Tuscany to the Piedmont

Well it's Thursday morning, 29 March and we're back in our apartment in Paris. For the next 48 hours at any rate. But that's skipping way ahead of this story.

We left Beaune in Burgundy a day early yesterday, in fact we barely spent more than a handful of hours there, for reasons which I'll discuss in another post.(photo: Barbaresco vineyard out of our window at Cascine delle Rose.)

Last Sunday was rainy and overcast when we left our hotel in Siena and began our northward trek toward Piemonte and the vineyards of Barbaresco and Barolo. Over the many years since we have been coming to Italy we have never really explored this particular corner of the Italian peninsula -- and in fact it is rightly not part of the peninsula at all but a chunk of foothills ("piedmont") of the Italian alps. (Of course on the French side they're called the French alps. Touchy touchy.) In the world of wine three of the worlds's greatest red wines are Brunello, Barbaresco and Barolo. We were about to discover what we've been mising all these years.

We have spent some quality time along the western edge of Lake Maggiore and in Stresa in particular, which is officially the very eastern edge of Piemonte. But aside from the administrative connection there seems very little similarity between the Lake area to the east and the mass of vertical vineyards to the far west of the region. (Although both areas do share the alps as backdrops.)

Retracing our steps from the previous Wednesday when we drove (get out your maps) from Nice to Siena we followed the SS2 to Florence, took the A1 around the city and connected with the A11, which took us past Prato, Pistoia, Lucca and then we connected up with the A12. We remained on the A12 all the way to Genova when we departed from our previous route and swtiched to the A7 north to Milan. We got off onto the A21 near Tortona in the direction of Asti and then followed back roads to our B & B overlooking the beautiful hill town of Barbaresco.

Whew! It sounds long but in fact the trip took us about 6 hours and cost about €20 in tolls.

After leaving the autostrade at Asti we headed southwest down the Tanaro valley and after aqbout 25 kms or so came in sight of a long ridge of hills on our left (to the southeast) which constitute the beginning of some of the most famous wine country in the world.

After turning off the main valley road we began our ascent up the steep, winding roads to the crests of the tiny ridgelines which contain a surprising large number of homes and little villages like Barbaresco, which overlook the Tanaro river on the valley floor. (Oh and please note that the Italians have decided that guardrails are not terribly useful to them here. I can only imagine what driving some of these roads is like in winter. . . )

We followed the directions skirting the village of Barbaresco and on to the small nearby hamlet of Tre Stelle where we had to stop and ask for the location of our B & B, Cascina della Rose ("farm of the roses"). The woman I asked pointed down the road we were traveling and said "La. A destra." There to the right. And sure enough there it was about 100 meters straight ahread on the right.

We arrived a bit earlier than expected and so had to call our hostess, Giovanna, on her mobile since no one was at the house. Her family has been living in the area for generations, they began as millers, and she has been cultivating and producing her own Barbaresco for many years now. A large part of the original farmhouse is given over to three self-catering apartments and another part contains three double bedrooms, which share a huge common area (no TVs allowed) and wonderful kitchen. Susie and I arrived at a quiet time of year so we had the place to ourselves but imagined that it would be a wonderful space for small groups of friends or families to spend some serious time enjoying this gorgeous countryside.


Indeed one of the things that struck us both right off was just how beautiful -- and how wine-focused -- this area is. (For example, no diminutive glasses are used anywhere; everyone uses huge glasses even for white wines.) Unlike Toscana where the vineyards are set among rolling hills, in this part of Piemonte, the vineyards seem to hang in midair from the steep hillsides. The vertical nature of the area makes for some truly fantastic views and some of the photos we saw while traveling between Barbaresco and Barolo pictured all these dramatically placed vines set against the backdrop of the Italian alps off in the distance. Sadly the weather failed us; if it wasn't raining it was cloudy and overcast. (photo below: vineyard in Barolo.)


Our first night in Barbaresco we had dinner at the lovely little Trattoria Risorgiment in nearby Treiso, about 2 kms from our B & B. We asked for recommendations on food and wine and were not disappointed in either respect. We had a sampling antipasti platter of local dishes consisting of things like thinly sliced artichokes with turkey, veal in a tuna sauce (vitello tonnato) and a quiche-like dish that was light and yet somehow filling. The one dish we did not care for and which we clearly noticed was a big favorite with the locals was raw beef macerated, drizzled with olive oil. We did try it of course but it is something of an acquired taste -- and believe me several people sitting near us had certainly acquired the taste since they ate plates of it. We asked for wine recommendations as and we're given glasses of the delicious Arneis for starters and then had a bottle of 2001 Lano Barbaresco (2001 being one of the better recent vintages we were told).

After dinner we drove home along the narrow spine of the hills with gorgeous views of lights near and far on both sides of the hill. What a way to begin our exploration of this incredible part of Italy.