The pioneering Laura Aschero estate is a tiny 5 hectare dot on the map close to the French border, where the Ligurian Alps sweep down to the Mediterranean. The exceptional terroir is a combination of maritime climate, cooling mountain breezes, and well-drained 30 year old vines planted in inaccessible terraces 150 metres up the valley side. There has been winemaking in the family for generations, but the current “cantina” and vineyards were extensively developed by a doctor’s wife, Laura Aschero in 1980, at the very forefront of the introduction of modern techniques in this quintessentially traditional and artisanal part of Italy. Expansion is continuing despite the combined difficulties of steep hillsides and extreme Italian bureaucracy. The new planting of one hectare of Pigato has just taken up one year of battling with officialdom - "In Italy, if you kill someone, you go to prison for a couple of days; if you cut down an olive tree, it's life"!
We are importing the estate’s two white wines, a Vermentino which has the typical herbal and floral notes characteristic of the Ligurian “macchia” scrubland, and the unique Pigato which is a local speciality redolent of rich fruit, pepper and minerals.
