Every Sunday at around 11am, we meet our friends at the Socio in
Castagnole delle Lanze. It is especially fun in summer when we can sit
outside and enjoy the view of the surrounding hillsides. Danielle, in photo
above, runs the bar with his family. This is his special cocktail called
“Barbarella” It is dangerous to drink more than one even though you want to.



Normally we drink a local Arneis and in Italy it is illegal to drink without food
so of course, when you order wine one always gets little plates of snacks
to nibble on. What do you do on Sunday mornings?

Helping out the neighbors (Vigin) in there moscatto vineyard. This is a very
old vineyard with narrow rows, with out enough space for a tractor to pass
for trimming the vines so this work must be done by hand.

This photo of our court yard shows the crazy weather we can have here in
Langhe surrounded by black clouds with a spot of sun in the center.

Summer should be called tractor season they go non stop 7 day a week
sun up to sun down this one spraying for powdery mildew in the valle grande
vineyard just out side Treiso.

Some times spraying is done by helicopter, trust me that black spot in the
clouds is a helicopter Robert will gladly except an old Telephoto lens for
his new digital rebel (good luck whit that)

Last week took a road trip to England to help a friend move some wine back
to Italy. We found in a bit strange after 650 miles through France saw no vineyards
but spotted this sign so we must have been close to Champagne.

Robert was in foodie heaven in the country only few hours and scored
some great Thai soup and ......lots of curry!

fantastic curry the national dish of England

And not to be forgotten the former dish of England fish and chips with
mushy peas.

Now here is something you don’t see in the states , at a recent town
festival the grade school was selling wine as a fund raiser.

yet another wine tasting this new event called N1 “nebbiolo-prima”
is mainly for wine writers, bloggers and buyers These producers look
like they will be glad to get home this evening, they must do alot events can
be very time consuming and hard on the feet.

Chiaro with our friend and fellow blogger, Darryl go over there tasting notes

This spring we’ve seen a few good reasons for using a tour guide.
This car went off the road in La Morra and crashed into some vines.

This car was a few weeks earlier and they trusted their GPS while coming
home from dinner in the dark. It had been raining for 3 weeks and very muddy.
The GPS took them down a vineyard road, not a real road and they got stock
in the mud at midnight. The rental car was stuck in the mud for 3 weeks until
it dried out enough for a tractor to pull the car out.


Had they spent the night in the car they would have woken up to a great view!

Getting ready for the first of three blind Barbaresco tastings
24 Tonight. Last Friday was the start of the annual “iL Barbaresco A Tavola”

The British are coming! No it’s just our expat (friends) mate’s joining us for our weekly
english lessons (a few more years of this and we will be unable to speak American
at all).

When trying the new Barbaresco’s it is customary to taste through the wines two at a time, however
it will take’s us 4 1/2 hours to work our way through all 24 wines and the 7 course dinner.

Bud break is here. Soon all the vineyards will be crawling with workers
Trying to stay ahead of the vines.

We found a new spot for good food and music (yes Richard its jazz)
in the village of Barolo its name is Rosso Barolo They have a very
cool jazz bar downstairs

The wine program and wine list is top notch

Last week we took Cotta on her first family vacation and train ride to
Lake Como to visit friends from Minnesota. Cotta made about 1,000 new
friends including every train conductor along the way. ( Click for slide show)

We rode the ferry from Varenna to Bellagio to check out the town
and grab dinner, arriving in Bellagio, by ferry in 20 min. (by car 2 hours)

Bellagio is a great town for sightseeing. Hidden down every
side street and ally are neat little shops like this very cool
wine bar, the owner Norberto is both charming and very
knowledgeable about his wines.

Visiting a new area also means checking out the local wine region
Valtellina known for it’s very steep terracing of the vines.

Along with a few winery tours, Here Fabiana from Nino Negri explaining the
giant cask (Botte) behind us which holds 13,000 bottles of wine she gave
a great tour followed by a tasting of their wines. The wines showed very well
a must try if you can find a bottle.

Nino Negri winery has a beautiful barrel room with a ton of wine in it.

Back to our wonderful accommodations to enjoy the sunset with a glass of
vino.

Thanks Chris and Ray for sharing your town and wines with us. We learned
a lot and had a ton of fun.

The sap has started to run bud break is not far behind for this
pruned nebbiolo vine.

Vineyard work is starting to gear up to full speed. That means every
day the weather is nice they work even on sunday.

A sure sign of spring the weekly markets are bustling with town folk
buying fresh fruit and veggies.

Despite the advantages that GPS has endowed us with, it doesn’t always work. On a recent fact-finding mission to Gavi (and Tortona) we had a 10am appointment with www.morgassisuperiore.it so we put the address into TomTom and set off with plenty of time to spare. At 9.45am with just 4km to go, according to TomTom, we found ourselves on a snow covered icy track at the top of a hill with sheer drops either side. Not unusual in this part of the world where tracks through vineyards are sometimes considered major thoroughfares. We telephoned, apologised made a nervous 10 point turn and 30 minutes later were sampling the considerable delights of Timorasso and Cortese in the form of Gavi and a Gavi Superiore. Here were white wines with a complexity and length that is hard to find in Italy and that would benefit from some ageing. A desert wine, La Cortesia, was delightfully delicate and could serve as an aperitif, compliment foie gras and most deserts.

An excellent “workers’ lunch” in a cellar restaurant in Gavi set us up for the afternoon tastings. First was at http://www.lacolomberavini.it/ where we were again delighted by the Timorasso: Il Montino 2006 a first time 3 bicchiere Gambero Rosso award winner. A whole bunch of varietals were sampled including: Nibiò, Barbera, Croatina, Bonarda each with their own individual characteristics and some, along with a Cortese and Rosato, available “sfuso” (bring your own bottles!). Elisa and Piercarlo are excellent hosts and a favourite of David Berry at www.bbr.com.

Last but not least, we spent 2 1/2 hours in the delightful company of www.claudiomariotto.it/. Claudio is a passionate exponent of Timorasso and believes that it is exceptional and deserves a reputation ahead of Gavi. Hard to dispute in our opinion and the range of vintages opened proved that this wine can definitely improve with age. His Pitasso 2004, 2005 and 2006 all won 3 bicchiere. The reds were pretty decent too. The tasting was turning into a party as his brother Mauro and various colleagues turned up for a glass and cheese toasted on the stove but it was dark and snowing heavily and the driver was getting twitchy so we bade our farewells.

Woke up to 22” of snow wed morning, the locals are going crazy
they have not seen snow like this in over 40/50 years.

Just a few days pryer to the snow storm of the century spring was
almost in full swing, green vineyards and clear skies

We were lucky for our first visitors this year it was sunny and dry for a
vineyard walk given by Tiziana (on right) from cantina Aurelio Settimo.

Followed by a tasting in the cantina (winery). The wines showed
very well especially the 1999 Barolo Tiziana opened as a treat.
It was a text book perfect Barolo, thank you Tiziana, the nose stayed
with me for a few days.

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)