Barolo Wine Tour - Barolo Vineyard Tour

by Amanda

In this easy to use guide, I will explain to you the best way to fully enjoy a Barolo wine tour from the cities of Milan, Turin, and Alba. Easy access guide to the trains, planes, and automobiles to arrive to the most wine savvy destinations in Barolo. Imagine a day enjoying some of the worlds most sought after wine, right in the countryside of one of the most beautiful wine regions on the planet. 

Barolo Vineyards

Barolo Wine Tour from Milan

The best way to arrive to Barolo from Milan is either by train or car. The easiest way to arrive to Barolo without having to drive will be by train from Milan Centro to Asti. There are several trains each day with one stop Milan- Torino- Asti routes. From there it is highly recommended to have a wine guide or a car service in order to arrive to some of the most famous Barolo wineries. If you choose to drive from Milan, it is quite easy, about an hour and a half and you will arrive in the middle of the vine covered hills of the Barolo wine making region. 

Barolo Wine Tour from Turin

Turin the capital city of Piemonte, is an overlooked city by tourists. Turin was the first capital of Italy, with its  rich history of royalty, the architecture, the food, and of course the wines make Turin one of the most interesting and beautiful cities in Italy to visit. With a short and direct train ride from Turino Porta Nuova to Asti (35 minutes), you can easily be picked up by your wine guide or car service who in minutes will have you nestled amongst the Nebbiolo vines. 

Barolo Wine Tour from Alba

Alba the epicenter of Nebbiolo and the Alba White Truffles. Thousands of people from all over the world come to this tiny city to enjoy its culinary delights. With a location in Alba you are in the center of Barolo and Barbaresco vineyard area and a 10 minute drive in either direction will have you in the center of Langhe wine country. If you are staying in Alba a wine guide or car service is highly recommend, as drinking and driving is frowned upon.  

For more information about planning your perfect Barolo wine tour follow the link here for more details. 

Typical Piedmont Cuisine - the Best Italian Dishes

by: Amanda

Home of the Slow Food Movement, Piemonte is the place to sit down, relax, grab your self a glass of wine and mangia!

Don’t chicken out on these dishes, you must give them a go because as they say “when in Rome, do like the Romans.” “We say when in Langhe do like the Langhette.”

Here is my easy guide of these northern Italian dishes, to help you figure out what those menu’s really mean.

Don’t ask for the English menu, here you have the perfect cheat sheet to show off your foodie Italian skills. 

Remember this is the real Piedmont Italian food, there are no spaghetti and meatballs on these menu’s. 

For Starters = Antipasti pronounced (an-ti-pah-stee)

Carne Cruda

pronounced car-neh cru-dah

This is a typical dish like a beef tartar but instead of lots of flavors to cover the delicate meat flavor, they will just add EVOO and salt. If you want to look like a local, this is eaten with a grissini (breadstick) in hand to give some crunch. The way the people in Alba enjoy their Carne Cruda is thin slices, the way the people in Monferrato enjoy their Carne Cruda is chopped with a knife (batutta con cotello)

Vitello Tonnato

pronounced vi-tell-oh toh-nat-toh

This dish everyone must try, because once you start you can’t stop! A real traditional Piedmontese recipe.

You have roast beef thinly sliced with a tuna, caper, and mayo sauce. Absolutely delicious, trust me. 

Insalata Russa

pronounced in-sa-la-ta rue-ssah

This is Italy’s example of Potato Salad with some peas and carrots to make it healthy. There is sometimes tuna or hard boiled eggs added to this dish.

If you would like to make this easy dish at home you can find the recipe here.

Tonno di Coniglio

pronounced ton-no D co-nig-li-oh 

A wonderful light dish made with rabbit that has been slow cooked to look like canned tuna. There is no tuna in this dish but the rabbit sure does look like one. 

Bagna Cauda

pronounced ban-ya caou-dah

This one is for the brave, a traditional Piedmontese recipe. A fondue served warm made with EVOO, lots and lots of garlic, and anchovy. You will take this and dip your veggies here and must have a glass of Barbera to help clean your pallet. 

For the First Course = Primi pronounced (pree-me)

Tajarin

pronounced thai-ya-reeen 

This is what Piedmont is famous for, our typical egg pasta, like spaghetti, but yellow from all the egg yolks they put inside. This dish when the White Truffles of Alba are in season can be grated on top for extra flavor. Otherwise you will find it typically served with a ragù (rah-ghu) or salsiccia (sal-see-cha) or fassone (fas-on-neh).

If you would like to make this wonderful dish at home please check out how to here.

Agnolotti del Plin

pronounced ag-know-lo-tea del pleen

This is our small but big flavored ravioli. Typically stuffed with meat and vegetables, but can also me made in the magro (ma-grow) version and will then be stuffed with ricotta (re-coat-ta) and spinach.

If you would like the whole story about these wonderful ravioli and how to make them at home you can find this here.

Gnocchi

pronounced ño-key

This wonderful potato dumplings are light and fluffy and will typically be served with Castelmagno (cast-al-mag-know) cheese, which is a wonderful cows milk cheese coming from the Alps. Or you will find it al pomodoro (pom-oh-door-row) a tomato sauce. 

Here is a great recipe of Gnocchi made with Ricotta and Stinging Nettles, here.

Risotto

pronounced riz-aught-toh 

This is our rice, but made differently than the white rice you might find in an Asian or Indian restaurant. We cook ours with a vegetable broth adding a little bit at a time until the rice has reach the perfect texture. Then we will add either cheese, or seasonal vegetables. 

Risotto cooked in wine recipe here.

Risotto with asparagus recipe here.

Main Course = Secondi (say-con-D)

Tagliata

pronounced tag-lee-ah-tah

this is the under filet of Fasone (fa-so-neh). Fasone is the breed of cow we have here in Piemonte, which is white, and very lean and so thus the meat should be enjoyed as rare as possible. Because if you cook it too much then it is better to braised to make it tender again. 

Brasato

pronounced brah-za-toe

This is braised beef cooked in wine. Sometimes with Barolo wine, sometimes with Barbaresco wine, and sometimes with Nebbiolo wine. Slow cooked and so tender that can be cut with a spoon. 

Bollito Misto

pronounced bowl-eat-toe miss-toe

This is a wintertime favorite of all kinds of boiled meat. Typically coming from the cow, and will be all kinds of different cuts. This is also served with two typical salsas that are Verde (ver-day) made with parsley, garlic, and EVOO or Rosso (roe-so) made with red peppers, and EVOO. The sauces are crucial to give the meat some extra flavor. 

Fritto Misto

pronounced free-toe me-stow

The literal translation is a mixture of fried things. Yum! With this you must be prepared for a typical Piedmontese meal of 25 courses of fried stuff. You must be brave as they fry everything from sausage, veggies, brains, heart, to cookies and apples, for the lighter side of things. 

Dessert = Dolce (dole-chay)

Bunet

pronounced boo-net

This is like a chocolate custard made with chocolate, almond cookies, eggs, and rum. It is quite decadent and perfect after a meal if a little bit of red wine is still in the glass.  

Semifreddo

pronounced semy-fray-dough

As is sounds it is an almost frozen dessert. Typically made with Torrone (tore-rone-nay) an egg white nougat with honey and hazelnuts. Or they will make it with Chinato (key-nat-toe) a red grape fortified wine with and infusion of quinine, herbs and spices.

 The Slow Food Movement

A few words about the Slow Food Movement that was started in Piemonte. It stated by Carlo Petrini in the 1990’s as the story goes; when McDonalds was trying to get the ok to be able to open up a food store in Piemonte or Rome (I am not quite sure which of the two), Carlo Petrini along with a group of friends and maybe some politicians started a protest, stating that Italy does not need any fast food stores.

What Italy needs is to practice the Slow Food traditions that are becoming more and more rare. That phrase Slow Food was the start of a movement, and organization to help preserve the traditional recipes and methods of the Italian regional cooking. With this list that I have given to you are some of these dishes that we need to keep in our traditions.

Please come to Piedmont with an open mind and to embrace the traditional foods that have shaped this area.

What we say in Sommelier school is: “wine from the area, food from the area.” As these are the two things that really go the best together.

You will also notice that when enjoying the wines and the food together that they make a perfect match. 

At the end of this story, thanks to the Slow Food they have put some pretty interesting laws in place for McDonalds and any other fast food chains.

That for their food stores they must place on each menu products coming from that area.

So what does this mean?

No outside foods, no processed meat or (pink slime) as they call it. It must be made from the farms surrounding.

So when you are in Piemont and they have a burger with Tuma cheese, now you know why. 

Winemaking 101

Harvest can be done either by machine or by hand. Most vineyards in the Langhe and Monferrato areas because of the steep hills tend to harvest by hand. While in some flatter vineyards for the use of Moscato there has been some experimenting going on with machine harvesters. So far the results are quite good.

Once the grapes arrive into the cellar you have a few options:

• to de-stem or not

• the amount of sulfur dioxide to use

De stemming

In the Langhe there are very few producers who will not de-stem. This is because of a few reasons, the stems of Nebbiolo if not ripe give off a very bitter green tannin which is unpleasant to the wine. Only if you leave the stems to ripen (when the wood changes color from green to brown) then the tannins will be sweeter. In order to do that, you will need to let the grapes hang longer on the vines or in some cases will have a temperature controlled room to store the harvested grapes until the stems are completely ripe.

With that said most producers will de stem their grapes. Most will use a machine that will take off the stems, but since the Nebbiolo berries are more attached to the stems than the other varieties, you will wind up with some bits and pieces of stems during fermentation.

On the other hand there are a few producers who take the berries off by hand. One in the area who started to work in this method was Silvia Altare from Elio Altare, today there are more and more producers working in this way for some of their higher end Barolo’s.

To Sulphur or not to Sulphur

As winemaking trends change there has been much discussion about adding sulfites to wine and when or not at all. The advantages in addition of sulphur to Nebbiolo grapes are:

• antiseptic - by adding sulphur to the grape must this will protect against bad yeasts on the grape skins and protect against acetobacter (vinegar bacteria).

• antioxidant - to help control oxidation within the wine.

If you do not add sulphur before the alcoholic fermentation starts, typically the producer is then going to have an indigenous yeast fermentation and would want more oxygen in contact with the must to promote growth of the native yeasts.

Alcoholic Fermentation

After you have crushed, now you are ready to ferment. Depending on your winemaking choices some producers use selected yeasts* or indigenous yeats found on the skins. If this is your selected method many producers will make a starter culture (pied di cuve) to help have a strong population of yeasts to start the fermentation.

*With selected yeasts, these could be ones that have been selected from the wineries vineyard and is special to the house or they can chose and active dry yeast that they like. By selecting the yeasts they are stronger and will not have trouble to finish the fermentation when alcohol levels arrive above 4% ABV.

Fermentation Vessels

Here you have a choice:

• Tine (large oak upright fermenters)

• Cement tanks

• Stainless steel tanks

• Roto - fermenters

Tine (oak fermenters) are the oldest method and the most traditional in the Langhe area. These large upright oak tanks are a great container to have a smooth fermentation, as it is very uncommon for there to be problems with temperatures going too high in the wooden containers. There is plenty of oxygenation and the musts and wine are fermenting in a natural container. The only downside to the Tine is the cleanliness, but this should not be a problem today.

Cement tanks came into the Langhe area in the 1960’s as cement was easy to install and cheaper than having to buy Tine or Stainless steel tanks. The cement tanks are covered with a glass resin glaze that will make it safe for the wines to undergo the fermentation or aging in these tanks. Cement being quite thermal and heavy is very hard to change the temperature quickly, so these tanks are still used today as they are quite therapeutic for the wine.

Stainless steel came into the Langhe in the 1990’s when there was a revolution in the area going on. More about that here. Before the 1990’s steel was very expensive and the average farmer could not afford it. With the new wave of young producers searching for cleanliness and quality they brought in the use of steel. If the tanks are not equipped with temperature control, fermentation can get a bit out of control with temperature making it harder to cool it down. These tanks are very easy to clean.

Roto-fermenters are a stainless steel tank with paddles built into the center of these horizontal fermenters. This design was invented in the Langhe in the 1990’s by the youngster who revolutionized the area. This invention works quite well for the Nebbiolo grape to extract the color and tannin quite quickly from the skins. With the inner paddles that move slowly (depending also on the speed the winemaker wishes) it is typical for one full rotation every 24 hours. By constantly moving the must the winemaker is able to extract more color from the skins.

After the Fermentation:

The winemaker has two choices:

• To remove the skins

• Have an extended maceration

If the winemaker decides to remove the skins, the wine will go on to the next part of this post.

If the winemaker decides to have an extended maceration this can be extended as long as the winemaker feels it should. Typically when they are extending the maceration time for another 20-60 days they will submerge the cap into the middle of the tank so it will stay wet and be free of bacteria formations. The winemaker will then decide if they would like to continue with pumpovers or not, and for how many times a day and how long. By doing this they are able to have a maximum extraction of tannin complexity and color.

Malolactic fermentation aka second fermentation

The Malolactic fermentation is a natural chemical occurrence and every wine will go through this step unless it has been chosen not to, and from there will need to have a fine filtration to take out the micro bacteria that performs this transition.

Basically the Malic acid (the acid in a green apple) gets eaten by good bacteria that changes the malic acid into lactic acid (the acid in milk). From this in white wine you will have a buttery mouthfeel or in red wine you will feel a softer smoother acidity. Still mouthwatering.

Oak aging

In the Langhe you have a few options of how to oak age your wines

• Botti Grandi (large oak casks)

• Barrique (small 250 L French oak barrels)

• Tonneaux (medium 500 - 700 L French oak barrels)

The large oak casks are typical from the Langhe area. It is most common to find them from 1,000 L to 10,000 Liter and were used for centuries to make the famous Barolo and Barbaresco wines. These barrels can be used for decades if kept in good condition when cleaned regularly and restored every so many years. It is typical for these barrels to be made out of Slovonian, Austrian, or Hungarian oak. It is very seldom to find them made from French oak. With these large casks they tend to impair less wood flavors to the wines and helps with a steady and low oxygenation.

Barrique and Tonneaux barrels are something a bit new to the Langhe area. They were introduced in the 1980-1990’s when the “Barolo Boys” first started to experiment with these smaller barrels. Barrique and Tonneausx are made from French oak and can have a range of different toasts to the inside of the barrel. By toasting the barrel helps to shape the staves, but a heavy toast can leave more notes of Vanilla and spice in the wine that some people might not appreciate as it can tend to cover up the flavors of the grapes. With all kinds of experimentation happening with these new small barrels there has been an understanding to utilize different ages of the barrels in order to maintain balance within the wine.

If you would like more information about cooperages please check out my post on my visit to Gamba Botti.

After the oak aging the wine will be placed into stainless steel or cement tanks for a period of time in order to settle any deposits left in the wine before being bottled.

Thinking to visit the vineyards in Piemonte, Italy? Why wait!!

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There are plenty of things to see and do and who wouldn’t want to take a visit to a Barolo or Barbaresco vineyard?

I mean the wine is what brought me to Piemonte. The finesse of Nebbiolo, the vineyards of Barolo and Barbesco all seemed so magical. I came to visit to see and taste the wines and meet the winemakers. Then I fell in love. One with the rolling hills covered with vineyards in Langa and two with a charming Italian man. (Ladies watch out for those Italians). I came to Piemonte because I was driven by my passion for the wine and the food. I was given the opportunity to work first hand in a vineyard to help out with the year’s production of Nebbiolo to make Barbaresco. I loved it, there was something about working with the grapes and making the wine and talking to people about what I was doing. There were so many visitors who would come to take a winery tour, come to taste the wines. They would want me to take them on the winemaking journey, to tour with them in the winery talking about what is going on, what we were doing and learn something new. The winery tour and vineyard tour was my favorite part, taking a walk on a crisp autumn morning when the vineyard leaves were beginning to change color. You can tell the grape varietal by the color the leaves change “Gianni one day said to me”, as we were taking a walk in one of the vineyards located in the Asti area.

We would wake up early every morning to be greeted in the cellar by a tractor full of grapes ready for the crush. All of these ruby colored grapes filling every single red plastic crate. When you hold up the Nebbiolo grapes to the sun you can see through them the skins of the Nebbiolo take almost a Rose’ color and in light become transparent.   The Nebbiolo is the king of the grapes here in Piemonte and in all of Italy. The essence of Nebbiolo is like no other, it is elegante, complex, and can sometimes be quite powerful. There is no other grape to compare it to. It is also one grape that does not ever show as wonderful when planted outside of it’s Piemontese home. Even in Piemonte the Nebbiolo grape is quite finicky, it really does not like to go too far away. Just like most Italians, their home is beautiful, their culture is wonderful, and it is hard to find another place in the world as wonderful as Italy.

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As the harvest started to come to an end, Gianni and I would take his fast car to the mountains to have a traditional Piemontese mountain meal. We would drive for hours on these windy streets to arrive to a restaurant that looked more like someone’s home and would be welcomed in to have an amazing meal. We would eat Polenta with cheese, braised meats (my favorite was always the wild boar), have a couple of bottles of Piemontese wine and enjoy hours of laughs amongst us as well as the warm and charming mountain people who were feeding us this wonderful meal. We would then finish the meal with some Genepy or some Amaro from the area. Then head off to some quite grassy spot and take a nap. With the wind blowing in our hair and the sounds of the leaves shaking and the slight kiss of the sun amongst our faces. This was heaven.  I will never forget these times, and this was what made understanding the simplicities of life and how it should be.

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It was hard to return to the states, the flat, same old, East Coast that I have always known. Now I knew something different. A new way of life, one for living.

Even to this day when we go to take a trip even if it is a couple of days, I miss the rolling hills of the Langhe. The picturesque views of the Alps, the windy vineyard lined streets of Piemonte. I am glad that I decided to live here, and I love being able to share with people the wonderful experiences that I have had over the years of life in Langhe. I am glad to be able to tour with people to have more wine tour experience in Piemonte. To get to know much better the area’s of Barolo and Barbaresco and to get to know well the people the families who are behind such breathtaking wines. I now get to know their stories, and can see and feel their passion. But not only for just the wine, but the land, the work that goes into it, their family traditions that have been passed down to them over the years. They like the vines are really attached to the soil, the land, the history. It is amazing to find these things, to be able to share these things with my guests, with you, this is what I love.