JOURNEY TO PIEDMONT ITALY

(Part Two: Alba)

 

    Last month Vegas Wine News journeyed to the town of Asti to begin our trip to the Piedmont  region of Italy.  This month we travel to the heart of the best wine producing area of the Piedmont, the town of Alba.

 

    Little Alba, with its 30,000 inhabitants, lies situated approximately 18 miles southwest of Asti.  One can easily reach Alba from Asti by car or train. Trains connect the towns throughout the day, and the ride takes about 20 minutes and costs about $6.00 each way.  Alba’s train station is centrally located and within a very short taxi ride of any hotel or tourist site within the city.  

 

    Alba provides a stylish and pleasant city to serve as a base of exploration for the amazing wine country that surrounds the town.  One of Alba’s highlights include the Via Vittorio Emanuele pedestrian street.  One end of the street begins in the old town square, Piazza Risorgimento (sometimes referred to as the Piazza Duomo), the site of the Cathedral San Lorenzo and the tourist office.   Walking from the square, takes you past many fine restaurants and retail shops and ends in the Piazza Savona.  To make the entire walk without stopping (almost impossible) takes about twenty minutes.

 

    The tourist office provides friendly assistance in finding lodging, restaurants, renting a car, and explaining the many options for touring the wine country.  The telephone number of the tourist office is 39 0173362562.  Remember to drop the country code of 39 if you call from within Italy.  This rings true for all telephone numbers given in this article.

 

    Most tourists visiting Alba head out during the day to the beautiful nearby vineyards and wine villages, and return to Alba in the evening.  Renting a car offers the best opportunity to explore these environs.   Although several big name rental car agencies maintain offices in Alba, I had a great experience at an Italian agency, Morini Alba Rent (telephone 39 0173283999, fax 39 0173269697).  I rented a Fiat Pana that got great mileage and was small enough for some very tight parking places. The rental cost about $250.00 for four days, and the charge included pick-up and delivery to any hotel in Alba.

 

        Of course, local wine and food provide the primary reasons for exploring the area.  The vineyards that cover the rolling green hills outside Alba grow the nebbiolo grapes that vintners use to produce Barolo and Barberesco wines.  Both wines take their names from two of the most famous wine towns producing each wine. Although the Langhe region surrounding Alba also produces barbera, dolcetto, nebbiolo, ghemme, gavi and chardonnay, it is Barolo and Barbaresco that have received global acclaim as some of the best red wines in the world. The Italian description of Barolo says it all:  “The king of wines and the wine of kings.”   No false modesty there…

 

    Barolo, made entirely from nebbiolo grapes, often has a brick red color that appears not as dense as a cabernet.  Nevertheless, it proves extremely full- bodied and age worthy, and if made in the more traditional way in good vintages will continue to evolve for more than a decade.  A good Barolo typically has great complexity, and often has characteristics of dark red fruits mixed with a plethora of flavors, sometimes including spices, flowers, menthol, oak and/or licorice.   The wine pares well with red meats or the rich pasta and risotto dishes so much a part of Piedmont cooking.  The best winemakers do not produce a large quantity of Barolo.  Barolos tend to carry an expensive price tag, with the least expensive wines costing in excess of $20.00 per bottle, and the best wines costing well in excess of $100.00 in good vintage years.   Some of the best Barolo producers include Roberto Voerzio, Paolo Scavino, Luciano Sandrone, Bruno Giacosa and Franco Massolino.  Germano Ettore is another winemaker that makes nice Barolo but at more affordable prices.

 

    Only four wine villages sit entirely within the Barolo zone:  Barolo, La Morra, Castiglione Falletto, and Serralunga de Alba.  Eight other villages have part of their municipalities within this relatively small area.  

 

    La Morra lies nine miles from Alba perched atop one of the highest hills in the Langhe/Barolo rgion.  The village affords spectacular views of the wine country below, and has some interesting venues for enjoying the locally produced wines.  Situated across from a piazza with a breath-taking view of the other wine towns below, the Vineria San Giorgio provides a charming location for dining, tasting and buying wine.  An association of local winemakers in La Morra has established the Cantina Comunale, where visitors can sample and purchase their wines.   Should you feel like some exercise, try hiking the Sentieri del Vino footpath which takes you over some steep hillsides while trekking through some beautiful vineyards.  La Morra would make an excellent place to have a memorable dinner with some great wine while watching the sunset over the Langhe hill country.

 

 

 

    The visitor may also drive to the two other towns entirely within the Barolo zone on the same day as visiting La Morra and Barolo.  Castilione Falleto has a distinctive castle with a circular tower high on a hill that dominates the countryside below.  Its narrow streets present a challenge to even small cars.  If you drive to the very top of the town (by the castle) you should steel yourself for some driving on passageways probably more suitable for a Roman empire vintage oxcart rather than a modern automobile.  It all makes for suspense and good fun…It also rendered some serious scratches to my rental car when,  despite its small size, the Fiat would could not squeeze through the lanes of the upper town!

 

    Serralunga d’Alba features a square towered castle at the top of a steep rise.  The town has good parking facilities and if you stray from the main road through town, some classically narrow Italian streets.  The town has a tasting bar and a restaurant that serves great local food at reasonable prices located on the main road, appropriately named the  Ristorante Italia. Conveniently located on that same main road, the Massolino winery makes a great place  for a visit.  

 

  Some important information regarding visiting local wineries:  You must generally call beforehand to make an appointment.  The winemakers often live within the wineries, so visiting becomes a very personal thing, like inviting someone into your home.  As you drive through the Piedmont, you will often see colorful signs on peppermint candy striped poles that mark a wine estate by name.  Usually, those estates marked by such a sign do permit visits by the public, but again, only after making a reservation.   Your hotel or the tourist agency in Alba should provide assistance and advice on making the required reservations.

 

    While I traveled across the Barolo region, I had the good fortune to visit the wineries of Germano Ettore and Franco Massolino, both located in the village of Serralunga d’Alba.   Both gentlemen graciously took the time during harvest season to show me around their facilities.  Which brings me to another  viable tip about visiting wineries in Piedmont;  it’s best not to go during the grape harvest (usually anywhere from September through October).  The winemakers often find themselves (understandably) too preoccupied with the harvest effort to host tourists.          

 

 

 

    Germano Ettore operates a beautiful medium-sized Piedmont winery right from the family home, although he has modern wine making facilities and a wide selection of wines, including many of the most notable Piedmont wines, such as barbera, nebbiolo, and Barolo.  The winery also produces a very pleasant  chardonnay made from locally grown grapes that costs only five euros.  Germano’s Barolos have earned good scores from Wine Spectator, and his top of the line Barolo Cerretta costs only 22 euros.  

 

    Franco Massolino’s wines have garnered much praise from wine critics in recent years.  The winery makes Barolo, nebbiolo, dolcetto, barbera, moscato and chardonnay.  Robert Parker described his top of the line Barolo, the 2004 Vigna Rionda Reserva, as a “legend in the making”, and rated the wine at 94-96 points.  Wine Spectator gave the 2000 Vigna Rionda Reserva a whopping 98 points, making it one of the highest rated wines for that excellent vintage year in all of Piedmont.  Sadly, Massolino only produced 750 cases of this masterpiece.  This bears out my earlier point that the wineries of Piedmont only turn out small quantities of wines relative to what other well-known vintners produce.  For instance, Chateau Mouton-Rothschild in a typical vintage year produces about 20,000 cases of its  finest wine, and Joseph Phelps markets about the same quantity of Insignia.  

 

    Another area that merits a visit for anyone interested in the finest wines of Italy lies just to the northeast of Alba.  Barbaresco, Neive and Treiso are the three towns known for their production of Barbaresco wines.   One can easily visit all three of these towns in a one day car trip from Alba.  

 

 

    Barbaresco wine has characteristics of great aromatics, elegance and complexity.  Common aromas and flavors associated with a fine Barbaresco include ripe plum and red berries, cedar, licorice, flowers and spices.  In a good vintage, a well made Barbaresco stored properly will improve over time and will age gracefully for a decade.

 

    Typically, a traditional wine estate will retain a small forested area in addition to its vineyards.  These forested areas have several purposes; a source of natural beauty, a halcyon place of refuge, a habitat for wild pigs and birds, and sometimes a source for the most expensive produce item in the world, the white truffle.   Looking somewhat like a mushroom, a truffle about the size of a golf ball would sell for about $400.00.  Try as they might, no one has successfully cultivated truffles.  They grow only naturally in the root systems of certain trees, and the best producing areas remain a closely guarded secret.  Truffle hunters use specially trained dogs to sniff out the little gems.

 

 

 The typical Piedmont wine estate, surrounded by vineyards and woods...

 

    Truffles have become the foremost icon of culinary art in Piedmont.  Piedmont’s chefs often rely upon the truffle’s aromatic fragrance and unique flavor to give a distinctive style to many local dishes.   Although truffles do grow in other areas, the white truffle of Piedmont has won undisputed acclaim as the finest, and hence most expensive, truffle in the world.  Harvest time arrives each October, and in true Italian fashion, Alba celebrates each year with a truffle harvest festival.  The festival features medieval costumes, decorating the entire town, and the sale of thousands of truffles in outdoor bins that scent the air with their unique aroma.  The action takes place on the weekends in market stalls in the Piazza Falcone throughout the entire month of October.  Restaurants serve freshly shaved truffles over rich, traditional Piedmont dishes.  To a truffle connoisseur, this represents heaven on earth.  The true “freshness” of a truffle does not last very long, so if you really want to experience the taste of a fresh truffle, you should come within a couple months of the harvest.

 

    Alba also stages its own version of the Palio event in October, which is a parody of the Palio event held in the rival town of Asti each September (see the June 2007 edition for an explanation and photos of the Asti Palio).  In Alba, the contestants race donkeys in front of the town’s cathedral.  A colorful parade complete with medieval costumes precedes the race.   The genesis of the event was to poke fun at the more extravagant Palio of Asti.

 

    Alba and its environs have a plethora of good restaurants should you want to sample some local foods, which are generally rich, heavy and delicious.   In Alba, the Piazza Duomo, located in the Piazza Risorgimento, has a good reputation and lovely ambience.  Decorated in elegant lavender furnishings, and affording some nice views of the cathedral from its upstairs dining room, the restaurant relies on local meats and in-season vegetables to create an ever-changing menu.  The prices range between 60-90 euros for dinner, exclusive of wine.   The Enoclub provides another good choice for excellent cuisine.  Located in a cellar off the Piazza Savona, the place has a warm and cozy atmosphere and serves local delicacies.  The prices range between 35-40 euros for dinner, exclusive of wine.  The tiny town of Treiso, located just a few miles from Alba in Barbaresco country, boasts one of the finest restaurants in all of Piedmont, La Ciao del Tornavento.  This Michelin-star winning establishment serves creative gourmet cuisine.  Built on the top of a hill, its elegant dining room affords an incredible view of the wine country below.  Prices begin at 60 euros for dinner.  Also in Treiso you will find the less assuming, but still very nice, Profum Divino Osteria.  This inexpensive and lovely restaurant features excellent home made pasta, and some excellent local meat dishes, such as baked rabbit.

 

 

    Finding a place to stay in Alba should not present a problem, so long as you do not try to come into town during the festival season (September-October) without a reservation.  The modern Hotel Castelli (telephone, 39-0173361978) has a four star rating, a very helpful staff, and a convenient location within easy walking distance of the cathedral and tourist office.   In 2006, single rooms went for about $115.00 per night, and included free parking and an excellent European style breakfast buffet.  The three star Hotel Savona (telephone, 39-0173440440) provides a more traditional choice.  It features nicely appointed rooms and a large restaurant.  Double rooms rates begin at 100 euros.   The little Hotel San Lorenzo (telephone, 39-0173362406) affords an opportunity to stay in the old town area, right behind the cathedral.  It has 11 traditionally decorated rooms and parking for guests.  Don’t  necessarily be put off by its 2 star rating.  Star ratings for Italian hotels often depend on available amenities, such as internet access, and not on room quality or cleanliness.