Falling in Love with Barolo and Barbera di Alba

 The north of Italy is filled with heart-stopping vistas, amazing foods, and spectacular wines.  Traveling north from Umbria, my friends and I settled in Canelli in the Asti region at an exceptional Airbnb property situated at the top of Moscato di Asti vineyards. 

We knew we wanted to sample Barolo, Barbera, Barbaresco, and Moscato, and arranged tastings/tours for just that.  Our first stop was at a large producer, Ceretto, to see their operation, but not to taste.  

This is kind of the back to the future wine making, aging it in amphora the way the Egyptians and Romans made their wines.  

From there, we headed to Sordo, a local producer near Alba.  Driving up the hill to the winery, we were again, stunned by the surrounding beauty on every hill covered with vineyards.  Italian wineries are quite different from any in the US: they are usually much older, passed from generation to generation, with the younger generation taking the helm and expanding production and marketing to all corners of the globe.  Proud histories fill the hallways, with photos of past generations, and the next generation.  

In Sordo we tasted, Barolo, Barbera,  and Sauvignon Blanc.  

As with any tour, lunchtime approached and we headed off to Castiglione Falletto and the amazing  Cantina della Cantina Comunale.    

This is the view from the terrace.  There are many places in this world where the view is better than the food, but here, the food was exceptional.  We tried the local specialty pasta, Plin, and a brassato of beef simmered for 36 hours in Barolo.  

Plin

Brassato

Guinea fowl

When you are in the land of hazelnuts, you order a hazelnut panna cotta with chocolate sauce, and salted caramel hazelnuts, am I right?

After lunch, it's on to our last tasting at Massolino, another family-owned winery located here for over 100 years.  Again, Barolo and Barbera are the stars here.  The Nebbiolo grape grows well here, in this region and the Italian word for fog is nebbia...it is foggy here, and that helps the grapes as they mature.  

While we visited each winery, they were still busy crushing the red grapes.  The whites had been picked (all by hand) and processed in August.  Fall had come to the Langhe region and it was cooling off considerably.  Several mornings were in the 30's when we woke up and it was foggy.  Having explored the Alba region it was time to head back to Canelli and explore the Asti region.  Ciao for now.

Road Trip, Italian Style

On Monday Dr. C. and I arrived in the Piedmont area of Northern Italy; having long been enamored with Barolo, Barbaresco and Barbera wines, we wanted to see where they came from and we weren't disappointed.
Our family in Spello arranged for us to have their cousin Lucia DeMaria as a tour guide.  Lucia was a professor of art and history at the university here, and so her knowledge is unparalleled, plus she is a lot of fun!  We were staying at the Arborina Relais near La Morra, where her daughter is the managing director.  The hotel is beautiful with large bedroom, sitting room and bathroom with either a private garden for sitting outside, or a balcony to sit and watch the grapes grow, because you are surrounded by them!

A garden in our back yard

Nebbiolo enjoying the sun

   

 We met Lucia in the city of Alba, home of the Ferrero family (the richest in Italy) and Nutella, that amazing concoction of milk chocolate, and ground hazelnuts.  After World War II, chocolate was expensive, and Papa Ferrero started experimenting with a little chocolate, milk ,and ground hazelnuts which grow well here in Alba.  The rest is history.  Famous for white truffles (the season started 2 days ago) porcini, and chocolate, as well as the wines, this is an area many travelers miss when they come to Italy, but the foods, wine and people are amazing.

 Alba is almost totally a pedestrian city, and on Mondays it's a bit quieter than the weekend.  They were getting ready for the Palio that is staged on donkeys, so there were banners for each neighborhood.

We made our way into a church, that looked kind of sad from the outside, but once inside we were stunned.

Lucia kept telling us that the people in the Piedmont believe that less is more; they don't show off their wealth, you have to look inside to see what's there.  This was so true everywhere we went; opening gates to beautiful palazzos, and strikingly beautiful churches.

Back in the car, we headed up the hill to a beautiful castle, that is still used today as a museum for wine production.  The views from the hill were amazing.

Once back at our hotel, we rested for a while and then headed out to Trattoria della Posta for dinner.  A beautiful old house, we were treated to a lovely dinner, and toddled on back to Arborina to rest up for our next day tasting Barolos.

Typical salad of the region, called insalata Russa or Russian salad, potatoes, may, peas, carrots and sometimes hardboiled egg

Onion stuffed with cheese and sausage

Minestrone

Veal with porcini mushrooms

Braised lamb with vegetables

lemon tart with fresh fruits

And we end our night on our patio, looking down on Barolo country.  Tomorrow we meet the Marquese di Barolo and watch grissini being made.  Ciao for now.