Italy · Langhe

Tenuta il Falchetto

Three brothers farm six Piemontese estates, making Moscato from the Canelli DOCG subzone and Barbera from the Nizza DOCG subzone. The Forno family has grown grapes in Santo Stefano Belbo since the mid-1600s; Pietro Forno began bottling under the estate name in 1940.

The producer

Tenuta il Falchetto is a family estate in the Langhe and Monferrato hills of southern Piemonte, built around two grapes and two appellations that define this part of Italy: Moscato Bianco in the Canelli subzone of Moscato d'Asti DOCG, and Barbera in the Nizza subzone of Barbera d'Asti Superiore DOCG. The Forno family has worked these hills since the mid-seventeenth century. Pietro Forno drew the line from bulk grower to estate producer in 1940, when he bottled the first Moscato under the family name rather than selling it to négociants. Three brothers, Giorgio, Fabrizio and Adriano, manage the estate today across six separate vineyard holdings in the provinces of Cuneo and Asti.

All pruning, canopy work and harvest picking is done by hand across every estate. The cellar uses 30-hectolitre oak casks and 225-litre French barriques for red wines, with the cooperage source varied to control aromatic and structural results. For the Alta Langa DOCG sparkling wines, the family restored a crutin, a cave dug 20 metres beneath one of their hills by an earlier generation, and uses it to age bottles on their lees before disgorgement in conditions of naturally steady underground temperature. The Tenuta del Fant Moscato d'Asti, grown at 350 metres in Calosso, is the clearest expression of the estate: lightly sparkling, sweet, low in alcohol, with white peach, orange blossom, citrus and sage held in balance by a firm acid line.

Known for

Moscato d'Asti DOCG from the Canelli subzone; Barbera d'Asti Superiore DOCG from the Nizza subzone.

Notable facts

The story

The Cave Under the Hill

Before Pietro Forno's time, the family carved a crutin into the hillside: a cave dug 20 metres straight down into the earth, used as a natural cellar in an era when underground temperature was the most reliable cooling system available. It held still wine, kept barrels stable through summer heat, and then fell out of use as the estate modernised and mechanical temperature control became standard. When the Forno brothers decided to produce Alta Langa DOCG sparkling wine by the traditional method, requiring extended lees ageing in steady, cool conditions, they looked at what they already had beneath their feet. The crutin was restored and put back into service. The bottles now rest in the same darkness their grandparents' barrels once occupied, the cave doing precisely what it was dug to do, only for a different wine and a different appellation.

From the atlas

Tenuta il Falchetto

At A Glance

The Producer

The Forno family has worked the hills around Santo Stefano Belbo since the mid-seventeenth century, and Tenuta il Falchetto carries that continuity into six separate vineyard estates today. Pietro Forno drew the first clear line between bulk grower and estate producer in 1940, when he began bottling Moscato under the family name rather than selling it in barrels. That decision set the direction: Moscato Bianco would be the heart of the range, grown in the Canelli subzone of the Moscato d'Asti DOCG.

Three brothers now lead the estate: Giorgio, Fabrizio and Adriano Forno. Six holdings spread across the provinces of Cuneo and Asti give the range its breadth, covering two DOCGs with distinct characters: Canelli for aromatic, low-alcohol Moscato, and Nizza for Barbera with depth and age behind it. All pruning, canopy work and picking is done by hand across every estate.

Place

Santo Stefano Belbo sits in the Belbo river valley in the southern Langhe, at the point where the hills of Cuneo province meet those of Asti. This is Moscato country: the Canelli subzone of the Moscato d'Asti DOCG covers a concentration of south-facing hillside vineyards where Moscato Bianco ripens fully but retains the acidity the grape needs for balance. The bottle labelled Canelli DOCG carries a geographic claim inside the appellation name, signalling grapes from this specific cluster of communes rather than the broader Asti province.

The Barbera estates sit further east, in Agliano Terme. The Nizza DOCG is a quality subzone within Barbera d'Asti Superiore, reserved for Barbera grown in a defined set of communes around the town of Nizza Monferrato. Wines carrying the Nizza designation spend a minimum period in wood and reach the market later than standard Barbera d'Asti, with correspondingly more weight and depth. Calosso, where the Alta Langa Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grow alongside the Tenuta del Fant Moscato parcels, sits at 350 metres, higher than the Barbera estates.

Soil And Site

The six estates have different soils, and those differences follow the grapes planted in them. At Pian Scorrone in Agliano Terme, where Barbera dominates, the ground alternates between marl and clay on a calcareous base with a high proportion of lime. A narrower strip of sand and chalk within the same estate is used for Sauvignon Blanc, a lighter, more permeable soil that suits a grape which can become heavy in richer ground. Pian Scorrone sits at 280 metres with east and southeast exposure.

Bricco Paradiso-Roche, the second Agliano Terme estate, rises to 310 metres with southeast, south and southwest aspects giving broad sun exposure across the day. Barbera vines here average 40 years old. Older Barbera vines in Piemonte tend to produce smaller berries with more concentrated colour and more naturally balanced acidity than young plantings, and the extended root systems reach further into the marl and clay subsoil. Tenuta del Fant at Calosso, the highest estate, gives the Moscato grapes a longer, cooler growing season that reinforces the grape's natural aromatic lift.

Story

The Forno family presence in Santo Stefano Belbo is documented from the mid-1600s, though the move from growing grapes to selling finished wine is more recent. Pietro Forno made that transition in 1940, choosing estate bottling at a time when most growers in the area were still selling in bulk to négociants or local cooperatives. The wine he bottled was Moscato, the grape that defined the Belbo valley, and the family name went on the label.

During the 1970s, Pietro passed the estate to the next generation. The cellar was renovated in that period, fermentation-control equipment introduced, and new vineyard land acquired. These purchases eventually built the current network of six estates across two provinces, positioning the family across both the Moscato belt of Cuneo and the Barbera hills of Asti. The range followed: Moscato d'Asti and Asti Spumante from Canelli-subzone parcels, Barbera d'Asti Superiore from Nizza-subzone vineyards, and Alta Langa sparkling wine from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir at elevation. Today Giorgio, Fabrizio and Adriano Forno manage the estate their grandfather named.

Vineyards And Cellar

Every vine on every estate is managed by hand. Pruning decisions, canopy adjustments and harvest picking are done manually rather than mechanically, which matters most in the Moscato parcels, where selective picking allows the team to choose grapes at the moment their sugar and acidity are in balance rather than harvesting the whole parcel at once.

The cellar uses two different oak formats depending on the wine. Thirty-hectolitre oak casks give red wines slow, gradual integration with wood without imposing heavy tannin or obvious oak character; 225-litre French barriques from multiple cooperages add more wood contact for wines built for longer ageing. The choice of cooperage source matters because different forests and different toasting levels produce different aromatic and structural results in the finished wine.

For the Alta Langa DOCG sparkling wines, which are made by the traditional method and aged on their lees before disgorgement, the family restored a crutin: a cave dug 20 metres beneath one of their hills. The underground temperature is naturally steady, which is what traditional-method sparkling wine requires during extended lees ageing. The cave had been dug by an earlier generation of the family and abandoned as the cellar modernised. Its restoration connected a piece of pre-refrigeration infrastructure to a DOCG program that requires exactly what it was originally built to provide.

Wines

The range divides cleanly into three appellations, each with its own grape and purpose.

Moscato d'Asti DOCG and Asti Spumante DOCG, from Canelli-subzone parcels, are the editorial core. The Tenuta del Fant is the flagship Moscato cuvée, from the Calosso estate at 350 metres. It is lightly sparkling (frizzante rather than fully sparkling), sweet, and low in alcohol. The nose carries fresh fruit, flowers, citrus and sage; the palate is sweet but not cloying because the wine's acidity and a quality the producer describes as sapidity keep the sugar in motion. A second Moscato cuvée, Ciombo, comes from Santo Stefano Belbo parcels and sits alongside Tenuta del Fant in the range.

Barbera d'Asti Superiore DOCG from the Nizza subzone is the red core of the range. The Pian Scorrone is the named estate wine from the 280-metre Agliano Terme vineyard of the same name, grown on marl and clay, aged in the estate's oak vessels. Bricco Paradiso-Roche, with its 40-year-old vines at 310 metres, produces Barbera alongside Merlot and Nebbiolo at those higher, broader exposures. Nizza Barbera carries more weight and wood than standard Barbera d'Asti, with the appellation rules requiring extended élevage before release.

Alta Langa DOCG sparkling wine comes from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grown at Tenuta del Fant in Calosso. It is made by the traditional method and aged on lees in the underground cave before disgorgement, giving it the bready, textural depth that extended lees contact produces in classic sparkling wine.

In The Glass

The Tenuta del Fant Moscato d'Asti opens with a clean rush of white peach, apricot, orange blossom and sage: the aromatic register that Moscato Bianco produces when grown at altitude in a cool, well-exposed site. Lightly sparkling, it sits gently on the palate rather than pressing forward. The sweetness is immediate and generous, but the wine's acidity runs underneath it, sharpening the citrus notes and preventing the fruit from turning heavy. A mineral edge from the Calosso soils surfaces on the finish, tightening the close. At low alcohol, it is built for the table early in a meal or with dishes that want sweetness alongside them.

The Pian Scorrone Barbera is a different register entirely: a fuller, darker wine grown on marl and clay with oak ageing behind it. Barbera in the Nizza subzone produces wines with more body and extractive depth than simpler Barbera d'Asti, and the 30-hectolitre casks give integration without imposing resinous wood character. The 40-year-old Barbera vines at Bricco Paradiso-Roche, with their deep root systems on south-facing slopes, add concentration and the kind of natural acidity associated with Barbera's longevity.

A Bottle To Understand It

Tenuta del Fant Moscato d'Asti DOCG (Canelli subzone) is lightly sparkling and sweet. Grown at 350 metres in Calosso, made from Moscato Bianco in the Canelli subzone with its specific geographic designation within the broader appellation, it is lightly sparkling, sweet, and low in alcohol: white peach, orange blossom, citrus, and sage, with an acid line that keeps the sweetness from sitting flat. The Canelli label is worth noting: it is a subzone of Moscato d'Asti DOCG that specifies origin more precisely than the broader appellation, and Falchetto's Moscato parcels sit within it. This is not a wine built for ageing or for a main course; it is built for a precise moment. Start here to understand the estate's history, its principal grape, and the character of Piemontese Moscato from altitude.

Anecdote

Before Pietro Forno's time, the family dug a crutin into the hillside: a cave carved 20 metres straight down into the earth, used as a natural cellar in an era when the temperature underground was the most reliable cooling system available. It held still wine, kept barrels stable through the summer, and then fell out of use as the estate modernised and mechanical temperature control became standard. When the Forno brothers decided to produce Alta Langa DOCG sparkling wine, made by the traditional method and requiring extended lees ageing in stable, cool conditions, they looked at what they already had beneath their feet. The crutin was restored and put back into service. The bottles now rest in the same darkness their grandparents' barrels once occupied, the cave doing precisely what it was dug to do, only for a different wine and a different appellation.

Final Word

Tenuta il Falchetto is a Piemontese family estate with a clear geography and a clear range: Moscato from the Canelli subzone at altitude, Barbera from the Nizza subzone on old vines, Alta Langa sparkling from a restored hillside cave. The Forno family's long presence in Santo Stefano Belbo is not background decoration; it is the reason they farm six separate holdings across two provinces and why an ancient cave under one of their hills is now an appellation-grade ageing cellar. The Tenuta del Fant Moscato is the entry point: light, aromatic, precise, and as particular to this corner of southern Piemonte as any wine in the range.

Sources

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