After a little de-icing in Mpls. 3 plane rides, 2 trains
and 1 bus Robert is back from the frozen tundra of Minnesota

The main reason for his short visit, besides catching
up with friends and family was 2 or 3 or ..... trips to
W.C Lounge for sliders.

And a great filet at Murray’s (Thanks Eric and Jonio)

My send off dinner at Miesters with hand cut fries was perfect
(thank’s Angie and Larry)

A visit to Minnesota is not complete with out a drive across a lake to check out the
ice fishing. (no Carlo, the fish don’t come out as frozen fish sticks)

Wine makers are getting ready for a lot more work during the labeling
process, in the past the control tag (fascetta) was only required for D.O.C.G.
wines about 15 to 20% of their production. New laws in 2010 mean almost
all of their wines will need the control label.

Small producers who did this one at a time by hand in the past are
now looking for machines to do this tedious work.

However these machines don’t always get it right.

This is the closest thing to coffee to go in Italy, gotta love it!

Living next to many different winemakers gives us the
opportunity to try their experiments, we’ve been drinking
our way through 100 liters of a Nebbiolo and Sav. Blanc
Rose blend made by our friend Enzo from La Ganghija.
Luckily for us Enzo didn’t care for the wine but we love it
and are happy to drink our way through it 2 liters at a time.

The other night at the neighbors we drank an 2003
Cortese it was fantastic not fresh and crisp the usual
descriptors used for this varietal but mellow and creamy
with tons of carmel

After our green and warm Christmas we awoke to 10” of snow last thursday
(jan. 7th) but it's melting fast a good thing because robert left a load of wood
for the stuffa in the lift over night oops.

At dinner last night with a group of friends who are all very wine savvy,
We ordered Barbera for the table by the carafe something unheard
of in the states especially for a bunch of wine geeks. The wine
was great and cheap its good to live in wine country

With Christmas and New Years over, next up La Befana on Jan 6th the big day
for kids. On New Years eve we stopped into our favorite aperitivo spot and we were
reminded of one of many cultural differences, just like the states, every restaurant
is full but here a small table is 15 and it is not uncommon to see 30 or more at one table.

One of the joy’s of living in a famous wine region surrounded by wineries,
fun surprises show up at your door when you’re out shopping.

Now that January is upon us the growers are buying rootstock for
planting in feb/mar, the ground never freezes solid here
( a very good thing)

No white Christmas for us, with mid 50’s cotta was very glad to be on her sun deck

Took this photo from our kitchen balcony Christmas morning. What a difference a
year makes check out the photo below taken one year ago.

We much prefer the “regular” weather were experiencing this winter last year was
almost minnesota like.

Is he coming or going ?

We did some scouting this weekend for our spring trips to the Franciacorta
wine region,which is about 3 hoursnorth east of Barbaresco.
Was fun but way too cold.

Our first snow arrived on the 17th of December, only 2 inches but enough for a
white Christmas.The garage is packed full with fire wood so Robert parks under
the bedroom balcony to maintain his recored of never scraping the car here in the
Langhe. He does not miss that old MN sport of scraping and shoveling snow.

Testing out the new stuffa, made it to 93 F

Treiso covered in snow.

No, it’s not santa doing pull-ups to drop a few pounds. The Christmas decoration
of choice in Italy is Santa climbing a ladder usually hanging over a balcony.

Another sign of Christmas approaching is the ever popular panettone in shop
windows.

This is our new foodie friend Dilip, who moved here to Piemonte from India to mary a
local girl. He and his wife Maria opened an Indian restaurant in Alba a few years
ago. Dilip offered to give Chiaro some lessons, so we threw a party.

It was a hit! The British, Peruvians, Indians, Americans and the local Piemontese
loved it.

A couple of weeks ago we went to a giant Barbera
wine tasting that was a great way to compare many different
producers using only one varietal.

There were 4 tables each with about 75 wines to pick from, almost 300 wines in total.

Chiaro and our friend Richard talking a break from some very hard work!

Cotta choosing our next wine to try.

Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoying some aperitivo bubbles before the big feast.

An expat dinner (sorry about the bad photo) alcohol may have been an
contributing factor.

American with a scottish touch. Cameron (the Scot) did a great job, he
introduced us to Bread Sauce, Fried Bread Crumbs and Yorkshire Puddings,
along with a perfectly cooked turkey, sausage stuffing and roasted potatoes and
root vegetables.Our other English friends brought sides of Cheesy broccoli and
Sauteed Red Cabbage.

What a difference a year makes looking at our house through vines with no
snow on the ground, very glad to be heading into dec. snow-free!

A very popular pizza topping in Italy is french fries, very strange to us but the locals
love it. We haven’t tried this yet, we are very afraid. Funny thing is some call this “American
style”?

Chiaro is very happy that we found “single field/free range” potatoes at the Alba market,
even better than Idaho

Hard to believe but Robert has become the local go to tech guy (mac only)
“ A hacked iphone is a happy iphone “

Last of our fall colors, now we start the rainy/foggy season.

The fall colors this year is the best we've seen yet !
Another great tasting/winery tour with our expat friends at RESSIA
A very passionate wine maker Fabrizio

Fabrizio Ressia's line up of wines.

A must try and very interesting Dry Moscato this will be our aperitivo
wine next summer and our spicy food wine this winter.

Carlo (Darryl) Warning Chiaro to stop finding new producers who make great wine.
This is starting to get expensive !