Montalbera

The tasting was well organized, in a nicely presented room, and gave a good sense of the region through different grapes and treatments. Their Ruché signature wine is worth trying, along with Moscato, sparkling Spumante and Barbera. The team were charming and very helpful. This is a lovely, personal Italian winery, with immaculate vineyards to admire from inside. It’s a solid winery in the Monferrato hills, especially focused on Ruché grapes. I came just for a tasting and to buy wine, though they also have wine suites and hotel rooms if you want to stay.

The staff were especially lovely, friendly and accommodating. We had a fantastic stay, with top-notch rooms, views and location, and it was the perfect place to relax with a glass of Ruche wine overlooking the vineyards. After checkout we realized we’d left a suitcase behind. Janaina and Angelica went above and beyond to get it back to us. That kind of care even after you’ve left is true hospitality. Huge thanks to the team for making our stay and departure unforgettable.

The Ruche was tasty, but the service left us very disappointed. After knocking, we waited for someone to unlock the door. Then, while we looked at bottles in the wine shop, no one explained anything. The hostess was busy preparing meat and cheese for a group due to arrive soon. When I asked for a price list, she said I should just ask. I asked about a tasting and was told something like €5 per person for one taste, free if you bought wine, €10 for two tastes with bread sticks, or €15 for three tastes with salami and cheese. Nothing was written down, and although her English was decent, it wasn’t fluent. We declined the food, and she kindly let us taste whatever we wanted without explaining the price or how many wines we could try. We had three tastes each, then shared a seventh. We bought six bottles and expected the tasting to be free, but the receipt showed a €20 tasting charge and charged us for all six bottles despite the “Buy 5, get 1 free promotion”. If we’d known it would cost €20, we would have tried the Grignolino and Muscato D’Alba too, but didn’t want to overdo it. We felt ripped off, though the main issue was having no printed information clearly explaining tastings and prices. We wouldn’t go back.

We had an excellent tour and tasting, tried lots of their wines, and the woman who showed us around was friendly and knew her stuff. A fantastic experience compared with some other winery visits. I think some negative reviews here are 3-4 years out of date. It looks like a lot has changed recently.