso's Moscato harvest inside the village rather than in the hands of outside traders. Gancia had built the market. Calosso had kept the growers. The anniversary committee decided both stories belonged in the same room, and the cooperative that Guaita had assembled from the village's Moscato growers more than a century earlier stood alongside the industrial house that had made the same grape a commodity, and both were called representative of what Moscato d'Asti had become.

From the atlas

Antica Cantina Di Calosso

At A Glance

The Producer

Antica Cantina Di Calosso is a cooperative winery in Calosso, a small municipality in the Asti province of Piemonte where vines cover two-thirds of the land. The cooperative was formed in 1898 when an agronomist named Giuseppe Guaita gathered Moscato growers from the village to pool their harvest rather than sell it individually. It has operated from the same village for more than 125 years.

The cooperative is a member of the Consorzio dell'Asti DOCG, which places it inside the appellation governing Moscato d'Asti and Asti Spumante, both made from Moscato Bianco grown across a band of hills between Asti, Alba, and Acqui Terme. Moscato was the founding crop and remains the institutional reason for the cooperative's existence. Its other confirmed bottling is Monlusso Barbera, a Barbera d'Asti red that reaches export markets in Sweden.

Place

Calosso sits in the Monferrato hills south-east of Turin, inside the province of Asti. The village is densely agricultural: around 380 farms share a territory where roughly two-thirds of the ground grows grapes. That concentration is not unusual for this part of Piemonte, where the Asti DOCG zone covers 52 communes and the land has been shaped by vine cultivation for centuries.

The Asti DOCG designation covers two wines from the same grape, Moscato Bianco: Asti Spumante, which is fully sparkling, and Moscato d'Asti, which is gently fizzy, low in alcohol, and high in residual sweetness. Barbera d'Asti DOCG is a separate red wine appellation covering the same general territory. Calosso sits inside both zones, which is why the cooperative produces from both grapes.

Soil And Site

The Monferrato hills around Calosso are characterised by calcareous clay soils with sandy components, the same geological base that defines much of the Asti DOCG territory. These soils retain moisture and give Moscato Bianco the conditions it needs to develop aromatic intensity without losing freshness. The packet does not provide parcel-level soil data for the cooperative's specific plots.

Story

In 1898, Calosso's Moscato growers faced the standard problem of small producers across Piemonte: selling grapes or bulk wine to traders left them with thin margins and no ability to control how their harvest reached the market. Giuseppe Guaita, an agronomist with a view of the wider regional picture, organised them into a cooperative society. The logic was collective leverage: pool the Moscato harvest, negotiate from a larger position, and keep more of the value inside the village.

That model held. The cooperative survived the first half of the twentieth century, the restructuring of Italian wine law in the 1960s and 1970s, and the gradual professionalisation of Asti DOCG production in the decades that followed. By 2011, it had been operating continuously for 113 years and carried enough standing in the appellation to be chosen, alongside the house of Gancia, to represent Moscato d'Asti in the 150th anniversary celebrations of the wine's modern commercial production. That selection put a village cooperative from 380-farm Calosso on the same platform as one of the largest names in the appellation.

Vineyards And Cellar

The cooperative draws from member growers in and around Calosso. Farming practices, cellar methods, fermentation vessels, and ageing protocols are not documented in available sources. What is known comes from the wines themselves. Monlusso Barbera 2022 reaches 14.5% alcohol, a figure that points to ripe fruit at harvest and warm growing conditions. Barbera d'Asti at this alcohol level typically comes from fruit picked at full maturity to build body while retaining the grape's natural acidity. The grape's low tannin concentration means the wine does not require extended maceration to become approachable.

Wines

Two grapes anchor the confirmed range. Moscato Bianco is the founding variety, and the cooperative produces it under the Asti DOCG. Moscato d'Asti, produced under the Asti DOCG, is gently sparkling, typically around 5 to 6 percent alcohol, and carries high residual sweetness balanced by the grape's natural aromatic lift. Peach, apricot, orange blossom, and white flowers are characteristic. The mousse is soft and the finish brief and sweet.

Monlusso Barbera is the confirmed red bottling and the cooperative's best-documented export wine. Barbera d'Asti DOCG is built on low tannic concentration and a firm acid backbone. In the 2022 vintage, Monlusso shows dark cherry, plum, cinnamon, and cocoa alongside the grape's natural grip of acidity. At 14.5% alcohol, the wine has body and weight, with fruit that sits squarely in the dark register. The acid line keeps it from feeling heavy.

The full range beyond these two is not documented.

In The Glass

Monlusso Barbera 2022 opens on dark cherry and plum, with cinnamon and cocoa threading through the fruit. The nose is ripe and direct. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, with 14.5% alcohol giving it real presence. What prevents that weight from dominating is the acidity: Barbera d'Asti is a grape that carries its acid naturally, and in Monlusso it runs through the mid-palate and into the finish, keeping the dark fruit moving and giving the wine a clean close. Tannins are low, so the texture is smooth rather than grippy. The finish is medium, warm, and fruit-forward.

Moscato d'Asti from this zone pours pale gold with a fine, gentle mousse. The perfume is immediate and high-pitched: peach, apricot, white flowers. In the mouth, the sweetness is matched by the grape's natural freshness, keeping it light rather than cloying. Alcohol is low enough that it barely registers.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with Monlusso Barbera. It is a Barbera d'Asti made from the cooperative's village-grown fruit, and it gives you the grape in a direct, full-fruited form: dark cherry and plum on the nose, smooth texture from Barbera's characteristically low tannin, and the firm acidity that runs through every Barbera d'Asti worth drinking. At 14.5% it has genuine body. The finish is warm and clean. It is not a complex bottle, but it is an honest one, and it puts Calosso and its cooperative tradition on the table in a form you can taste.

Anecdote

In 2011, the organisers of the 150th anniversary celebrations of Moscato d'Asti's modern commercial production made a choice that surprised people who followed these things closely. Alongside the house of Gancia, one of the largest and most recognisable names in the appellation, they placed the Antica Cantina Di Calosso, a cooperative from a village of 380 farms that had been quietly making wine since 1898. Gancia had built Moscato into a commercial category. Calosso had kept Moscato in the hands of the growers who grew it. The anniversary committee decided both stories belonged on the same stage. The cooperative that Giuseppe Guaita had assembled from the village's Moscato growers more than a century earlier stood alongside the industrial house that had turned the same grape into a tradeable commodity, and both were called representative.

Final Word

Antica Cantina Di Calosso is a cooperative winery with deep roots in one of Piemonte's most concentrated grape-growing villages. It was founded by growers to keep value inside Calosso, and it has operated that way for more than 125 years. The Monlusso Barbera is the bottle to find first: direct, full-fruited, and built on the low tannin and firm acidity that make Barbera d'Asti one of Piemonte's most straightforwardly drinkable reds.

Sources

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