Montalbera turns its Ruchè estate into a multi-day wine tourism destination

Montalbera, a winery in Castagnole Monferrato in Italy’s Piedmont region, said on Thursday that it is expanding its hospitality business with a project called Montalbera 360 Experience, a plan built around wine tourism, overnight stays, wellness services and outdoor activities in the Monferrato hills.

The project was conceived by the owner, Franco Morando, and is centered on the estate’s flagship wine, Ruchè di Castagnole Monferrato DOCG. The company described the plan as a way to turn a winery visit into a longer stay that connects guests with the area’s vineyards, food culture and landscape. Monferrato is part of the Vineyard Landscape of Piedmont, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Montalbera did not release the value of the investment, but said the initiative represents a major commitment to hospitality. The winery is using the project to widen its business beyond tastings and bottle sales, combining accommodations, event space, a pool area and organized excursions with access to the estate’s wine production.

At the center of the new offer are five independent Wine Suites facing the vineyards. The company said some of the suites include private outdoor Jacuzzis. Three more lodging units with full kitchens are under development, which would further increase the estate’s capacity to host guests for extended stays rather than day visits.

The winery has also opened a new pool area as part of the project. Montalbera said the 16-meter infinity pool uses saltwater and is kept at a constant 28°C. It sits on what the estate calls the Dolce Vita Terrace, a 700-square-meter panoramic area overlooking the hills. The terrace includes four Gazebo Suites and 25 sun loungers. Access to the pool can be paired with suite stays, winery tours and tastings.

Another key part of the project is a multifunctional event hall inaugurated this year. According to the company, the space is designed for private tastings, business meetings, presentations and other private events. Large windows face the surrounding vineyards, and the upper floor includes a kitchen meant to support catering, live cooking demonstrations and larger organized functions. The addition gives the estate a venue that can serve both wine tourism and corporate or private rentals.

The experience on offer goes well beyond accommodations and formal tastings. Montalbera said guests will be able to join guided wine trekking routes, e-bike excursions, quad tours, vineyard picnics and horseback rides in the surrounding countryside. Some of those activities are organized with local partners, including Richard’s Ranch, an equestrian center and wildlife park in the area. The winery is also promoting wellness sessions, including yoga held in the barrel cellar among French oak casks, and aperitifs served in outdoor hot tubs with views of the vineyards.

For wine visitors, the estate’s regular cellar program remains part of the package. Guided tours take guests through underground aging spaces that house more than 400 barriques, according to the company. Tastings are focused on several expressions of Ruchè di Castagnole Monferrato DOCG, the red appellation most closely tied to Castagnole Monferrato and one of the grape varieties most associated with this part of Piedmont.

The winery is presenting Ruchè as the main entry point for visitors who may be less familiar with Monferrato than with neighboring wine areas such as the Langhe. In practical terms, the new hospitality plan uses the grape and its place of origin as the foundation for a broader tourism offer, one that mixes wine education with lodging, leisure and local partnerships.

Montalbera said hospitality is not being treated as a side business, but as an extension of its agricultural and territorial identity. That language reflects a wider move among wineries in major European regions to keep travelers on site longer and capture spending that once went mainly to nearby hotels and restaurants. In Montalbera’s case, the emphasis is on a single estate experience where vineyard views, tastings, accommodations and activities are sold as parts of the same visit.

The company has been run by the Morando family for three generations. Its core estate lies around Castagnole Monferrato, where it farms 130 hectares of vineyards on a single hillside property and also grows Piedmont hazelnuts. The business also has roots in Castiglione Tinella, in the Langhe, where the family’s historic Moscato d’Asti vineyards are located. Montalbera says that dual presence in Monferrato and Langhe shapes its identity, with Ruchè di Castagnole Monferrato DOCG on one side and Moscato d’Asti DOCG on the other.

The new project places Castagnole Monferrato at the center of the company’s tourism strategy. Visitors are being invited not only to taste the estate’s current releases and older library vintages in dedicated tasting rooms and a wine shop, but also to stay overnight, use the wellness facilities and explore the hills that surround the vineyards. The effect is to reposition the winery from a production site with a tasting room into a destination built for multi-day travel in southern Piedmont.