Piedmont, Italy

Thanks again to those of you who sent such nice comments on my Turin Report.  I hope you silent ones enjoyed it as well.

The second part of our trip was clearly one of the most hedonistic trips we have ever taken.  It consisted primarily of drinking wine and eating wonderful food.  Piedmont is known primarily for its wine (Barolo, Barbaresco, Dolcetta D’Alba, Nebbiola), hazelnuts (which I ate not only in gelato, but in yogurt for breakfast as well as in cake) and truffles (not the chocolate kind, but the black and white shaved ones on pasta – yummy).  I probably drank more wine in the past week than in the past few months; let me re-phrase that:  no probably about it, definitely!)

Here we are at a typical lunch.  We’ll get to dinner later in the report.

As I indicated earlier, the primary reason for our trip was to visit the various wineries in Piedmont.  And so we did.  Marty has been known to complain that I’ve dragged him to one museum after another or one palace/castle/house tour after another.  Well, let me tell you:  we went to 9 wineries.  We were actually scheduled for 11, but we actually bagged the last two.

Most of the wineries were medium sized and family owned and run.  Usually, it was a family member who took us on a tour.  All of the appointments had been set up well in advance (he can plan as well as I can!!). With the exception of one winery, they were all private tours, just the 2 of us.  With the exception of one winery (which I will discuss in a moment), the tours were fairly similar.  We would be taken through the wine making facilities.  We would see the steel vats where the grapes are put initially and then the wooden barrels (usually French oak) where they are then aged.  In some wineries we were also shown the bottling facilities.  Here’s a typical view of the steel vats and wooden barrels.

And here’s a barrel that amused me:

After the tours we would be given a tasting of several of their wines, usually about 4 of them, usually the wines were quite young.  Marty would spit, I would swallow!  Sometimes they gave us bread sticks (never bread) with the wine, sometimes a little cheese.  In one winery they gave us hazelnuts and chocolate!  Some times they charged for the tastings, some times they didn’t.  Here’s an example of how a place had been set up just for the 2 of for the tasting.

Of all the wineries we went to one was different.  This is the one Marty was most interested in going to.  It is called Gaja.

Gaja isn’t really interested in having visitors, but Marty persisted.  They finally agreed to a visit IF we made a substantial contribution to the charity of our choice.  We chose FARE (Food Allergy Research and Education) – the organization behind the walk I did last year (& yes, I’ll be hitting you all up again later this year!)

Gaja put Barbaresco on the map.  One of the major differences between Gaja and ALL the other vineyards is that he plants his vines in vertical rows.  Everyone else plants horizontally.  He feels they get better sunlight that way.  His wines command very high prices (& were delicious) so he must know what he’s doing.  Gaja was the one place we were actuall taken into the vineyards.  It was also the only place we were given not only young wines to taste but older ones (1998 & 1999) as well.

I not only enjoyed the winery tours, but actually got an appreciation of the differences between the wine varieties.  I now know that among Italian wines I prefer Barolo (in the same way that I know I prefer a Bordeaux among French wines).  They are both bold, strong wines;  none of this light fruity stuff for me!  I also found a white Italian wine I could tolerate !  It’s called Arneis & we will have to look for it in NY.

On the way from one winery to another (& the scenery was lovely), we did manage to see a few other things in Piedmont.  In Pollenzo we went to the University of Gastronomic Science.  Classes are taught in Italian & English.  They have a wine bank there where many of the wineries have sent a bottle of each of their varieties from every year which was fun to see.

We went to a castle in Serralunga.  Here’s the view from there.

On our way back to the airport we stopped in Asti (known for its sparkling wines) and went to Palazzo Mazzetti.

The hotel we stayed in for the week in Montforte d’Alba was lovely.  It’s on the top of a mountain   We had another harrowing trip to find it initially, but were then given instructions for a somewhat easier route.  It has a pool & the weather was magnificent.  When we returned from our winery excursions each day, we spent some time at the pool.  Also one of our days here was a national holiday & the wineries were closed so we spent that entire day at the pool.  I know you all know how I hated that!!!  (Fawn& Doug:  thanks again for the lovely new bathing suit cover-up.  It came along to Italy.). Here’s a photo of the pool & the view from there.

I am running out of time.  We have a plane to catch so let me just say this about the food.  We have never had such amazing meals as in Piedmont.  We went to a 3 star Michelin restaurant in Alba (Piazza Duomo) that was the most unusual restaurant we have ever been to.  There were only 11 tables and the food was so creative.  We went to 2 other one star Michelin restaurants that were amazing.  The last one had an incredible view.  (See FaceBook for the photo taken of us there.  It was taken with Marty’s cell phone.  I had him e.mail it to me so I could post it, but I haven’t figured out how to access it for this blog). When we first got there (& it was our last dinner in Italy), we were seated on the veranda and given sparking wine and hors d’ourves while we enjoyed the setting sun over the valley below.  From our dinner table we could enjoy the view as well.  The food was outstanding and it was a terrific way to end our trip.

And so ends another fabulous Haber journey.  I hope you all enjoyed traveling with us.

Much love,

Irene