Food and wine heritage
The Visone “Busìe”, De.C.O.
Busìe are a sweet typical of the humble tradition, not only in Visone, but here they have become the true gastronomic symbol of the village.
Since the beginning of the last century, in fact, on the last Sunday of May Visone has held the Festa delle Busìe, during which the sweet is prepared according to the old recipe, with flour, eggs, butter and sugar, and fried in boiling oil.
In 2022 the Visone busìe were awarded the Denominazione Comunale di Origine (Municipal Designation of Origin) mark.
Visone Torrone, De.C.O.
Visone torrone (nougat) was born in the second half of the nineteenth century, when Canelìn began preparing it by hand in his workshop.
Today production is carried on by Giovanni Verdese who, with the passion and care of a master, continues to select the finest raw materials and to “cook” this renowned sweet with the very same techniques as in the past. Since then nothing has changed: neither the process nor the tools, since the oven in which the hazelnuts are roasted and the machine in which the torrone is cooked still date from the 1950s.
Over the years Visone torrone has won the appreciation of the most respected international gourmets and food critics, including Luigi Veronelli, its “discoverer”, Gianfranco Vissani, Edoardo Raspelli and Paolo Massobrio, to name but a few. It has received several prizes and awards, including the “Faccino d'oro” Prize from Papillon in 1994 and 2002, the international “Nonino Risit d'Âur” Prize in 2002 and the “Three Cones” in the Gambero Rosso guide Gelaterie d'Italia without interruption from 2017 to 2020, becoming a true symbol of this village.
In 2021 Visone torrone was awarded the Denominazione Comunale di Origine mark.
The DOC and DOCG wines of the Acqui Alto Monferrato
The territory of the Municipality of Visone falls within the production areas defined by the regulations for the following wines:
- Alta Langa, DOCG
- Asti, Asti Spumante, Moscato d'Asti, Moscato di Strevi o Strevi, DOCG
- Barbera del Monferrato Superiore, DOCG
- Brachetto d'Acqui o Acqui, DOCG
- Barbera del Monferrato, DOC
- Cortese dell'Alto Monferrato, DOC
- Dolcetto d'Acqui, DOC
- Monferrato, DOC
- Piemonte, DOC
It is also part of the area in which Strevi Passito DOC may be aged and refined.
Since 2022 the Municipality has been a member of the Strada dei Vini e dei Sapori del Gran Monferrato Association and is part of the Strada degli Aromatici route, linking Molare and Cassine in a circuit through the Acqui area, discovering the wine, cultural and natural heritage of this territory.
The prized white truffle of Monferrato
Visone is one of the 22 municipalities belonging to the Consortium of the Prized White Truffle of Monferrato.
The Sumerians already loved it in 1600 BC; the Athenians and Romans enjoyed it in various recipes. Pliny the Elder called it the “callus of the earth” and Juvenal declared that “it was better to lack grain than truffles”. Little loved in the Middle Ages, its taste was revived in the Renaissance, which raised it to first place among the most refined dishes.
The prized black truffle appeared on the tables of French lords between the 14th and 15th centuries, while in Italy, in the same period, the white truffle was gaining ground. In the eighteenth century the Piedmontese truffle was considered a delicacy at all the European courts and, between the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the Italian sovereigns Vittorio Amedeo II and Carlo Emanuele III delighted in organising real truffle hunts.
Folk heritage
The “ceci dei Morti”
Almost everywhere, chickpeas are a food traditionally linked to the cult and commemoration of the dead.
In Visone, on the morning of every 2 November, the typical cisrò — a soup of chickpeas, pork rind and ribs — is still cooked and distributed free of charge in the square, in memory of the days when it was the village's feudal lord who distributed it to the people, to remind both himself and his subjects that, in the face of death, all men are equal.
Brisa Carvè
According to local peasant tradition, on Shrove Tuesday a cart is still set up with a puppet personifying “Carnival”. After being paraded through the village streets, playfully mimicking religious processions, the puppet is finally burned in the square, to symbolise the sudden transition from the dissoluteness and irreverence of the carnival world to the rigour and austerity of impending Lent.