From the atlas
Laficaia
At A Glance
- Founded: 2013
- Founder: Enrico Piantato
- Location: Casalotto di Mombarruzzo, Monferrato, Piedmont
- Appellation: Barbera d'Asti DOCG
- Grapes: Barbera, Chardonnay, Cortese, Moscato Bianco
- Wines: Barbera d'Asti DOCG (still red), Sbarbato Spumante Brut (white sparkling), Sbarbata Rosé Brut (rosé sparkling)
The Producer
Enrico Piantato left his career as a lawyer in 2013 to work the family land at Casalotto di Mombarruzzo, a hamlet in the Monferrato hills southeast of Asti. The winery he founded there carries the name Laficaia, from the Italian for fig grove, because a fig tree on the inherited property became the estate's founding image. That choice says something about the register: a single tree, already on the land, becomes the symbol rather than a classification or a name from the wine press.
Laficaia's range is compact and direct. One still red made from Barbera under the Barbera d'Asti DOCG designation, and two sparkling wines built from Piedmontese grapes. No oak-aged prestige cuvée appears in the lineup. The winery is oriented toward early-drinking fruit and freshness rather than extended cellaring.
Place
Casalotto di Mombarruzzo sits in the Monferrato, a rolling hill zone in southern Piedmont between Asti and Alessandria. The Monferrato is primarily still-wine country, with Barbera as its central grape. Laficaia's main wine carries the Barbera d'Asti DOCG classification, which covers Barbera grown across the provinces of Asti and Alessandria and sets higher minimum standards than the more basic Barbera del Monferrato designation. In practice that classification means the label commits to Barbera as the sole or primary grape and to the particular combination of ripe red fruit, natural high acidity, and mid-weight body that characterises the appellation at its most direct.
The sparkling wines place Laficaia in a smaller corner of Piedmontese production. Monferrato does not have a sparkling wine tradition comparable to Franciacorta or Trento, and estates working indigenous grapes into a Brut format are relatively few.
Soil And Site
The vineyards are at Casalotto di Mombarruzzo in the Monferrato hills. The hills around Mombarruzzo are typically calcareous clay, the soil type common across the Asti and Alessandria provinces that underpins Barbera's characteristic acidity in this zone. Specific parcel sizes, altitudes, and aspect details are not documented in available sources.
Story
The land at Casalotto di Mombarruzzo had belonged to Clemente Guasti, a family member of Enrico Piantato. Piantato grew up connected to the property through that family link. When he decided in 2013 to leave law, the land he went to was already known to him.
He did not arrive at a working winery. He arrived at inherited farmland with a family history and a fig tree. From that starting point he built a three-wine operation focused on the Barbera d'Asti DOCG and two sparkling formats that have no precedent in the immediate area. The decision to work Barbera, Chardonnay, Cortese, and Moscato Bianco into sparkling wines alongside a still appellation red is the clearest sign that Laficaia is not simply repeating the Monferrato template.
The estate has been producing since 2013. It remains small and unpretentious in its stated ambitions: fruit, freshness, and wines built to be opened rather than stored.
Vineyards And Cellar
Laficaia grows Barbera, Chardonnay, Cortese, and Moscato Bianco on the family property at Casalotto di Mombarruzzo. Barbera provides the backbone of the still red and contributes colour and acidity to both sparkling wines. Chardonnay and Cortese add the lighter floral and structural register to the white sparkling blend. Moscato Bianco brings aromatic lift and softness to the rosé sparkling.
Farming and cellar protocols beyond grape variety and classification are not documented in available sources. No barrel ageing or malolactic fermentation practice is confirmed. The style across all three wines, fruit-forward and built for freshness rather than development, suggests a cellar approach oriented toward preserving primary character.
Wines
The Barbera d'Asti DOCG is the estate's still red. The 2022 vintage is deep ruby, with ripe red fruit, berries, and a distinct anise note on the nose. The palate is full-bodied and fruity, with the natural high acidity that Barbera carries from the Monferrato hills, and a persistent finish. ABV sits at 13.5%. This is Barbera at a classical Asti weight: not light, not austere, and not built for long ageing, but long enough on the finish to take food seriously.
The Sbarbato Spumante Brut is a white sparkling wine blended from Barbera, Chardonnay, and Cortese. The colour is a brilliant straw-yellow. The nose opens fresh and floral, with the Cortese contributing a lighter register alongside delicate red berry notes from the Barbera component. On the palate the wine is lively and juicy, with a fruity crispness that recalls almonds and a lightness that the Barbera percentage does not typically suggest in still form.
The Sbarbata Rosé Brut blends Barbera and Moscato Bianco. Where the white sparkling is driven by Cortese florality, the rosé turns on the aromatic softness of Moscato Bianco alongside Barbera's red fruit. The palate is lively, almond-tinged, and finishes with an intense freshness. Both sparkling wines are classified Brut.
In The Glass
The Barbera d'Asti DOCG rises from the glass with ripe cherry, fresh berries, and a lifted anise note that separates it from softer, rounder interpretations of the grape. In the mouth the acidity arrives early and carries the fruit across the palate without weight or heaviness, finishing long and clean. The combination of full body and bright acid is characteristic of well-grown Barbera from the Asti zone.
The Sbarbato Spumante Brut is lighter in every dimension: the mousse is fine, the fruit is floral and delicate, and the almond note on the finish is soft rather than sharp. The Cortese in the blend pulls the wine toward a quiet freshness that the Chardonnay fills out without dominating.
The Sbarbata Rosé Brut follows a similar line: lively, fresh, with red berry and almond on the finish, but the Moscato Bianco adds an aromatic warmth that the white sparkling does not have. Both sparkling wines are made for immediate pleasure with no indication they are built for the cellar.
A Bottle To Understand It
Start with the Barbera d'Asti DOCG. It is the wine that carries both the place and the producer's choice most clearly: Barbera grown on Monferrato hills, under a classification that commits to the grape's natural acidity and body, without barrel ageing or prestige weighting. The 2022 shows ripe red fruit and anise on the nose, a full, fruity palate, and a persistent finish. Pour it with grilled meat or aged Piedmontese cheese and it answers the question of what Barbera does when it is handled simply and grown on good calcareous clay.
Anecdote
In 2013 Enrico Piantato drove out to Casalotto di Mombarruzzo to take up land that had belonged to his family through Clemente Guasti. He was still a practising lawyer at the time. On the property stood a fig tree. Piantato knew that the fig had been sacred in ancient tradition to Dionysus, the god of wine, a symbol of fertility and continuity. He took the tree as his founding image rather than a family name, a classification, or a vineyard. He named the estate Laficaia, from the word for fig grove in Italian, and put the tree on the label. The wines that followed were Barbera, sparkling Barbera, and a rosé, all made on land that a fig tree had already been marking as worth returning to.
Final Word
Laficaia is a small Monferrato estate with a short history and a clear point of view: Barbera d'Asti as the central wine, two sparkling formats as a deliberate departure from regional convention, and fruit and freshness as the organising principle across the range. The Barbera d'Asti DOCG is the right bottle to start with.
Sources
- https://en.laficaia.com/about-us
- https://en.laficaia.com/wine
- https://vinebration.com/products/of-laficaia-barbera-dasti-docg-2022
- https://travino.it/laficaia-sbarbato-7230007000.html
- https://travino.it/laficaia-sbarbata-rose-7230006000.html