Thanksgiving Family Vacation to Piedmont 2017 - Impressions from the Trip

My family and I just got back this weekend from another wonderful trip to Piedmont. I’m going to work over the next week or so on getting up my impressions while they are still fresh in my mind (unlike our trip this summer to Burgundy and the Rhone which I never got around to posting on sadly).

Piedmont is a magic place. That’s it. Like the wine or not, its nearly impossible not to love the place. I found myself this trip drawing parallels between Piedmont and Hawaii. Sound strange? I love Hawaii and its far and a pain to get to from New York, but its worth it in spades. People ask, why go to Hawaii when then Caribbean is so close. Its not just about the beach, but the culture and the PEOPLE. Piedmont is the same. What makes Piedmont so great, like Hawaii, is the PEOPLE. Yes, the wine is great. Yes, the food is great. And yes, even in a bad truffle year, the truffles are great. But what makes Piedmont so great is the PEOPLE. The Piedmontese, such a proud bunch, and so willing to spend their most valuable resource, which is their time and experience. A wonderful bunch, and the reason why we keep coming back.

This was our first visit in fall, having previously visited in summer and spring. I think fall is the greatest time to visit. The colors are beautiful, the food and wine and weather pair so perfectly, and the truffles in every restaurant make the place smell magical.

As my family always does, we traveled with our kids, now 7 (Dylan) and 3 (Cody). Travelling to wine regions with children is always a challenge, but my kids were up for the task! They have some experience now and we try to keep the pace on these trips as chill as possible to make it work well for everyone. On our last trip we rented a villa in Bonvicino, called Villa San Lorenzo. While a little out of the way, Bonvicino was a fabulous and beautiful place to stay, and at the end of the day, just 20 minutes to Monforte. We rented that villa from Clay McLachlan, who has since renovated a new villa called Bracchi, also in Bonvicino, where we stayed this time around. It was a wonderful home base for us. It gave us an opportunity to bring in chefs for dinner each night, which was the easiest with the kids. As such, dinners (except for two parties at the villa) were low key, and our big restaurant excursions were for lunch.

Here’s a shot of Villa Bracchi:

We also got super lucky with weather. Most people here know its been extremely dry in Piedmont, but they got a few days of rain a few weeks back, which helped with the truffles, though not significantly. That being said, we had beautiful weather, ranging from crystal clear the first few days, where you could see the Alps clearly, to a beautiful haze the past few days. Here’s the view from Bonvicino with clear skies and then foggy to see the difference:


So…we took the red eye flight from New York to Milan, which is always a bit rough, but alas…the things we do for wine and food! Arrived into Milan bleary eyed and decided to pop into Alba to meet with our friend/local guide Sandro for lunch. Also, being that it was a Saturday, it gave us a chance to visit the truffle fair for the first time. We met at Enoclub in Alba for a late lunch at around 2pm. Needless to say the place was packed…and we got our first sign of the Piedmontese Diamond…

We also met up with Clay and his friend Erica at Enoclub and quickly it became a fun little bunch of us at lunch. We just wanted a quick little bit since we’d been on the plane for hours, so a little side by side tajarin did the trick.

After lunch we decided to hit up the truffle fair. First off, it was a beautiful crisp day and Alba was buzzing with people. The streets were packed and it was a lot of fun. Second, having never been to the truffle fair, it was definitely a scene to behold…and smell…quite fun. Here’s a few shots from the fair.



As you would expect, pricing at the truffle fair is certainly nowhere near the best in town. Buying truffles, like many things, is about knowing the right hunter and making good deals. But that being said, we needed at least one truffle for dinner, so we picked up one overpriced truffle at the fair and then headed back to the villa to decompress after a very long day of travelling.

The first night was super chill…everyone was exhausted but we banded together for some dinner before everyone passed out for the evening. Here’s a shot of the local vegetables. The fruit and vegetables were one of my highlights of the trip. Everything was so fresh. I swear I’ve never tasted better broccoli, and the strawberries…wow.

I didn’t take many pictures from dinner, but had to capture some shaved truffle over a simple tajarin. Just wonderful. Simple dishes with truffles are the best. I can practically smell it looking at the picture!


One last thing for the first day…I haven’t written a stitch about wine yet, but there is much wine to come…alas, some good and bad from the first evening…we’ll start with the bad…completely oxidized 1961 Gaja Barbaresco…sad, but we move on!

On to the good…2014 Raveneau Chablis Premier Cru Montee de Tonnerre was just deeeeelish. So fresh, great acidity, citrus. Fantastic. For our first Nebbiolo of the trip, a humble Produttori saved the day, as it often does…well it was a 1964 Produttori del Barbaresco - in perfect shape, great fruit, leather and tar. A welcome wine for the first night.


Okay…I’ll stop there for the day. It was a great though tiring first day…a great welcome back to my Italian home away from home. Warm, wonderful. I’ll also give a sneak “award list” for some of the lunch restaurants that we hit during our trip:

Best service goes to…Marsupino in Briaglia
Best pasta goes to…Il Centro in Priocca
Best non pasta course goes to…Del Cambio in Torino
Most fun dining experience goes to…Centro Storico in Serralunga d’Alba

More to come. Cheers!

Nice! Looking forward to the continuation of your travels. We were there exactly a month ago, and you lucked out with weather. For us, it was foggy, hazy, pretty crappy skies. Rains that came later must have cleared it all out for you.

It’s a very, very small world - I believe I saw you at Marsupino (not many American families with two kids in the restaurant!) We also got into Piedmont last Saturday, came back yesterday, and we were at Marsupino for lunch last Sunday. Wasn’t the best food we had on the trip by any means but nice list and really nice people for sure.

Well we were at Marsupino on Sunday for lunch, so I guess you saw us! Hope my kids were okay!

Thanks for the post. You give me hope that travel is possible with our 3 year old son. My wife and I are dreaming of an Italy trip, but in the meanwhile we’ll enjoy your photos. Too bad the computer screen doesn’t let us smell what’s in the picture!

Sunday was a super low key day. We would begin wine visits on Monday, so we took the opportunity to wake up late on Sunday, and start the day with a leisurely breakfast. I think most people here know that eggs and truffles are a match made in heaven, so we used what was left from the first evening to make a lovely smelling breakfast!!

We took the opportunity Sunday after breakfast to go out truffle hunting. As stated earlier and often around town, its been a light truffle season because of the dry weather, but we thought it would be a really fun activity for the kids and a great way for us to get a little morning hike in. I’d tell you where we were but then I’d have to kill you…just kidding…kind of…lol…

That being said, if anyone has the opportunity to go truffle hunting during the season in Piedmont, its really a great experience. The hunter and his dog were quite amazing and we managed to scrounge up four truffles while we were out, including one nice sized one. Here’s the kids walking the dog…or rather being dragged around by it!


Then alas after a bit of hiking…we got some action!

Success! My son pulled our best one of the day out of the ground…which we had with dinner, and boy was it fresh!

We found three other small ones while we were out…here’s a shot of one peaking out from the ground.

All in all, it was a REALLY fun experience. Great to be out on a gorgeous crisp fall day, and the kids felt like they discovered buried treasure. Couldn’t have been a better morning.

After truffle hunting, we headed to Marsupino for lunch. Immediately I felt the warmth as we were greeted at the door by Luca Marsupino. A charming and engaging young man, he introduced us to his family and made us and the kids feel very welcome. He and his family are the reason that I gave my “best service” award to Marsupino. This was the first of our daily 2+ hour lunch. Its the only way to do it here. Don’t rush from one appointment to another without taking the time to enjoy lunch in the many wonderful restaurants in the region. Its an amazing way to slow it all down. They have a great wine list and the cellar is pretty impressive, which Luca gave us a tour of after the dinner. With dinner, we enjoyed the immaculate 2004 Bruno Giacosa Barbaresco Asili Riserva. I’ve had this wine a few times, and man it always delivers. Everything you want in a great Giacosa. Sexy, sweet, power, grace. A wine that has it all. We enjoyed a bit with lunch and took the rest home to enjoy with dinner that evening. Just a stunning wine.

The food at Marsupino was very good. I really enjoyed the carne cruda. In retrospect, I think it was the best one I had on the trip. We also had our first agnolotti dal plin of the trip, which my kids affectionately dubbed “pillow pasta.” As the trip went on, “more pillow pasta” became a common refrain, eliciting great smiles from me! My wife adored the salad with chestnuts. Overall very enjoyable meal and I’d be glad to return.

Here’s some pics of the apps:



Some delicious pasta dishes:

And finally some main courses:

Some espresso later…some hugs and kisses…and we were on our way…to visit our friends Mauro and Anna in Mondovi. We got to know each other a few years back through mutual friends, and they have kids the same ages as ours, so we got together for a little Italian “playdate.” Aka…the kids played together and we had Champagne and cheese! I don’t know much about this Champagne producer, but it was excellent. And the cheese was absolutely gorgeous. The company was the best of all.



Alas…back to the villa…a great first full day in Piedmont. Rich and fulfilling. And lots of fun for everyone. Dinner was low key at the villa. With dinner we had the rest of the remaining Giacosa and opened a 1974 Cappellano Barolo. It was okay. I’ve had the 74 twice and neither time has it showed particularly interesting. And this is coming from someone who adores old Cappellano. The bottle was fine, in good shape, but just not that exciting. Ah well!


Okay, that is it for the welcome weekend. We’d rest up as we’d start our winetasting adventures the next day. More to come with Monday’s tastings at Roagna and Aldo Conterno.

Cheers!

Keep ‘em coming!

I also really enjoyed Il Centro and Centro Storico. WB posts about Piedmont including yours was quite useful for my trip in September so thank you! Having an 8 month old and a 4 yr old took some additional planning but was probably my favorite family vacation.

Looking forward to your new posts!

Monday we woke up amped to start doing some wine tasting…after all we were in Piedmont! Our first appointment was at Roagna. I met Luca Roagna at La Festa last year. He’s a great guy, really infectious personality. You just want to hang out. We actually ended up getting some drinks together after the 2nd day of Festa. He’s very close friends with Clay as well. Fast forward to our reunion in Piedmont. We visited at the winery in Castiglione Falletto (they also have an older winery in Barbaresco). You would have no idea from the street the enormity of this place. Its a very impressive winery and cave. By the way, we visited a handful of wineries and tasted a lot of wine. But I’m not a wine reviewer. I’m giving some impressions, but I don’t assign scores and again just impressions here.

We met Luca outside and took a walk around the grounds. It was still picture perfect outside. My son was taking notes on everything Luca said!

Picture perfect scenery:


A few leftover grapes (Clay’s photo)…

Luca then gave us a tour through the winery. First you go through the old cellar…which is ancient and incredible…

Then you pass through a door…and you are smack in the middle of a spotless, beautiful modern winery. Just fantastic.



Luca then took us to the cellar where they keep their bottled inventory. Pretty stunning and he set up a tasting table in there:


Luca was super generous with the tasting, and like I said before, just a joy to be around. We went through his 2012 lineup - Barolo Pira and Barbaresco Paje first, after which he joked that “now we go to the real wines.” We tasted through the Asili VV (very expressive nose, spicy), Montefico VV (floral, elegant, classic feeling), Pira VV (wonderful structure and had an attractive salty quality) and Paje VV (darker fruit, intense, structured, big tannins). Across the board I found the wines to have a very “fresh” quality. As in bright fruit, great acidity. He then generously opened both the 2008 and 2005 Barbaresco Crichet Paje for us. Both wonderful wines, with the 2008 edging out the 05 for me for its long term potential. Big but balanced, red fruit, great tannins, some mint qualities. Very impressive. Overall I was really impressed with the visit. I think Luca is really committing to taking Roagna to the next level. His attention to detail, focus, and commitment to quality control is evident in the wines. A really great time.

After Roagna, we embarked on one of our usual 2 hour lunches, today at La Coccinella in Serravalle Lange.

Another wonderful family owned restaurant. Extremely warm service. It was clear the restaurant had more of a fish focus than anywhere else in the Langhe that we’ve seen. Which is a nice change of pace. Overall, food was very good, with the fish and pasta the highlights, and the rabbit was quite good as well. We were still getting over the tannins from the Roagna tasting, so we went with some Barbera with lunch! Needed some zip and lack of oppressive tannins!

Here’s a few shots of the apps and pastas…the highlight was the ravioli with egg inside and white truffles. Just super decadent.

And finally the entrees:



Another long and luxurious meal down, and that’s about all I’ll get to today…cheers!

We really enjoyed Coccinella as well! Though a bit of a drive from La Morra for dinner.

Looks like a great time. Never long enough…Pictures of the food, to die for! My kids loved Italy when they were young (7 & 6), now that they drink wine, they want to go back.

There is no bad age to visit Italy!