We arrived in the Piedmont area of Italy. That means Barolo wine and during October white truffles. We start our gastronomic phase now. The hotel is called da Felicin and was started by the grandfather of the current owner, Nino, who is also the master chef and in the attached photo, and his wife Sylvia. Nino's father and mother still work at the hotel and it was fun to watch Nino and his father bicker all day. I guess the father wants it to run as he used to and the son has his own ideas. The da Felicin's restaurant is famous for its haute cuisine, and Nino has an ego to match it. The meals are all quite amazing starting with a 3 course appetizer, then a pasta course, then a meat or fish course, then dessert with perhaps cheese too.
The town of Monforte D'Alba had a Jewish ghetto in the 1800s, and unlike most places, Jews were allowed to own property. They assimilated into the population and disappeared (I sometimes wonder if that is also happening today in America). Nino's grandmother was Jewish, but not his parents.
Italy produces 21% of the total world output of wine, and they produce 29% of the European output of wine. Piedmont (Piemonte in Italian) accounts for only 6% of total Italian output of wine. In Piedmont the most popular grapes grown are the Moscato, Dolcetto, Nebbiolo and Barbera grapes. Moscato makes a sweet wine, and Dolcetto and Barbera are typically everyday wines (some are very good). The Nebbiolo grape is used to make 3 types of wine: Nebbiolo, Barbaresco and Barolo. Barolo is the king of Piedmont wines and the most expensive with a wide range of style and taste. The Nebbiolo grape is grown in the Langhe region of Piedmont in towns like Barolo, Monforte D'Alba (the town where we stayed) and others. Our town was a great location for taking short day trips around the Langhe region, but the town church had a clock tower (in addition to its bells) which chimed every hour all day and night long. It took a few days to get used to it and sleep well ;)
Barolo wine was founded by Marchesi Falletti in the early 1800s. The Marchesi Di Barolo winery is the oldest and one of the largest. We had a very good tour there, learned a lot, but did not like their style of wine.
Note to Nancy and Dave: Please thank the Yosts for their great suggestions. L'Isle sur la Sorgue and Monforte D'Alba are great base towns to visit the surrounding areas.
Our first full day in the Piedmont area began our education on the wines and food of this region. Piedmont is in the northwest corner of Italy and has a number of regions within it. We are in the Langhe area where the Nebbiolo grape is grown which is where Barolo and a few other wines are made. We visted two wineries to taste wine. The second one was at the Clerico winery where we tasted their wine for over 2 hours. The wine maker surprised us and came into the tasting room and spoke with us for over an hour. He spoke only Italian and the woman who handled the tasting translated. It was truly a personal experience. When we were leaving, they gave us a bottle of their Barolo wine... and we did not even buy anything (since it is too difficult to carry them with us). We loved his wines and have started ordering them in restaurants.
We were pretty busy each day in Piedmont. On the second full day there we drove through La Morra for a quick visit, then to Bra for lunch at Boccondivino and a visit to the Slow Food Organization headquarters. We then drove to Alba where Marcia had a manicure and we walked around the town center for a while. That night we had a very light dinner since we were still full from our large dinner at da Felicin the previous night.
On Thursday we had lunch at the Brezza restaurant in the town of Barolo and then tasted the Brezza wines with the winemaker's wife. We liked them and bought 2 bottles. Then we tasted Mascarello wines which we didn't like as much. We ended our tastings at Elio Grasso which was fun. Signora Grasso ran the tasting in a beautiful large room in their new villa. That night it was back to dinner at our hotel in da Felicin with another awesome meal by Nino.
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