Radici, ristorante in vigna

Where the Vineyard Meets the Table

Arriving at Str. Pasquana on the outskirts of Costigliole d'Asti, the setting makes the restaurant's proposition clear before you step inside. The Relais Le Marne estate rises above you, its upper floor given over to the hotel, while the ground level opens into a dining room defined by a late-19th-century brick-vaulted ceiling. The arch overhead is heavy and warm, the kind of architecture that absorbs candlelight and conversation in equal measure. Against that backdrop, clean lines and designer furniture avoid any sense of preserved-in-amber heritage; the room reads as a working dining space, not a museum piece. Outside, the vineyards that supply the estate's own Mura Mura label extend across the hillside. The connection between what you see from the window and what appears in your glass is not incidental, it is the operating principle.

A Kitchen Anchored in Piedmontese Tradition

Piedmontese cuisine occupies a specific and demanding position within Italian cooking. It draws on the Langhe and Monferrato hills for truffles, hazelnuts, and Barolo-braised cuts; it relies on a tradition of tajarin, vitello tonnato, and bagna cauda that has resisted the kind of wholesale reinvention applied to, say, Venetian or Neapolitan cooking. Radici works inside that tradition rather than departing from it, applying what Michelin's own notes describe as a light modern touch to a fundamentally regional menu. That framing, regional in flavour, modern in finish, is the standard to which mid-tier Piedmontese kitchens now aspire, and it is more difficult to execute than it sounds. The temptation at either extreme is either to codify the classics into rigidity or to modernise so aggressively that the regional character disappears. Recognition in 2024 and 2025 signals that the kitchen is meeting that balance with consistency.

The estate's vegetarian tasting menu option is worth noting in a region where vegetable-led cooking has historically occupied a secondary role. Piedmont's most celebrated dishes are built around meat and egg yolk, which makes a credible vegetarian menu here a considered programme rather than a concession. It also speaks to the sourcing logic of the kitchen: when the estate provides the raw material, and when the setting is a working agricultural property, the vegetable side of the menu has as much claim to provenance as anything else on the card.

The Provenance Case: Estate Wine and Estate Produce

The ingredient-sourcing argument at Radici is most legible in the wine list. The Mura Mura wines, produced on the estate itself, appear alongside broader Piedmontese and Italian selections, giving the list a vertical coherence that few restaurants in the region can match. Drinking a Mura Mura label while looking out at the vines it came from is the kind of closed loop that estate restaurants elsewhere in Italy have spent considerable effort and branding budget to construct. Here, it is simply geography. The Asti Docg zone in which Costigliole d'Asti sits produces Barbera d'Asti as its signature red alongside Moscato d'Asti, and the wider Monferrato hills add Grignolino and Freisa to the regional repertoire. A well-constructed estate list in this zone should work through those varieties before reaching further afield, and the presence of estate production as an anchor gives the sommelier's recommendations a natural hierarchy.

For context on where this sits within Piedmont's broader dining spectrum: restaurants like Piazza Duomo in Alba and Antica Corona Reale in Cervere operate at the starred end of Piedmontese fine dining, with price points and formality to match. Radici's €€€ positioning places it in a different register: accessible for a full dinner with wine from the estate, without the ceremony or advance booking pressure of the region's Michelin-starred tier. That is a meaningful distinction for travellers who want serious regional cooking without the logistical weight of a destination-restaurant booking.

Costigliole d'Asti and the Surrounding Monferrato Context

Costigliole d'Asti is a small hill town south of Asti, better known among wine buyers than among general tourists. Its position in the Barbera d'Asti production zone gives it agricultural significance that the town itself, with its 15th-century castle and quiet streets, does not announce loudly. Restaurants in the area tend to be small, family-operated, and grounded in the same Piedmontese canon that Radici draws from, the difference here is the estate setting and the consistent Michelin recognition.

Visitors staying in the area have the option of combining a meal at Radici with an overnight at the Relais Le Marne above, a practical advantage for anyone driving through the Langhe and Monferrato, where the wine list and the distances between towns make a resident dinner the sensible choice.

How It Sits in the Italian Restaurant Spectrum

Italy's most decorated restaurants, Osteria Francescana in Modena, Enoteca Pinchiorri in Florence, Enrico Bartolini in Milan, operate at the €€€€ level with tasting menus that function as standalone events. Radici occupies a category below that ceiling in price and formality, but operates with a clear sense of provenance and regional identity that distinguishes it from generic trattoria cooking. It is closer in spirit to the estate-restaurant model that has become a credible alternative to the starred tier: serious wine sourcing, a kitchen that respects tradition without being imprisoned by it, and a physical setting that does meaningful work in the dining experience. Comparable Piedmontese references in the Michelin-recognised bracket include Locanda Sant'Uffizio Enrico Bartolini in Cioccaro, though that property operates at a higher price point and with starred recognition. Among Italy's broader regional restaurant scene, Dal Pescatore in Runate, Uliassi in Senigallia, and Le Calandre in Rubano illustrate how Italian regional cooking performs at the starred level across different zones, useful benchmarks for understanding where Radici sits on the spectrum.

Planning Your Visit

Radici sits at €€ on the price scale, making it one of the more accessible estate-dining options in the Asti province. Given the rural location off Str. Pasquana, a car is the practical requirement, public transport connections to Costigliole d'Asti are limited, and the estate setting is not walkable from the town centre. Booking ahead is advisable, particularly for weekend dinners when demand from both local diners and wine-touring visitors increases. For bars and other evening options in the wider area,