Piemonte Trip

Well, I am back in the land of reality after a dreamy week in Piemonte. The trip was 5 days of intense drinking, marathon eating, and little sleeping and resting. It's a tough life - but somebody's gotta live it. I learned a lot in the week, at a rate that was almost too fast to process all of the information. And I was able to have the opportunity to taste some wonderfully aged Barolos and Barbarescos that were truly memorable.

Agenzia di Pollenzo - hotel where we stayed.

We had mornings at the "Wine Bank" - more on that later, and lunches and dinners with local winemakers. Each day had a focus - Dolcetto, Barbera, Barbaresco and Barolo. Each winemaker had their own personality, and it really proved that to get the full wine experience you have to be a people person and you have to travel. Meeting these characters was a great way to attach a face to a wine.

There is so much to describe, I can't say it all, but I'll let a picture say a thousand words:

Intro by Carlo Petrini himself the first day! Why didn't I take a better picture?

The Wine Bank - an idea to create a centralized location to store every vintage. There are producers from all over Italy leaving a couple cases of their wine there, but they are mostly Piemontese wines. This was inspired by the French system of negociants, which are merchants that sell wines from various producers. A middle man, basically, responsible for sales, similar to American distributors. Because of this French system, many negociants have stored various vintages over the years and it's easy to find an old vintage of your favorite Burgundy for sale. In Italy, since most sales are direct from wineries, this hasn't been the case, so the Wine Bank will serve as a living memory of the best vintages of Italian wines!

The meals were all delicious, and we ate in various places - the restaurant of the Agenzia di Pollenzo hotel, with winemakers in their homes or agriturismos, and at restaurants. We often had this dish above, beef tartare made with from the prized local Piemontese beef. This time it was served with lemon, Hawaiian black salt, and peppercorns.


We also often ate this dish - the traditional Piemontese ravioli, called "Plin". They are closed by hand, and usually stuffed with meat and vegetables and served with butter and Parmesan cheese.


This was my favorite dish of the whole trip, served at the famous enologist Beppe Caviola's winery. They were handmade whole wheat gnocchi served in a Gorgonzola sauce made from cheese aged 8 months, with plenty of black pepper. It was a perfect accompaniment to the Dolcettos we were tasting that night.

Dolcettos:


We also had the best wine of the trip at that dinner, which was a 1999 Barolo, not a Dolcetto, from Luigi Einaudi:

The area around Roero:


There were Barberas to be tasted:


And 60 year old vineyards at Podere Einaudi:


The whites, especially the Arneis and the dessert wines, were a surprise hit. Lovely fresh acidity, vivacious wines:


Castello di Neive winery courtyard:


The best panna cotta I've ever had in my LIFE, the final dessert at the final dinner at Boccondivino in Bra:


A wine served to us blind as a "game" on our free night out, we went to Guido restaurant, right behind our hotel. Shockingly it turned out to be this, which we took for about 10 years younger. The aging potential of these wines was beginning to be very clear to us:


One of these wines is from 1998, one from 2004, hard to tell the difference. Major aging power. This is at a tasting of Marchesi di Grezy in Barbaresco.


The last wines we drank at the last dinner. Our livers could barely take it anymore. Barbarescos from Produttori del Barbaresco, 99s and 05s, and Barolos from Damilano, Cannubi, 98, 99 and 01.


Ciao Piemonte, thanks for the amazing experience!