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This is the blog of Steve Burkett of Italy, Our Italy

An Evening in Barolo

If you are familiar with Italian wine, you know of Barolo wines (and I’m hoping that you have read my article on Renato Ratti winery here, where I described Barolo wines)…and you may be thinking that I mis-wrote above when I titled this article ‘An Evening IN Barolo’, as if I’m in a glass of Barolo wine. Though not a bad idea itself if one has a very large wine glass, I am referring to the town of Barolo, from which Barolo wines get their name.

The small town of Barolo is in the southern Langhe area, which is the area of the Nebbiolo grape vineyards that form the basis of Barolo wines…as well as Nebbiolo wines. And of course, we are in the Piemonte region of northern Italy.

This is the final article that concerns the Langhe vineyards and wine producing area of Piemonte. The previous articles are as follows:

This article is heavy on photos, and low on verbiage. You will see charming buildings and a nice, simple dinner — so here goes.

And if you are a circus fan, don’t fret, as the Circo Peppino Medini comes to town in September for 10 days. And, as it says, ‘the show is suitable for all ages’.

Only 50 meters to Osteria la Canti Nella

A Bit of Shopping

As Barolo is king here…in the town of Barolo…it is readily available in the wine stores.

Earlier in the day, we had learned to cook Italian in a wonderful cooking class, and tajarin pasta was one of the pasta types that we prepared…found here in a small market.

The local butcher shop, or macelleria, carried many of our favorite meet products.

Dinner Time with the Famiglia Brezza

As the evening approached our dinner time, we decided on the comfortable Brezza family restaurant at the Hotel Barolo. Note that the sign has both Italian and English information, so do not fear travel in Italy because of language issues, as explained in a previous article here.

OK, we are in the town of Barolo, in the heart of the Piemonte wine country, so one should expect to see a lot of wine. But, we didn’t expect to see so many bottles in one place. The ristorante Brezza proudly displays their wine in the midst of the diners who will be enjoying them. Though Craig looks calm in the photo below, he is actually feeling a bit of angst about which wine he will choose during our dinner…so many wines, and so little time!

We chose an Arneis as our starter white wine, and it was as delicious as we had hoped.

How about a 60-year old Barolo?! The bottle below would cost you only $300 here in Italy. Or, if you wish, you can purchase a 90-year old Barolo Riserva from the same vintner for only $500. You will NOT find these prices in the US.

Here are some more prices for the Barolo d’epoca, or vintage Barolo wines, as sold here in Ristorante Brezza. Next time I return to this restaurant, I think I’ll splurge for a wine that was produced in my birth year!

Another meal and another toast as we enjoy a bottle of Barolo.

Just in case you are interested in the price of a meal in a typical small northern-Italian town, here is the menu.

By the way, do you like truffles? This area is famous for its truffles. There are both black truffles and white truffles, so you have a choice. But beware, as the white truffles are much more expensive. Did you notice at the bottom-right of the menu that you can get one shaving of a white truffle for about $31? Ouch!

Below you can see our risotto made with Barolo wine, veal sausages, and wild boar…all delish, of course.

Well, it’s time to head back to our lodgings. And we are well satisfied with our visit to the small town of Barolo, as well as our wonderful meal at Ristorante Brezza. We will find ourselves strolling the night laden streets to linger just a bit longer.

Ristorante Familia Brezza

Thank you for joining us on our stroll through the very quaint, very charming, town of Barolo. And also, we’re glad you joined us for dinner. That last Barolo toast? it was for you!

Ciao for now,

Steve

p.s. Join me next time as we leave the Barolo wine are of the Piemonte for Lake Maggiore.

Eat Here: Ristorante Bovio

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Would you like to dine with a view like this one? Then you need to eat at Ristorante Bovio.

This lovely restaurant is situated on the slope of the hill upon which the Piemonte town of La Mora is situated. Whether you are dining on the terrace for lunch, as we did, or eating in the beautifully appointed dining room in the evening, the view is magnificent.

As seen from the restaurant, that’s the Church of San Sebastiano in La Mora, blessing Ristorante Bovio. And, well blessed it is.

As with virtually every meal we have eaten in Italy, we start with wine…and usually the first bottle is a white wine. Here we are poured our new favorite white northern-Italian wine, Arneis. Note the unique bottle holder at the table in the background…it keeps a white wine at just the perfect temperature. Here you see Craig’s look of anticipation.

With every toast, we celebrate having the great friends with whom we are traveling, sister- and brother-in-law Leslie and Craig Johnson.

The terrace of Bovio is oh, so pleasant. And, it is a gorgeous day in the Langhe area of the Piemonte. Craig, Leslie and wife Ellen await our first course.

“Would care for a scrumptious bread product?”, asks Leslie.

“Yes!”, I say.

Most every Italian restaurant has olive oil available for dipping one’s bread, but here, we also have butter. I’m assuming that there is nothing wrong with putting butter on a grissino. Would you agree?

As an appetizer, we tried the fried zucchini blossoms, which we found delicious.

Also tasty were the mushrooms over creamy pollenta, topped with black truffles.

In the dining room, we found a covered plate of several black truffles, topped with a truffle shaver, ready to do its job.

While we were seated, we saw a local man park his vehicle and unload a box which he took inside the restaurant. I followed him to the kitchen to see what he had for sale and found that he brought these large mushrooms. The chef liked what he saw and the grower left with cash in his pocket.

If we had been at Bovio for dinner, we might have sampled some of their spirits…but as it was lunchtime and we had a special place to be after lunch, we passed.

Lunch has arrived and here it is. A nice Bolognese pasta, mushroom risotto, beautifully-cooked scallops, and a bit of beef with scalloped potatoes were enjoyed as we ate with a view.

And of course, we needed more Arneis.

As is an Italian custom, dessert consisted of cheese. And we had a large selection from which to choose.

We mad a selection of seven cheeses, accompanied with honey and fruit preserves.

The dining room awaits evening diners. And they will also have that nice view during their meal.

Ahhhh, what an outstanding meal. As we leave, we take one last look at the idyllic Langhe countryside, as seen from the terrace of Ristorante Bovio.

BONUS MATERIAL

Above, I mentioned that we had plans for the afternoon. What might those plans be? We have reservations for massages at the Chateaux Castello di Guarene spa in the hilltop town of Guarene.

That’s the castle sitting smack dab in the middle of the areal photo.

According to the Relais Chateaux Castello di Guarene website, the castle was built by Carlo Giacinto Roero di Guarene, who laid the first stone in 1726 on 13 September at 8.30 pm.

The grounds of the castle are well manicured and provide a pleasant place to relax for guests at the hotel.

The spa is actually located in the subterranean depths below these gardens.

To get to the spa, one goes down a couple of flights of stairs into the bowels of the hill. And then a long tunnel through the hill leads you to the spa.

At the end of the tunnel, Craig and Leslie stand on a balcony which juts out from the side of the cliff below the castle grounds. There is a nice view from that balcony.

But the inside of the cavernous interior reveals an ideal spa atmosphere.

Ristorante Bovio

Relais & Chateaux Castello di Guarene

That’s it for lunch at Bovio, and then a relaxing time at the Castle Guarene spa.

I have to admit that such a lovely lunch, followed by a couple of hours of relaxing spa time, is a great way to spend an afternoon in northern Italy…or anywhere else for that matter. If you are able to reproduce this day’s itinerary, you may find me floating in the grotto pool.

Ciao for now,

Steve

A Visit to Michele Chiarlo Vineyards and Winery

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This was the first winery stop on our most recent trip to Italy. We were drawn here because our most favorite and excellent dessert wine is Michele Chiarlo’s Nivole, Muscato d’Asti. Our kids have called it ‘liquid Heaven’.

This collage was created from Michele Chiarlo wine labels

“La Court is the perfect symbiosis between nature, the landscape and the efforts of man”

Our trip started with a visit to the Monferrato-area vineyards to see where the Barbera grapes are grown, and we then followed up with a wine tasting at Chiarlo’s winery.

So, where are we actually? We are in northern Italy in the region called Piemonte (Piedmont in English for some reason). Within the region of Piemonte is the Barolo area south of Alba, where Nebbiolo grapes are grown for Barolo. But right now, we are in the northeastern area known for the Barbera grape used in, non-other-than, Barbera wines. As we are close to the town of Asti, the Barbera wine produced here is known as Barbera d’Asti…and there are some other Barbera wine names associated here, too, as I’ll explain below.

The actors in this 3-act play are: my lovely wife, Ellen; sister- and brother-in-law Leslie and Craig Johnson, who are wonderful travel companions; and of course, me. And, there is a guest appearance by none other than Alberto, our host for the day.

Act One: The Vineyard of La Court

In this photo, you see the beautiful vineyards of La Court.

The copse of cypress dead-center in the photo were planted in the mid-1800s and are the symbol of the La Court vineyards. I use the term vineyards, instead of the singular vineyard, as there are eight different vineyard plots seen situated around the farmhouse at the upper-left of the photo. Each of the eight is planted in Barbera grape vines, but the grapes grown in the various vineyards are each handled and vinified differently to produce four different DCOG wines.

[I’ll cover what DCOG means in another article, but for today’s purpose, it means that the vineyards used in the four wines must face this direction or that, must have a certain slope, maximum production per acre, etc — all to protect the name and reputation of a particular Italian wine type, which in this case is Barbera d’Asti…think of a government-sponsored Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval…that does still exist, doesn’t it?]

For our visit, Alberto parked at the old farm house and we walked under the Le Orme archway toward that ancient copse of cypress.

You can see that the vineyard to the left of the path has recently been replanted with new vines

As we strolled, Alberto explained the layout of the vineyards and the wines produced from each of the areas that surrounded us.

Grapes in these vineyards are picked by hand, and not every cluster of grapes is worthy of being selected for harvest…like this cluster which was passed over during the previous week’s picking.

I’m kind of glad that these were of inferior quality, as we got to sample them right off the vine…and they were sweet and tasty.

At the time of our visit, workers were busy planting new vines in the northern-facing vineyard.

And that soil? Yes, it is typical of Italian vineyards in that it is high in mineral and low in organics. As their website suggests, it is called “astiane sands'’, and it consists of calcareous clay marl of sedimentary marine origin, with good presence of lime and sand, rich in microelements, in particular magnesium.”

This particular set of hillside vineyards is unique in Italy, as it is also known as the Art Park La Court. This art park is said to “celebrate the marriage of wine and art set within a landscape recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.” Besides the archway under which we started our walk, there are other works of art throughout the vineyards.

The most interesting of the art works are the helmeted “wine row pole heads” found at the end of many of the rows of vines. Here are a smattering of these artistic accouterments, each decorated with a different species of animalia. As always, if you click on a thumbnail image, you will get a larger view.

The surrounding countryside is as picturesque as you would want as you visit an Italian vineyard.

Here is the bark of a 170-year old Italian cypress

The old farmhouse is a picturesque fixer-upper that I found to be artistically endearing. Here is my digitally-painted rendering

Act Two: The Winery

Michele Chiarlo’s Barbera winery is situated in the town of Calamandrana.

This is the winery where the Barbera grapes are vinified into the various Barbera-related wines produced by Michele Chiarlo.

We are now about 4 miles from the La Court vineyards where we learned of the land where the Barbera grapes are grown.

We drove by this sign three times before seeing and saying, “Oh, there it is!”.

Alberto took us through the wine-making process where grapes are pressed for their juice and then undergo fermentation in these stainless-steel tanks.

After fermentation, the wines are aged in barrels…some large and some small.

The barrel just below holds a Nizza wine. It will age in this barrel for 18 months. But a Nizza Riserva will barrel-age for 30 months.

The wording on the white label of ‘Atto a Nizza’ translates as ‘Nice Act’ in English

Though the wine making is an ancient art, the bottling is strictly modern, as you can see below.

And the wine that is being bottled at this moment? Why, it’s the Barbera d’Asti made with grapes from the just-visited Le Orme vineyards that we visited just moments before…and that we will be sampling in just a moment.

Act Three: The Tasting

I have to admit that this is my favorite part of a winery visit…the tasting.

Here is the tasting room, with the full line-up of wines that Michele Chiarlo produces.

Leslie is attentive to Alberto as he explains the intricacies of the wines, but I’m busy tasting this nice, white Arneis…and look at those lovely legs left on the glass because of the viscosity of the wine. This is the day that we fell in love with Arneis, as mentioned in a previous article here.

Also, we were able to taste the La Court Nizza Riserva, which had its grapes grown a the La Court vineyards just visited.

Though Nizza is made from the Barbera grape which, in this case, comes from vines planted in 1976, the overall vinification methods of this Nizza wine started recently in 2014. So it is a relatively new type of Barbera wine.

At the 50 acres we visited earlier in the day, only 7 acres are dedicated to the growing of the grapes destined for Nizza.

They recommend drinking Nizza with agnolotti with a wild rabbit sauce, tagliolini with porcini, roasted veal, or well-matured cheeses. It’s been awhile since we whipped up a wild rabbit sauce (like, never), so I would drink this with just about any Italian pasta. I mean, why not…right?

The next tasting was Le Orme, Barbera d’Asti. This is the wine which we had just observed being bottled.

This wine is readily available in the US market and we’ve had it at numerous restaurants.

The wine has been aged for 16 months, or “16 mesi” in Italian.

The color is ruby red with hues of violet. It is described as “elegant and intense, with notes of fresh mature red fruit, such as cherry and currant.” To me, it tastes like a nice red wine.

In case you want to be told what to drink this with, they suggest “Pasta with tomato, pizza, Livorno style fish, and white meat”. I’ll have a glass with my pizza, please.

At some point above, I suggested that one of the reasons we visited Michele Chiarlo was our familiarity with their dessert wine, Nivole.

Nivole is a Moscato d’Asti wine…meaning it comes from the white muscato grape and is from the Asti area of Piemonte. Asti is the number one place for the production of moscato-based dessert wines. And, Michele Chiarlo’s Nivole is recognized as the very best of the moscatos.

This wine has a brilliant straw color. After pressing the grape, the must is stored in a tank at 28°F and is followed by slow fermentation in an autoclave at a controlled temperature until the alcohol content is right at 5%. During this process, a part of the carbon dioxide developed during fermentation remains “entrapped”, giving the wine its mild, natural effervescence. Before bottling, it then undergoes a process of micro-filtration to give the wine its clarity, purity and stop any further fermentation of the yeasts. Many Moscato d’Asti wines are almost as effervescent as a prosecco, but Nivole’s bubbles are pleasantly subtle.

I’m not much on ferreting out notes of floral, tobacco, certain minerals and such in red wines, but I’m definitely into the velvety, apricot-like taste of Nivole.

Here is something that encouraged us to bring back several bottles of Nivole. In the USA, a 375ml bottle (half of a typical bottle of wine) costs almost $20. At Michele Chiarlo’s wine shop, a full size, 750ml bottle costs just over $10. And, being a sweet white wine, it keeps a good while in your refrigerator with the top screwed on.

The white muscat grapes for Nivole are grown up near Asti, and the lay of the land is very much different than that at La Court. In the photo below, you can see the vineyards for Michele Chiarlo’s Nivole, Moscato d’Asti. Just gorgeous, isn’t it?!

Michele Chiarlo Winery

I know that you didn’t enjoy our visit to Michele Chiarlo as much as we did, and I’m very sorry about that. But amends can be made. Just go there for a visit yourself! I know you will enjoy it. And say ‘Hello’ to Alberto from the Johnsons and the Burketts.

Ciao for now,

Steve

p.s. Feel free to leave comments below!

Transforming Two Venetian Water Gates

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Just got back from Las Vegas with my bride, celebrating our 43 years of marriage. My, how time flies. So, today, just a short transformation of two water gates from Venice.

You’ve seen my transformations before…some simple, and some a bit complex. Today’s has a mix of both.

First of all, what is a watergate? In Venice, one travels by foot or by boat. No, there are no automobiles. No, there are no bicycles. The only way to get around is by foot or boat. So, boats are an important part of the transportation sytem in Venice.

Buildings in Venice, whether hotels, homes, or businesses, have entry doors on a calle, or pedestrian street. But, many also have a door that opens onto one of the 150 or so canals. For a restaurant, for instance, a supply boat can pull up to the watergate to unload produce. For a hotel, a water taxi or gondola can pull up to the watergate to load or discharge passengers. Many hotels have this feature. So, let’s do some transformation of a couple of snapshots into into fine-art photos.

Transformation #1

So, here is the first snapshot of a watergate that I will transform for you. This is a pretty simple transformation.

As you can see, this is indeed just a snapshot…there is not much charm in this photo, and you would definitely not want such a photo hanging on your wall.

One thing you will notice is that the carving of the nice man (I don’t know what else to call him!) is barely in the photo. And of course, the photo is not level. And, it just doesn’t look very nice, and there is no point of interest, and there is very little in the way of pleasing color.

So, after just a small bit of work, here is my interpretation of this particular canal-side watergate.

The photo has been straightened, the loose head is now more prominent in the photo, and I have livened up that dull door a bit. I hope that you will agree that this is a much more pleasing photo of a Venetian watergate.

Transformation #2

Here is another watergate snapshot from one of many trips to Venice.

I completely blew the capture of this watergate. I failed to even get the top of the watergate’s decorative arch and grill work. Hmmm, I’ll have to figure out how to resolve that issue.

And what about that boat? That’s not the sort of boat I like to see as I strive to present you with a timeless Italy. So, I’ll have to do something about that boat, too.

Do you think that a Venice of yesteryear would have those electrical conduits on the outside of the building? I don’t either…so I’ll have to resolve that issue.

After a bit of work, here is my first try.

Photo straightened? Check. Conduits removed? Check. Wire hanging down to that window on the right removed? Check. Arch rebuilt? Nope. Boat removed? Nope.

As you’ll see in the photo below, with a good bit more work in the pretty-darned-creative department, I’ve now removed the boat. That was a bit of work, as I couldn’t get the motor started. But, perseverance paid off.

Now about that arch. I just couldn’t figure a good way to imagine what the top looked like, nor how to construct it. So, if you look above at Transformation #1, you can see that I just borrowed that photo’s arched opening and wallah, it’s done.

As I found that window at top left distracting and I didn’t want to build a new one, I just took it out and added a bit more brick work at the top of the photo to frame the watergate better.

The door to the watergate? I gave it a bit of color. But, I’m still happy with that.

Below, I’ve added a bit of ancient Venetian patina to the photo. But, that door is still lost in the photo, and it is the star of the show.

Finally, here is the finished transformation. No boat. No conduits and wires. No missing arched opening. And, a bit more color.

I hope you have enjoyed today’s transformations. And oh, if you are staying in a hotel with a watergate, when the doors are opened, please don’t step out unless a boat is present!

Ciao for now,

Steve

Allegrini Winery

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Any idea how many different wine-producing companies there are in Italy? I don’t know either, but I know that there are a lot of them.

I now have a favorite in northern Italy (Banfi is my favorite Tuscan winery), and it is Allegrini. Read on and I’ll explain why.

Our Visit to Allegrini Winery

We had a lovely 10am visit to Villa Della Torre headquarters of Allegrini wines. The Allegrini winery, situated in the heart of the Fumane region, is a beautiful and historical villa. Fumane is in the Province of Verona, in the Italian region called the Veneto, which is in the northern part of Italy.

The Allegrini family have been active in Fumane since the 16th century. The 6th and 7th generation of Allegrini are actively producing Allegrini wines today.

Olmo guided us around this lovely property. Here he explains the locations of the various vineyards of the Allegrini winery, as we wait to taste the wines of our tasting.

Sister-in-law Leslie looks about on the grounds of the Villa Della Torre.

The Villa Della Torre, was built in the late 1500s. One of the most mysterious features are the fireplaces, shaped like huge monsters…something to do with the Renaissance idea that man can tame nature, perhaps. Whatever the reasoning, the four different fireplaces are quite a spectacle. They represent, from left to right, the devil, a sea monster, angels holding open the mouth of some un-identified creature, and brother-in-law Craig with the lion fireplace.

Here, Olmo explains the soil layers of the vineyard that produces the grapes for the Palazzo Della Torre wine. Yes, this is a quality soil…very low on organics (i.e. dirt) and high on mineral.

The Wines of Allegrini

Below you can see a sampling of the wines produced by Allegrini. From left to right they are their white wine called Soave, the fabulous Amarone, Valpolicella Classico, Palazzo Della Torre, and their recioto (sweet) Giovani Allegrini.

The Grapes of Allegrini

Five grapes varieties are responsible for the red wines of Allegrini. They are (from left to right, below) Corvina Veronese, Corvinone, Rondinella, Molinara, and Oseleta. And a small bit of the Sangiovese grape is used in some of the wines.

The Palazzo Della Torre Wine

As it is an outstanding wine for the price, I will be focusing on the Palazzo Della Torre wine label.

Giovanni Allegrini began to cultivate the abandoned land of the Palazzo Della Torre. In 1978, the grapes grown there were used to make the first Palazzo Della Torre wine, but it wasn’t until 1990 that Palazzo Della Torre underwent a revolutionary technique known as ‘double fermentation’, and this is what put it on the wines-of-Italy map.

In the Palazzo Della Torre wine production, the grapes (Corvina Veronese 40%, Corvinone 30%, Rondinella 25%, Sangiovese 5%) are harvested by hand, rather than by machine.

About 70% of the grapes are pressed for their juice and then fermented in stainless-steel vats to produce a stage-one wine. While this wine is aging, the other 30% of the grapes are set aside for appassimento, or grape drying. These grapes are dried until January, at which point they are pressed for their raisined juice. This subsequent pressing, called a must, is added to the already produced wine, which regenerates it for a double fermentation — this in oak casks. What results is the absolutely delicious and reasonably priced Palazzo Della Torre wine. As it is usually less than $15, it is a fabulous bargain.

Click on the image to the right to see a nice diagram of the Palazzo Della Torre process

The Amarone Wine

OK, this is THE wine of northern Italy. If you want to splurge a bit with a truly fine wine, go for Amarone. Its richness of flavor is not in any way accidental…it is the appassimento process that makes this wine so fine.

Amarone production has similarities to the just mentioned Palazzo Della Torre in that its grapes (Corvina Veronese 45%, Corvinone 45%, Rondinella 5%, Oseleta 5%) are dried from 100-120 days (depending on the winter weather) before they are pressed for their juice. Where only 30% of the Palazzo Della Torre grapes are raisinated through appassimento, all of the grapes for Amarone are dried before pressing.

The soil for growing the grapes for Amarone is varied, but mostly clayey and chalky soils of volcanic origin. Hand harvesting of only select grape bunches is carried out in late September. The appassimento (drying process) finds the grapes being naturally dried for 3-4 months in the drying facility, where the grapes lose 40-45% of their original weight. They are then de-stemmed and soft-pressed in early January.

Appassimento - The Grape-Drying Process

Wonder what those raisinated grapes look like? The two photos below will give you an idea of the drying results.

The drying grapes are spread in plastic racks that are stacked in a drying warehouse. The odor from these drying grapes is marvelously heady.

Here is what the raisined grapes look like after drying.

So, that’s the story of our visit to the Allegrini winery. The visit was great, and the wines that they produce are of exceptional quality. Their Valpolicella, Palazzo Della Torre, and their Amarone come highly recommended by those of us who have tasted them. And then there is their recioto, or desert wine, known as Recioto Giovanni Allegrini…oh, so yummy.

Though you may not be able to visit the winery, you can visit their wines at your local wine store. And, you will probably find me pulling a few bottles off the rack, too.

Ciao for now,

Steve