Piedmont: Cycling Day 4 – On to the Relais San Maurizio

/ chas / Leave a comment

At the end of day 3 we were treated to a big thunderstorm. It even hailed pretty hard nearby based on the iPhone video of it we saw from one of the women on the bike tour. Thankfully we had finished riding hours earlier and had even managed to squeeze in some hunting for truffles with one of the locals and his dog Jolly. I’ll post some photos of that separately. But the good news was it left a stunningly clear morning sky that let us get a good view of the alps in the distance from our vantage at the top of the hillsides.

The alps are a little hard to make out in the photo here so it doesn’t quite do the view that morning justice. Suffice to say it was hard to take our eyes off the horizon while we headed toward our next stay at the Relais San Maurizio later in the afternoon.

Once again I took the long option that day. (In fact I took them every day.) It took me down to Dogliani and then north to Neive for lunch. It included a sizable climb! I could have optioned to ride into Barbaresco first but I’d gone there the previous week and by the time I got there I was ready for lunch so I just headed directly to Neive. While I’d stopped in Neive the previous week, this time I got a chance to try a great little lunch spot right in the center of town. We were on our own for lunch on this day and it turned out most of us stopped in La Contea. I got a pasta dish with tomatoes and basil. Not chunks of tomatoes, but instead a light tomato sauce. Really good! Lunches here and especially at this restaurant tend to be lengthy. We settled in for a while. I joined Catherine and Jim that day and they were very nice to share some of their fresh fried mushrooms (which were fantastic!) and not only that, they picked up the check. Thanks again Jim and Catherine.

Following a long lunch with a big helping of pasta plus bread plus mushrooms plus a nice glass of Arneis it was a little tough to mount the bike and keep riding but it wasn’t too far at all before we landed at the Relais San Maurizio.

Suffice to say the Relais San Maurizio is a very nice place to stay. All of the places were nice but of the 3 stays we had during the tour this one just nudged the 1st stay at Palazzo Righini out by a nose. Both places were top notch. The 2nd stay at Boscareto Resort & Spa was nice too but by comparison the food and service at the other places were head and shoulders above it.

The end of the 4th day of cycling came with plenty of time to just settle in and enjoy the place. The weather was nice and they had both an indoor and an outdoor pool and it seemed pretty clear most of us decided to opt to head for the outdoor pool to catch some rays, cool off in the water and just enjoy the pretty hillside views. You can see what I mean in the photo below.

Piedmont: Cycling Day 3 – La Morra and Barolo

/ chas / Leave a comment

Hard to believe we’ve already finished day 3 of our bike tour around Piedmont. As rides go, this one was memorable with beautiful scenery throughout and challenging climbs too despite being relatively short.

You can click on the high level map here to link through to detailed Garmin data on today’s ride. Unlike yesterday, the Garmin seemed to actually capture something useful today. So just about 35 miles and right around 4K of climbing during the ride. Clearly a lot of up and down. If you check the elevation graph there you’ll see I immediately started the morning climbing away from the hotel. Then it was a very nice downhill before winding my way toward La Morra. The road up to La Morra then was a serious climb of 15% grade for a good portion of it. From La Morra an easy descent down into Barolo to meet up with others for lunch. (I was the only one that chose the longer option today.)

I’m really glad I had arrived in this area last week to take in some of these sights before doing the biking. It’s let me enjoy it so much more. I went to Grinzane Cavour last week and had a fantastic tasting in the castle there. Today though it was closed and I biked right by. I’d been to Barolo twice before and spent hours there so today I could just enjoy lunch with other riders – which was substantial and great – and be on my way.

I did stop again and take a photo op while near La Morra (rather than from La Morra). The vantage point up on that hillside is great. Photo below.

Weather this morning and yesterday were good for cycling. Warm enough to not need a lot of gear but overcast enough to not get too hot.

Tonight we’re on our own for dinner so have to figure something out there…

Piedmont: Cycling Day 2

/ chas / Leave a comment

Day 2 of the cycling tour was significantly more interesting than day 1. 51 miles of pretty countryside and rolling hills, ending at the Boscareto Resort & Spa in Serralunga d’Alba.

The morning was fairly flat and ended at a lunch spot about mid way. My morning ride partners are in the photo below. Dave and MC from Denver.

In the afternoon we quickly transitioned into the Langhe region and things got hillier by far. I chose the long option with only a few others. Lots of up and down and at least one descent that was crazy steep and full of pot holes.

But otherwise, the ride was great and looking forward to more of it tomorrow. At the conclusion of the ride at the hotel you can see from the photo that it is surrounded by vineyards. Fantastic views.

I’ve had a helluva time with my tech on this trip. Wifi routinely doesn’t work and I’ve had trouble last night / today too so now posting this from the wifi in the breakfast room at the hotel. Doesn’t work in the room.

And my Garmin seemed to work yesterday and then when I went to upload the route it wasn’t there. Grrr. Hoping it works better today on Day 3.

Piedmont: Cycling Day 1

/ chas / Leave a comment

1st day of cycling is done – except for what’s bound to be a pretty nice meal. As expected, the first day was pretty cush. Mostly it’s about shuttling to a start, having some lunch and just things putting things together or adjusting things. There are a lot of intros and the usual route discussions.

The ride was a short one (less than 30 miles). Because we got separated from our luggage at the start, I neglected to have the Garmin onboard so I have no route map for the route. We started at the Racconigi Castle and rode to our stay for the night at Palazzo Righini in Fossano. The place is so far fantastic. I have high expectations on the dinner later that’ll be in their restaurant.

The ride was super easy. That’s ok though. It just felt great to get out on the bike and get in some time in the saddle to spin for a while. I’ve been off the bike for two weeks now and have been eating like a field hand so it felt good to do something more active than running through airports.

As you can see, the lunch spread was plentiful. That’s one of our ride leads, Renee, relating what all we’ve got there. The other photo here is of me pre-ride.

Tommorrow we head into the Langhe hills so it should start to get a lot more interesting.

Piedmont: A Visit to Borgogno in Barolo

/ chas / Leave a comment

I’ve been fairly surprised by how few people seem to be in some of the places I’ve visited here in Piedmont. There’s no doubt that high season is later in the fall when the big truffle celebration goes on for weeks but I expected to see more people and have to deal with some waits. The weather hasn’t been great and I think that’s a factor. Anyway, it allowed me to have a completely private and personal tasting session at Borgogno in the heart of Barolo.

These wineries may have storied names, but they’re all new to me. But I’ll have to say I’ll be looking these up again. Here I tried a set of reds. From a simple Barbera D’Alba to the beefiest Barolos.

Not knowing much better, I let my tasting guide, Andrea, make some suggestions for me. He’s pictured in the upper right photo pouring one of the wines. The final 3 wines (on the left) were the most interesting wines to me. First, the “No Name”. He had to tell me some of the story there. Apparently it’s a ‘protest’ wine. It can’t be called “Barolo” because of some technicality in the Italian laws so they went out of their way with the name (or rather, no name) to make a point. I didn’t bother to get into the details of the local laws but suffice to say it apparently irritates some of the winemakers.

The No Name was decidedly lighter and fruiter in character than the other two true Barolos I tried. Of those two, my clear favorite was the 2009 Liste. Liste is the name of the vineyard. This one was 4 years on oak, one in bottle. By contrast the 2007 Riserva was said to have been aged 6 years on oak, one in bottle. The Liste seemed ready to drink now, while the other was quite a bit more tannic for my taste.

Really enjoyed the tasting here and Andrea was really helpful. Andrea also let me take the clear glass elevator up to the top terrace roof deck. Very nice birds eye view. I took some photos there of the countryside before heading on to snag lunch.

Piedmont: Don’t Miss La vite Turchese in Barolo

/ chas / Leave a comment

As you tramp around the small town of Barolo make a point of grabbing a bite to eat at La vite Turchese. More importantly, get some wine advice from Stefano. Trip Advisor led me there or I might have missed it. It’s not on the main walk you’re likely to take down to the regional enoteca and museum so it can be missed.

I pulled in a bit after noon and not really sure what I’d find but Stefano was immediately inviting and friendly. I pulled up a seat at the very small bar there and found the board showing today’s food options. They also have dozens of wines by the glass posted on another board.

I asked for suggestions and Stefano walked me through some choices. I decided on Roero Arneis. You can see Stefano pouring in the pic below. I also chose what they listed as a Panino “Fripancero” to eat. Googling that turned up nothing but it was essentially a sandwich with pancetta and a fried egg on it. It was very good.

I liked the place enough that I returned again on a 2nd day. The Nascetta Novello pictured in the upper right was from that visit. I’ve decided that’s my favorite white wine discovered here. Novello is a small town very near Barolo. The wine had a floral nose, the fuller body of a chardonnay (it seemed to me), and a crisp limeade taste. Wonder if I’ll be able to find this back home?

One final note: There was only one California wine on Stefano’s blackboard so I had to ask about it. It was the “Seven Oaks 2011 Cab”. He said: “I love it”. Googling that appears to come from J. Lohr. Of course I’m going to have to check that out now.

Piedmont: A Visit to the Marchesi di Grésy Winery

/ chas / Leave a comment



Marchesi di Grésy is a short drive from Alba out to very near Barbaresco. I’d been given tips in advance that it was worth visiting and I’d even had some of their wine before in Austin. Spent easily two hours getting the tour and personal tasting. Excellent!

Getting there from Alba took almost no time. Alba makes a great base from which to explore. Most towns, wineries and enotecha are not too far. But you do need a car. Thankfully I had a GPS though because, while close, it’s not always obvious what little road to turn down. They’re very easy to miss. That includes the little one to get down to Marchesi di Grésy.

The winery is at the base of the hills. Down a steep, winding, one-lane road. Was really hoping nobody else was coming up the hill – and that turned out to be the case. The hills around the winery form a kind of bowl. Look at the map behind Giulia’s head in the photo at the bottom here. You can kinda get a sense of the vineyards that encircle the winery in the center.

Our winery guide for the visit was Giulia and she was very knowledgable about the estate, the wines and the history of the place. You can see her in the photo below. We started outdoors where she pointed out various vineyards and generalities about the winery, vineyards, soils and Barbaresco wines. Then we moved inside. There were the cement tanks, the stainless tanks, the big barrels and the small barrels. We were also lucky enough to see some wine being bottled in this fantastic automated bottling contraption.

The highlight was of course the tasting of the wines themselves. We tasted 5 though I only snagged photos of 4. We started with a 2012 Langhe sauvignon blanc. Crisp, light, a little grassy, nicely structured with just enough acid. €12.50.

Side note: Giulia would use a technique known as “Avvinare” to prepare the glasses before tasting. It was a nice touch. Essentially she simply put a little of the wine to be tasted into the glass, swirled/rinsed the glass with it and dumped it out. Only then did she pour some for tasting.

Next wine up the 2013 Langhe Nebbiolo. This one was a particularly fresh and fruity red wine. It had been bottled only 1 month before. Strawberry, blueberry, rose petals. The Marinenga on the label refers to the vineyard the grapes came from.

I have no other notes on the 2009 Barbera D’asti, which was the next wine, other than it was €22.

Then came the Barbarescos. 1st of them was the 2009 Martinenga. This one was oaky with a note of tobacco and spices. Very nice. €39.

Finally, the 2008 Camp Gros. A wonderful balance of cherries and plums and just the right amount of tannins. Not cheap at €56. One of the very few bottles I actually bought on the trip. We’ll see if it makes it home.

Piedmont: A Visit to Ceretto Winery

/ chas / Leave a comment

As I headed to my stay in Sinio I had made arrangements to visit Ceretto winery. It was in the general direction and it was in fact one pointed out as worth a visit.

As it turned out, I was the only one there and once again treated to some very personal service. Kinda nice. There were lots of cars in the parking lot but apparently all were staff. I was told 90 people worked there. Definitely not a small operation.

In fact I’m pretty sure I recognize the big ‘B’ in the Blangé Langhe Arneis label I have pictured here. I think it’s a wine I can probably get at home. I’ve enjoyed the Arneis I’ve had while here and I’ll definitely look for it once I’m back home. I will say though my limited experience suggests I tend to prefer the Arneis from Roero just to the north a bit more. Maybe just something a little more balanced and smooth about it. Guess I’ll need to try more to confirm that. 😉 Ceretto is clearly pretty well known for their Arneis. They produce 600,000 bottles of it a year! €13.

Also at Ceretto I tried a 2012 Dolcetto. Light and fruity, from an entirely stainless steel production. Wasn’t much going on with this wine. €10.60.

The next two I liked a fair bit more. One was a 2011 Barbaresco. 2 years on oak, one in bottle. Floral on the nose, with a bit of rose petals. Dark red fruit on the taste. Not overly oaky. €26.

The other was a 2005 Barolo. This one was seriously a mouthful and would have been a lot better to try with meaty salami or something. Enjoyable but not so much on its own like the Barbaresco. €54.

Piedmont: Buffalo Cheeses

/ chas / Leave a comment


Another one of the welcome cards I got allowed me to visit the Moris cheese shop in Alba. They specialize in Buffalo cheeses and in this case that means from a domesticated water buffalo. To be honest while I’d heard of buffalo mozzarella before, I’d never quite connected the dots to realize that the true product came from water buffalos in Italy, and hence the name.

It turns out they make a lot of different cheeses from the water buffalo. We tried at least 4 or 5 different cheeses including the mozzarella.

I always like fresh mozzarella but I’d have to say this was particularly fresh and tasty. It had been made that day according to the guy at the counter who was clearly very proud of this cheese. It had an extraordinarily creamy taste to it that I don’t recall from similar cheese back home. This was definitely not a low fat product.

The other cheeses were semi-hard types of cheeses, all with a pretty light, mild flavor. The exception was a buffalo blue cheese that was more sharp, hard and definitely different than something like a Maytag blue. I preferred the semi-hard cheeses – though the mozzarella was the clear fav.

Piedmont: Salami at AgriSalumeria Luiset

/ chas / Leave a comment

One of the nice thing about the B&B I’m staying in is upon arrival I was given some cards to use at local establishments for wine, food, & cheese. When you get this sort of thing you never know if it’ll be worth anything. Wow, they turned out to be a fantastic way to try some local fare.

The woman at the counter at AgriSalumeria Luiset was welcoming and put out a cutting board with a few pieces of salami. Then she kept cutting more, and more, and more. There were at least 4 different cuts of salami she set out. I never expected quite so much. Between this and a tasting of cheese that followed, I didn’t need dinner.

If memory serves, one of the cuts of meat had somehow been infused with hazelnuts and I can’t recall ever having a salami with a nutty flavor but it worked really well. It was my favorite.

Piedmont: Enoteca Regionale Piemontese Cavour

/ chas / Leave a comment

In Piedmont, there are many, many enotecha. Wine shops or wine bars are scattered around Alba. But some are more special. Some are designated Enoteca Regionale. They showcase wines from local producers and many are housed in historic buildings or castles like the one I visited Monday.




Above you’ll see the photo of the castle of Grinzane Cavour. Cavour was an Italian statesman and not surprisingly, winemaker, back in the 1800s. The wine shop and tasting are on the first floor. There’s also a restaurant and museum in the building.

Being the first enotecha I’ve been too like this one I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. I found this first one to be surprisingly large, and open. A woman at a counter up front greeted me and led me to one of several tasting bars. While there are literally hundreds of regional wines available on shelves to buy, on any given day what they will be tasting will be limited to a few selected bottles. On the day I arrived there was one Arneis, some red table wines I didn’t specifically make a note of and then three Barolo, a couple Barberesco and a Langhe Nebbiolo.

The photos here are of the ones I tried. First up, the Roero Arneis. The Roero is a wine region located to the north of Alba. It’s a crisp white wine that’s a little floral on the nose. Very refreshing and something nice to start with.

Up next the Langhe Nebbiolo. The Langhe is the hilly around and south of Alba. See my photo included at the bottom here. Everywhere you look, the hillsides are covered with vineyards. Much of it is Nebbiolo, which is the grape in all three of the red wines I tasted here.

The Langhe Nebbiolo was very nice. In fact, the favorite of the three I tried here. It was a rich red wine with an excellent structure though not too tannic. Lots of dark berry and cherry on the taste. Details here. The woman that was helping me with the tasting made a point of telling me this wine had what I gathered was a special designation from the ‘Ordine dei Cavalieri del Tartufo e dei Vini di Alba’ (in fact the back label includes the award designation … I wouldn’t have otherwise remembered that name.) That’s the Italian way of saying: the Order of the Knights of the Truffle and Wines of Alba. I don’t know how much of such a distinction gets you but she seemed to think it was worth mentioning.

Next was on to the Barbaresco. Also of Nebbiolo, the wine can be a ‘Barbaresco’ if it’s produced in one of three towns: Barbaresco, Treiso and Neive. More on those places later. I headed in that direction on Tuesday. It also has to be aged at least two years (1 on oak).

Of the three, this Barolo was much more tannic than the other two. Which is interesting because after the fact I found a web site with information from the producer and it says the La Serra comes from soil and microclimate that produces “never excessive tannins”. (Even the knowledgable woman helping me that day said this was the most tannic of the wines I was trying that day. She also mentioned this as a young wine. She told me the year but I didn’t make note of it and it’s not evident on the photo I took.)

Like the Barbaresco, to be called a Barolo the wine has to have come from designated areas in and around Barolo. The number of towns is larger but the vineyards are those selected with the best soil and orientation. Additionally, the wine must be aged a min of 3 years.

For me, the Barolo would have been a lot better had I been having it with some meat or aged cheese.

As you can see, the weather was great that day and I just wandered the grounds for a bit and took pictures of the area. In every direction, it looked very much like the photo below. And seeing all these hills, my mind began to wander to the bike tour of the next week. Gonna be a lot of hills to climb.

Piedmont: Where Time Slows Down

/ chas / Leave a comment

Today has been the first full day in Piedmont and I’m beginning to feel a lot less like a zombie than yesterday. That’s my typical reaction to the timezone change though when I come to the EU. My body seems to go through a kind of withdrawal for at least a day and I can barely function. Much better today though.

Given that this area is the birthplace of the “Slow Food” movement and not to mention, that I’m on vacation, it’s perhaps appropriate and maybe poetic that my watch stopped today too. Maybe I should take the hint and slow down a little too.

Today there was nothing that really moved too fast. I got here all the way from Austin in the time it took my luggage to finally make the transfer from Turin. Patience… By the time it arrived though I was returning from a slow lunch.

Ravioli
Given I was waiting for the luggage to show, I didn’t venture too far to find lunch. I found Osteria del Vecchio Gallo a few blocks into the central part of Alba. They had a bunch of nice tables set up outdoors, it was beautiful weather and they seemed to have a pretty good crowd, so I found a table.

While I wish the photo was better, I obviously got the ravioli. To be specific, the “ravioli del plin burro e salvia”. Now let’s be honest. I didn’t really know what that was going to be. Ok, I at least knew the ravioli part. The “del plin” part turns out to mean a small filled ravioli. And the “burro e salvia” just means it’s covered with butter and sage. Something tells me I should be installing google translate onto my phone.

Lunch was a leisurely event and by the time I got back to my stay, my luggage was there. Cool. Off to a regional enotecha …

Piedmont: For Nutella Fans

/ chas / Leave a comment

Just a quick side note for any Nutella fans out there. From my top floor vantage point at my B&B stay in Alba, you could easily look to the right and see where tons of Nutella was being made. Granted, I don’t think the American version is made here but this is apparently one of the main manufacturing locations for Nutella and the stuff was invented in Alba. They like their hazelnuts and chocolate here.

Piedmont: Stay 1 – La Terrazza sulle Torri

/ chas / Leave a comment

I’m going to backdate these notes since this was my 1st stay and at this point I’m already on to my 3rd stay of the 2014 Italy trip.

After the preliminary steps of getting to Turin and getting a car, the next step was obviously off to my first place to stay for the duration. I was wiped out and did not have my luggage at this point (did not make the fast connection) so probably not in the best of moods. I was just ready to find my B&B and just chill for awhile.

I could have probably just arranged something in Turin over night on that first day and then headed out into the countryside but I’d much rather be immersed in the culture of a small town (relatively) right away than the big city. At least that’s been my experience on previous trips so I just opted to go directly from the airport to Alba. It only sucked because I didn’t have my luggage and I’d now have to deal with the delivery of that. After getting the car, travel time was somewhere on the order of an hour and a half, give or take.

Nothing remarkable on the drive down to Alba other than it’s all rather nice countryside and as you approach Alba things start to quickly become hilly. But the central part of Alba is not hilly at all.

I fired up the GPS to get me to Alba and the ‘Terrace of the Towers’ better known as La Terrazza sulle Torri.

When I first arrived in town, by at least the GPS’s accounting I was in the right place but for the life of me I couldn’t find the place. I walked up and down the street. Nothing looked remotely like what I might expect to be a B&B. I think it was mostly because I was tired and just missing things. Later I realized there was a sign on the wall of the building that I hadn’t noticed. Ok, so it was at least a little small.

Still though, even if I had found the right door, I had to call Lorenzo because the B&B was on the top floor of what seemed to be an apartment building and the only way in was thru a locked door. In any case, I called Lorenzo and parked on a bench near the traffic circle. 5 minutes later or less there was Lorenzo on his scooter as promised. He walked me over to the bldg and took me to the top floor and checked me in.

The B&B wasn’t fancy but it was just right. It was a great room, that had a nice deck, a comfy bed, and was just a half a block from the core central part of Alba. After a quick freshen-up, I was off to explore Alba – and get something to eat! (And by the way, you can’t go wrong for a quick bite and some wine by the glass at Vincafe in central Alba. Lorezno had recommended it and it was a great first landing spot to get some pasta and a glass of wine.)

Lorenzo and his wife were extremely helpful throughout. They were not living on the premises but he gave me restaurant recommendations immediately and then the next morning was my lifeline to getting my luggage SNAFU worked out. They were there each morning by 9am.

Breakfasts here were a pretty simple affair. They had a bunch of different local foods out and available in the morning. Things like hazelnuts, fruit, yogurt, granola, coffee, milk, juice, fresh bread, jams/marmalades/butter. Was nice just to grab a coffee and head back to the patio deck and get the morning air.

The location made for a nice home base. From this point I made multiple trips (by car) out into the surrounding areas for regional enotecha at Grinzane Cavour and a Barbaresco winery.

To Piedmont by Way of Frankfurt

/ chas / Leave a comment

I love to travel. It typically gives me new perspectives. But it can also be exhausting if things don’t go right.

I’m off to Piedmont in Italy to see what there is to see and more specifically to eat good food, drink good wine and bicycle. Not too many straight shots into Turin from my neck of the woods so I left home early Saturday to catch a 7am flight to Washington DC and then from there a flight to Frankfurt, Germany where I would transfer to Turin – or Torino as the locals would say – before grabbing a car and driving to Alba in the heart of Piedmont wine country.

Pretty routine in the early going but the flight out of Washington ended up delayed. Doh! That didn’t leave much time for my connection once I arrived in Frankfurt so my baggage got hung up en route. Bummer. It’s nasty not being able to change into clean clothes after showering after a couple long flights. I’ve been very lucky over the year with baggage. I can only recall having it lost in transit a couple times. I was not so lucky this time.

In hindsight the short connection time was probably optimistic – when aren’t there delays – and I should have planned better. Though I’m not sure there were other flights from Frankfurt into Turin today. Even the one I was on was at best half full.

Frankfurt is not my favorite airport. The times I’ve been through it have always presented unusual logistics. For example, our completely full 777 did not park at a gate with a jet bridge, instead it parked at a remote location on the tarmac and several buses came to pick us up and then drive us far across the airport. From there you proceed through passport control. I was very thankful I’d squeezed onto the 1st bus and was wedged up near the door. It allowed me to be perhaps 8th in line at passport control instead of 100th in line. From there I ran to the A concourse to catch my connection. But to get there I first had to go through security again. That always strikes me as odd. I just got off the plane and thru passport control and I never left a secure area but yet I have to go through security again. Thankfully that was moving quickly. Off and running again I found my gate and as before, no plane parked at the gate. Instead, a bus was parked at the gate. So we board a bus and drive halfway across the airport to a regional jet parked on the tarmac. My connection took me the full 45 minutes I had available and I was feeling happy I’d managed it in that amount of time. If only my luggage had made it too… Sure hope it gets here tomorrow.