Barolo

Travel & Arrival - Wednesday, May 24th

Thank you Laura for taking a day off work and driving us to Barolo. It's a lovely very small village with no train station, so getting here without a car is not straightforward. We left our luggage at our B&B then took Laura to lunch here in the village. After lunch we settled in for a bit then took a nap.

Serena chose Barolo because of its proximity to the departure point for our hot air balloon ride. Our hostess - Daniella - was helpful calling the balloon company to verify details regarding timing and pick up. Daniella also did some research about the best ways to get from Barolo to our train from Asti on Saturday (taxi to Alba and a bus from there to Asti).

For whatever reason, Wednesday is the day of the week that most restaurants in Barolo are closed for dinner. Lunch was filling so we decided to buy some bread/cheese/salami and snack for dinner. There are a few tasting rooms still open so we chose the one that is free. The young man there explained a lot about this wine region and it was a pleasant experience. We bought a bottle of Nebbiolo which is the local grape whose wine is famously known as Barolo or Barbaresco. But to be called thusly there are many rules to follow and the vines should be a certain age. When the vines are too young or the winemaker decides for some reason to follow a different process then the wine is called Nebbiolo. 

We have seen signs for a tasting room that offers snacks and they are open late so we went there next. At Le Vite Turchese (the turquoise vines) you can design your own tasting. They have an large selection of local and other wines. We described our tastes to the owner - Stefano - and he made the selections. Jeff tasted 3 Barbaresco and Serena had two glasses of sparkling wine. The snacks were quite tasty too and though they weren't a lot we didn't need to eat the items we bought when we went back to our room. Stefano explained about the wines we were drinking and it was a great experience. It was also only 30 euros!

Back at the B&B we hung out in the common space drinking the Nebbiolo we bought, journaling, blogging and doing photos. Went to bed late but it was before midnight and we did nap this afternoon.

Thursday, May 25th

Great night's sleep. The village is super small and our street is for residential traffic only which means basically no traffic. We slept with the window open and it was very comfortable and quiet.

Lovely breakfast with eggs prepared to order, cafe americano and fresh cobbler among all the usual things. Afterwards we wandered around town a bit (you could easily walk the circumference in 15 minutes) then went to the wine museum in the Barolo castle. 8 euro entrance each and for entertainment value that was okay. For educational value this is not a good museum; there were only 2 rooms that had historical information about wine. The rest of the museum was a bit surreal and made us think that either the designer was high or we should have been. Poetic hyperbolic descriptions and "artistic" rooms to match. Lots of multimedia; some of which was fun (watching scenes from movies that featured wine) and some weird (cutout people with small screens on their mouths that spoke periodically). Apparently we missed the talking dinner plates in the dining room (bummer). The whole experience ends not in the gift store but in a wine tasting room. But this tasting room has no person-to-person interaction. It's like Pour in downtown Santa Cruz but each 25 ml taste costs 2-4 euros. We thought that was too much so after a snack for lunch and a rest in the heat of the day (it's in the high 80s again) we went back to Le Vite Turchese.

It was nice that they recognized us. Serena asked for a white wine because it is so hot and Stefano brought a glass of an un-oaked Chardonnay. This is exactly what she would have chosen for herself so Stefano already understands her tastes. Jeff had a Barolo. We also had a piece of Apple cake and some cheese/salami/breadsticks and turnip green crackers (a specialty in Puglia called Taralli). And we bought a bottle of the white wine for enjoying in Cinque Terra. The wine alone was 24 euros but still we only paid 40 euros total!

Our early evening balloon ride was wonderful. The countryside is beautiful and even at elevation it was warm. We were only 5 passengers (one was the photographer) + the pilot so we had plenty of space to move around. It seemed like a long flight. We took off from a disused soccer field outside of town and landed in a random field. Afterwards back in Barolo we were taken for a glass of wine and some of the typical cheese/salami/breadsticks. We also got our flight certificates. It was already 9pm so not a lot of choices but we knew the small place closest to our AirBNB would still be open so we went there for dinner.

Friday, May 26th

It is more overcast today and therefore cooler. Nice breakfast again and then we were ready to be picked up for our wine tour. Robert & Leslie are from Minnesota but have lived in Italy for 10 years now. Leslie was involved in wine importing and distribution but now they lead private tours. Robert is with us today and we met Leslie and the couple she has at the first winery (Pira). This is a small family farm which is common in this area. Most producers make only 20,000-60,000 bottles each year. Typically each one has their own production facility also. The wines of Pira were tasty and we bought a bottle which we will save for 5-8 years. 

After Pira we had lunch - with wine of course - followed by coffee (espresso is what people drink here about every other minute). And, BTW, don't order a cappuccino after 11am and NEVER coffee with milk at the end of a meal. Our 2nd winery stop was literally in the middle of a vineyard at a little hilltop ciabot (a small brick building where the oxen could be kept in poor weather or in later years where the vineyard workers could take a break out of the sun). The six of us tasted several wines in the shade of the ciabot and then Leslie went elsewhere with her people and Robert took us to another winery in the actual village of Barbaresco; we bought two bottles there.

Robert drove us back to Barolo and along the way we talked about Le Vite Turchese. Robert knows and likes it so we ended up there together for a glass of wine (Are you keeping count? This was our third visit in three days). Robert helped Jeff pick three more wines and then Jeff made plans with Stefano to ship them home. They will ship them at the end of June so we'll be home when they arrive. 

We had plans with Leonardo & Laura for dinner tonight. We had a little bit of time after we parted from Robert to drop off some items at our B&B then we went out to wait for 

them. When they arrived can you guess where was our first stop? Yes, of course we took them to Le Vite Turchese. We got a bottle of sparkling wine and toasted to each other and Santa Cruz (Leonardo & Laura visited us for one night in 2008) and Torino. The total for the three glasses with Robert and the bottle with Leonardo & Laura was only 40 euros!

Rosso Barolo was the restaurant recommended by Stefano & Elisabetta and was very nice. Serena finally tried snails. This area is supposedly a bit famous for them but we really haven't been eating out that much so we hadn't seen them on a menu until now. They tasted fine and the texture was okay too. After dinner we said goodbye to Leonardo & Laura and went home to do a bit of packing in preparation for tomorrow's departure.

Jeff at Le Vite Turchese on the red sofa that we occupied every time we visited.

Sample of the poetic jibberish at the wine museum in Barolo.

And, here are the winged metronomes (that bit didn't photograph well) and the comet.

It was a bit random whether one of the screen mouths would talk to you or move or do nothing at all. This is the room where the dinner plates on the dining table also had screens. But all we saw were pork chops. Apparently the plates sometimes speak as well. We're sorry to have missed that.

WTF? We can't even remember the point they were trying to make here. 

The music room. All the songs included mention of wine. There was also a movie room showing film clips featuring wine/

They use a large fan to fill the balloon with air. Then the blower heats the air and they tip it all right-side up.

Our pilot walking around inside the balloon as it was filling. They took a photo of us in there too but we haven't gotten a copy of it yet.

The village of Barolo where we were staying.

Hello! We're flying!

Castle in the nearby village of Novello as we were floating by.

Our shadow in a field.

The winemaker in his cellar at Pira winery.

It was interesting to find out that the wines get different labels depending on what country they will be distributed in. So, until their destination is determined the full bottles of wine look like this.

Wine tasting in the vineyard in the shade of the ciabot. That's the name our guide gave this little building. He said we would have a hard time finding a direct translation for it and he's right.

Grape flowers on the vine.

The snack from Puglia that Serena fell in love with. We were told they were made with turnip greens but initial research on the internet does not include any recipe with that ingredient. Serena was also told that the internet would not be able to provide the proper recipe.

The sparkling wine we enjoyed with Leonardo & Laura.