Why it matters
The producer
Crivelli farms Ruchè di Castagnole Monferrato, an aromatic red grape so closely tied to a single Piedmontese commune that few wine buyers outside Italy have ever encountered it. The estate sits on the Montiò hill in Castagnole Monferrato, a small town in the Asti province, and its 25 acres are devoted principally to a grape that the family has spent decades making legible to the wider world.
The house has operated without a cooperative since 1979, when Marco Maria Crivelli separated from the local collective and built the estate into its current form. Jonathan Crivelli, the fourth generation, now runs the cellar. Marco concentrates on sales and marketing. The family's website is named after the grape rather than the family.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Castagnole Monferrato sits in the Asti province of Piedmont, in the rolling hillside zone of the Monferrato. This is a distinct area from the more widely known Monferrato zones around Alessandria; the Asti Monferrato runs a tighter, hillier landscape with soils of sand, clay and chalky limestone. Ruchè di Castagnole Monferrato DOCG is geographically confined to a handful of communes around Castagnole Monferrato, which makes the appellation genuinely local rather than broadly regional.
The grape's aromatic character comes in part from these soils. Sandy components moderate vigour and concentrate the fruit; the chalky limestone fraction holds acidity through the growing season. The resulting wines are ruby-garnet in colour, medium-bodied, and carry a perfume architecture that is specific enough to be memorable: ripe cherry, apricot, and a geranium-leaf note that recurs across every serious Ruchè from this zone.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
The 25 acres on Montiò are farmed to Ruchè as the dominant planting, with Barbera d'Asti and Grignolino d'Asti occupying smaller portions. Harvest timing for the Ruchè is managed to preserve the grape's aromatic volatility; picking too late flattens the geranium and fruit notes that define the variety.
In the cellar, the Ruchè is handled without any wood contact. No barrique, no large cask, no oak of any kind touches the wine before bottling. This is a position Jonathan and Marco have both held against the consortium's proposal to create a wood-aged Ruchè riserva category. The argument is that oak suppresses the geranium-leaf perfume, which is the most distinctive thing about the grape, and that a barrel-aged Ruchè would become indistinguishable from generic Piedmontese red.
Wines to know
The range in view
Ruchè di Castagnole Monferrato DOCG is the estate's flagship and the primary reason the Crivelli address matters. It is a single-variety red made entirely from Ruchè grown on Montiò. Unoaked and unfiltered before bottling, it opens with ripe cherry and apricot on the nose and the geranium-leaf note that distinguishes Ruchè from every other Piedmontese red. In the mouth it is medium-bodied with a fresh, slightly grainy texture and a dry finish. The lack of wood keeps the aromatics clean and the palate relatively bright for a red wine from this latitude.
Agoghè is a co-fermented blend of Ruchè and Syrah, a proprietary red that sits outside the DOCG designation. The late-harvest timing deepens the fruit before fermentation, and the 12 to 18 months in barriques adds a layer of spice and darker fruit alongside the Ruchè's floral base note. A further year in bottle rounds the tannin before release. Agoghè is fuller and more structured than the Ruchè, with a long, spiced finish.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
The Ruchè di Castagnole Monferrato DOCG is the bottle to start with. It is a single-variety red from Montiò, unoaked, medium-bodied, and built entirely around the geranium-leaf and cherry-apricot aromatic profile of the grape. Serve it slightly cool, around 16 degrees Celsius, and the fragrance opens quickly. The freshness on the palate makes it easy to drink with food, and the dry finish does not overload the senses. It is the clearest available explanation of what Ruchè tastes like when nothing in the cellar has been added to modify it.