Since 2012 I have been spending the large majority of my summer holidays driving around Central Europe with my girlfriend. Early on we (I) were very eager to visit the producers and most stops were indeed in the hearts of the famous wine regions. For the last couple of trips we have not really arranged winery visits anymore beforehand, preferring to have as little fixed agenda as possible and keeping our options wide option. Wine is of course still a large point of interest but instead of visiting wineries it is now mostly about restaurant wine lists and geeky wine shops.
This time around our main first actual places to really look for were Pallanza (Lago di Maggiore) and Imperia (Ligurian coast). In order to get to Italy we would drive through Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. While the German towns of Eutin, Rothenburg ob der Tauber and Rottweil do have their charm for us they were mostly same ol’, same ol’ and really we felt like our holiday had started when we reached the sleepy village of Isenthal in Switzerland. While the village itself did not offer much there was a cable car nearby that took us higher up to a place called Gitschenen (pictured above) where we could enjoy fresh mountain air and the absolutely beautiful scenery with very little other people around.
After only one day in Switzerland we drove to Lago di Maggiore to a town called Intra, located on a peninsula opposite to the better known town of Stresa. I rather liked this town’s liveliness and positive vibe. There seemed to be a decent amount of Gelaterias and having tried a couple of them I have to say the quality was good. My favorite was one called Tamboloni - excellent vegan (!!) pistachio. Mind you that I only chose this one based on how it looked and I am glad to have trusted my instincts.
The main thing in Intra for me however was a top notch cheese, salumi and wine boutique and bar called La Casera. This is exactly the sort of place where I want to lunch and dine when I am in Italy. The walls are covered with modestly-priced bottles carrying many familiar labels. Had I not had promised to my gf to start my buying spree once in France I would have been forced to buy a case from their quite substantial list (http://www.formaggidieros.it/media/Copia_di_Carta_Vini_giugno_luglio2018.pdf). One should not even make the comparison but having been exposed to such wine lists it is really difficult to consider the wine lists mentioned on the “Help me choose a bottle”-threads here on WB and not feel a bit sick.
After a long enough drive some bubbles were a must. The Blanc de Noirs from Aÿ pictured was a very positive surprise: ripe, powerful and fairly toasty yet nearly bone dry with plenty of freshness and nuances. Not familiar with Gonet-Medeville really but would not hesitate to try another one from them. We also had a Franciacorta Satèn from a producer called Vezzoli and this was just as it should be: actually dry with pure citrusy flavor profile, firm texture and some pleasant developed notes. I have struggled many times with Franciacortas that carry more than 4-5 g/l of sugar - does it not make all the sense in the world to make only bone dry wines here considering how much warmer it is than in Champagne?
The cheeses and the salumi were all top quality and made for basically the perfect lunch in our books. To cap things off I had easily the best coffee of our whole trip which was of course a very happy thing at the very moment and less happy later on. After praising to my gf “I did not even remember how good coffee tastes in Italy” it was indeed a bit sad to realize that as La Casera is one of those places that does not cut corners also their coffee is on a whole different level than the competition and disappointments were bound to happen afterwards.
Another thing to mention about La Casera: in addition to all the mentioned and having a really sick selection of spirits, especially Gin, they also age cheeses. The cabinets look really amazing and as a nice touch there are fitting bottles next to many cheeses. I must say that pairing of Comté and Château-Chalon felt awfully tempting.
Our hotel called Aquadolce was on the other side of the peninsula in a relatively quiet town called Pallanza. While nothing too fancy we quite enjoyed the hotel and especially the view of the lake. Based on our experience I would recommend the hotel but not necessarily due to the restaurants nearby. The one we had chosen for the first evening led to my gf getting a food poisoning, coloring our next day a bit bland. For the second dinner I had been wise enough to cancel our original reservation, replacing it with La Casera.
We had had all kinds of plans of exploring the lake but due to my gf’s condition we decided on a slow stroll to Intra were one had more cruise options than in Pallanza. We took a ferry to the town of Laveno which is on the east side of the lake. We had noticed from Intra that there is again a cable car (“Funivie”) that would take us up top to enjoy a nice view of the lake. Only after paying for the tickets we learned that the ride up would not be as enjoyable as one would hope. During what seemed like an eternity in the cramped metal vessel pictured my gf started feeling only worse and worse and in the end I was truly surprised that she had managed to keep from throwing up. The school kids coming down sure had a lot of fun laughing at the pale Finn suffering from the combination of food poisoning and the rough ride.
Once we got to the up we were in no rush to return. The views were indeed quite nice and the setting quite fitting for enjoying a crisp lager.
Come the evening I was really keeping my fingers crossed that my gf would not say the dreaded words: “I do not have it in me to go to the restaurant. Could we just skip it and get something to go?”. Fortunately she felt just barely well enough and we ended up again in this wonderful establishment, however she made it known early on that eating would be a challenge and drinking something else than water not desirable. I shortly considered getting something by the glass but in the end it just made all the sense in the world to order a bottle of Emidio Pepe’s Trebbiano d’Abruzzo 2014 for the lowly sum of 35 Euros. The waiter commented that ideally one would give it a lot of air but for an unknown reason they had not one decanter in the restaurant. Safe to say the wine did not offer a whole lot early on but did open up with time. It was oxidative and saline on the nose with notes of lemon and oatmeal. On the palate it was medium-bodied, bone dry and salty with very firm texture and fairly high acidity. Maybe more interesting than delicious at that point but paired very well with food.
Interestingly enough once the waiter had opened the bottle and poured he mentioned that “your free plate of salumi and cheese is being prepared just now”. It is not certain if this was something they would automatically do when a customer orders a bottle or because we had been there just a day before and left a good impression but nevertheless I was quite amazed by the amount of free produce on the plate. As my gf could not eat much I had already got rid of much of my hunger before I had managed to order any food.
Properly fresh Burrata is one of the best things Italy has to offer and it was a must for me to have. This one with smoked sardines was pure perfection. Straight oohhing and aahhing all the way. After it I really did not feel like eating anything else so once again a cup of the best coffee out there was more than enough. In other words getting my stomach full and having a bottle of Emidio Pepe and a coffee ended up costing me 50 Euros. Only in Italy.
After returning to Pallanza we spent sometime outside enjoying the wonderful sunset. There were other tourists like us around but yet it was really quiet and calm, absolutely nothing to distract from enjoying the moment.
Next up: Ligurian coast