My wife and I had a nice Italy/France vacation in late October/early November of last year, spending a few days each in Venice, Piemonte, Burgundy, and Alsace, with a stopover in Champagne on the way home through Paris. I wrote about our visit to Venice here Our first (only?) visit to Venice - Travel, Wine Tourism, and Restaurants Forum - WineBerserkers, since it wasn’t focused on wine. But the rest of the trip was heavily wine-centric, so here goes.
Our base in Piemonte was La Morra, at Hotel Rocche Costamagna. Not so much a hotel, as 4 nice rooms above the winery tasting room. No lounge or facilities, other than a breakfast room, but fine for our needs. Parking in La Morra isn’t easy, especially on weekends, and especially during truffle season. Fortunately, we arrived on a Sunday afternoon as the massive crowds were thinning out from the weekend.
Rocche Costamagna tasting room
Breakfast room
View from our room. Fog and smoke from large fires in the Alps foothills clouded the view most of the time we were there
La Morra
First night’s dinner was at Ristorante Le Torri in Castiglione Falletto, attached to the Hotel Le Torri. One of the more elegant, somewhat upscale restaurants we dined at in the area, with excellent food and service.
A difficult and weak truffle season, but still amazing
2008 still very young, a bit astringent, but moderately drinkable. Since we were visiting the next day, I figured I should drink one of their wines.
Monday morning’s appointment was at Comm. G. B. Burlotto. I confess to not having a ton of experience with Barolo, so relied on local friends and Berserkers. Email the winery, drop some names, and hope for the best! This was a very nice visit, as all our visits were in the area.
Owner/winemaker Fabio Alessandria
We tasted mostly 16s here, and other places. 13 being such a touted and sought after year, most producers have none to sell, or even taste. The Burlotto wines are, in general, very elegant, somewhat lighter style, very refined. Sorry I don’t have detailed notes.
Afternoon visit was to Oddero, in Santa Maria, just outside of La Morra. An excellent tour and tasting, with some wines available for purchase.
Oddero Poderi e Cantine
Tasting room and sales
No detailed notes, but the wines here seem relatively traditional, have a little more depth and intensity than the Burlotto wines. I didn’t see any small barriques here, or anywhere else we visited; only large to very large casks.
Monday dinner was at Trattoria La Coccinella in Serravalle Langhe. Bit of a drive from La Morra, but worth it.
Hazelnut Gnocchi stuffed with Castelmagno chees
Homemade noodles with Veal Ragout
Duck and Porcini Cannelloni
This dinner we passed on the truffle dishes, but learned an important lesson: let the tables around you order the truffles, because you get about 90% of the benefit from the aroma wafting over
Tuesday morning appointment at Cavallotto in Castiglione Falletto. I had no experience with the wines, other than recommendations from a couple of Berserkers, and a local wine shop owner. A very nice visit, their vineyards are primarily right out the back door.
Cavallotto
Bricco Boschis vineyard
Fermentation room
This was a new fermentation tank to me. Must is pumped in through a port at bottom right, there’s a paddle that stirs the tank slowly, in place of punch downs or pumpovers.
One of the barrel rooms
Tasting room
Cavallotto wines seemed a bit bigger and more extracted then our previous two visits (though not at the level of, say, Scavino). A bit more oomph and weight to the wines.
Our last Barolo visit was at Poderi Colla well up into the hills outside of Alba. A salt of the earth family, just now getting more attention, making a wide range of lovely wines.
I realized as I was writing this that I need to be cashiered out of the wine geek ranks, like Chuck Conners having his epaulets torn from his uniform and Champagne saber broken over a knee. Where are the notes? Where are the pithy winemaker quotes? I guess I just sat back and enjoyed each visit without geeking out. What a loser.
Last Piemonte dinner was at L’Osteria del Vignaiolo, in Santa Maria, down the hill from La Morra, stone’s throw from Oddero. Really enjoyed the casual atmosphere, and good, almost home cooked food. Another meal where we just let the truffle aromas from nearby diners waft over us every few minutes.
Risotto con funghi porcini. This was on the menu “for 2”, but at freaking 10 euros, I don’t pass up anything with porcini
Tagliolini tagliati al coltello con ragu di salsiccia - “knife cut tagliolinie with sausage ragu”
Costolette e arrosticini di agnello alla griglia - grilled lamb skewers
A lovely Arneis. So many beautiful, affordable Italian white wines…
And a good thing we didn’t order dessert, because they gave us this complimentary
Sadly, that was it for Piemonte. Early next morning we drove to Torino, dropped the car, and caught the train to Lyon
Next stop, Burgundy…