Asti wine

Asti (also known as Asti Spumante) is a sparkling white Italian wine that is produced throughout southeastern Piedmont but is particularly focused around the towns of Asti and Alba. Since 1993 the wine has been classified as a Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG) and as of 2004 was Italy's largest producing appellation. In fact, on an average vintage more than ten times as much Asti is produced in Piedmont than the more well-known Piedmontese red wine Barolo.

Made from the Moscato Bianco grape, it is sweet and low in alcohol, and often served with dessert. Unlike Champagne, Asti is not made sparkling through the use of secondary fermentation in the bottle but rather through a single tank fermentation utilizing the Charmat method. It retains its sweetness through a complex filtration process. Another wine called Moscato d'Asti is made in the same region from the same grape, but is only slightly sparkling (frizzante) and tends to have even lower alcohol.

On 22 June 2014, Asti Spumante, along with Canelli was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Asti

Asti [ˈasti]  listen  is a city and comune of about 75,000 inhabitants located in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy, about 55 kilometres (34 miles) east of Turin in the plain of the Tanaro River. It is the capital of the province of Asti and it is deemed to be the modern capital of Monferrato (Montferrat in English).

History

Ancient times and early Middle Ages

People have lived in and around what is now Asti since the Neolithic period. Before their defeat in 174 BC by the Romans, tribes of Ligures, the Statielli, dominated the area and the toponym probably derives from Ast which means "hill" in the ancient Celtic language.

In 124 BC the Romans built a castrum, or fortified camp, which eventually evolved into a full city named Hasta. In 89 BC the city received the status of colonia, and in 49 BC that of municipium. Asti become an important city of the Augustan Regio IX, favoured by its strategic position on the Tanaro river and on the Via Fulvia, which linked Derthona (Tortona) to Augusta Taurinorum (Turin). Other roads connected the city to the main passes for what are today Switzerland and France.

Asti (restaurant)

Adolph's Asti was an Italian restaurant in New York City's Greenwich Village. It was unique in that many of the waiters were professional opera singers who routinely performed for the restaurant guests. Asti first opened in 1924, and was open for over 75 years before closing in early 2000.

History

Located on E. 12th St. in Manhattan, Asti was started in 1924 by Adolph Mariani (father of opera great Lorenzo Mariani). The restaurant closed in 2000, and the space is now home to a Strip House restaurant.

Description

The walls of Asti featured many framed, autographed photographs of opera singers past and present, including Enrico Caruso, Beniamino Gigli, Giovanni Martinelli, and Jerome Hines. In the center of the restaurant was a grand piano alongside a small stage-like platform with a microphone. During a typical evening at Asti, members of the waitstaff would spontaneously perform an aria or two onstage. A restaurant guest might be invited to sing as well. Other wild and crazy activities would occasionally take place, such as turning the lights down low while several of the guests marched through the restaurant in masks, to the sound of "spooky" music. One regular feature was a performance where someone dressed as a pizzeria chef would "ceremonially" toss around a clump of pizza dough, though Asti actually did not serve pizza.

Asti (disambiguation)

Asti is a city and comune in Italy.

Asti may also refer to:

ASTI may also refer to:

ASTi may also refer to: