Moscato d'Asti

Moscato d'Asti is a "Denominazione di origine controllata e garantita" sparkling white wine produced mainly in the province of Asti, north-west Italy, and in smaller nearby regions in the provinces of Alessandria and Cuneo. The wine is sweet and low in alcohol, and often enjoyed with dessert. Thus it is considered a dessert wine. It is from the Moscato bianco grape. A related wine, Asti, is produced in the same area from the same grape.

Grown in the hilltop town of Asti in Montferrat, Piedmont, Italy, Moscato d’Asti is made by small producers in small batches. Moscato is named such because of its earthy musk aroma. The ancient Romans called it the apiana. In the Medieval ages, its diffusion was great and the first certain documents that attest to its presence in Piedmont date as far back as the 14th century.

Piedmont winemakers traditionally make this low alcohol wine with Muscat à Petits Grains, also known as Moscato bianco. This petite berry varietal ripens early and produces a wide range of wine styles: light and dry, slightly sweet and sparkling or a rich, honey-like dessert wine.

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: