Yes....finally after so much time I was back to my first love, the place that more than any other place made my wine and food passion start...the Langhe region in Piedmont.
Every time I am back here I have a feeling of peace and happiness that is difficult to compare with any other place, maybe also because to this area I connect very happy moment back in the years and as I said it is where I moved my very first steps in the world of wine and fine food back in 2004.
We arrived from Milano in the afternoon of Saturday and we left Sunday afternoon, less than 24 hours but enough to switch on once again my passion for this region.
These 24 hours were in fact very intense...we arrived in the village of Barolo in a grey but not very cold afternoon of November directed to one of the most expected cellar visit I did...Giuseppe Rinaldi. It is from some years that the beautiful wines from Rinaldi (Barbera, Dolcetto, Freisa, Nebbiolo and Barolo) are irreplaceable in my cellar and also the fame that accompany Mister Rinaldi was a reason to make the excitement and the expectation of this visit really high.
And I must say, expectation were never so respected in full and even completely outdated. I think spending a couple of hours with Mister Rinaldi it is an experience that every wine lover should have at least once on his life. Don't expect to drink lots of wine here, this is not the main reason you are coming (even if we did that and we enjoyed a lot, especially a sample from the barrel of the Barolo Brunate 2009 already in amazing shape). The magic of this couple of hours is all in hearing all what this fantastic story-teller has to say, going from his love for Lambretta (an old kind of italian motorcycle for who does not know it) to his passion for music, arts and of course wine. What an amazing experience. Together with the recent visit to Mr. Selosse I can consider this as one of my top moment on my wine travel experiences. The pictures that I posted does not do justice to the fantastic atmosphere of this cellar. As you can see no barrique in the cellar, only big barrels. Mr. Rinaldi is a very traditionalist Barolo producer and does not want to hear the word barrique.
After these two hours of pleasure with our hands full of cartons we moved to next stage of our mini-trip with before an intermediate stop in La Morra, beautiful village perched on a hills where you can enjoy one of the best view of the entire region in a clear day, and we had a nice bottle of Dolcetto from
Cordero di Montezemolo in an enoteca in the main street of the village.
But dinner time is almost there, so we drove to the place where we will have dinner and where we will pass our night,
L'Osteria del Vignaiolo . This place was originally a very nice and simple osteria that now has as well a few rooms upstairs, ideal for people that wants to have a nice meal with some good wine without worrying to much about the driving afterwards.
After taking possession of our rooms with a big appetite after all the excitement of the afternoon we are the first to sit at the restaurant that will be anyway full shortly after. I strongly suggest booking much in advance before coming here both for restaurant and the hotel, it is becoming a very popular destination. You can understand that from the amazing quality of the food proposed together with a very interesting wine list focused on barolo and the rest of the langhe wines with lots of amazing producers. There is a formula at 32 Euro (a steal!!!) that includes two appetizers, one primo, one secondo and one dessert and this is what we will all choose. I picked very classic dishes of the region, Carne Cruda battuta al coltello (a sort of tartare typical of the area with an AMAZING quality of the meat), Vitello Tonnato as starter, Ravioli del Plin sage and butter as primo and a Stracotto di vitello al Nebbiolo as a main. Every dish was pure delight, I think this place is one the restaurant with the best quality-price relation I have ever been. Not happy with what we had we decided to share as well a cheese plate before the dessert. We choose two different wines for our dinner. For starters and primo we had two bottle of a lovely Barbera d'Alba from
Renato Ratti a producer that has his cellar a few kilometers away from the restaurant and for our secondo we had a bottle of Barbaresco Riserva Moccagatta from
Produttori del Barbaresco. A truly amazing culinary experience that I really strongly recommend. We went to bed after more than 4 hours at our dinner table exhausted but very happy.
Few hours later we were up again for a de-intoxicating run in the vineyards taking advantage of the unusual mild weather (more than 10 degrees already early in the morning), what a lovely start of the day! After that a short breakfast (included in the room rate) and on the road again to our new destination, Castiglione Tinella to visit the cellar of
Paolo Saracco. Saracco is known to be one of the best Moscato producer and especially is
Moscato d'Autunno has always a place in my cellar. After driving for more than half an hour up and down the hills of the region we arrived in the lovely village of Castiglione Tinella, surrounded by vineyards and with very nice view. The cellar of Saracco is in the middle of the village and it definitely has a very different feeling compared to our visit of the day before. First of all Mr. Saracco was not there, so we were not able to have a full visit with the "creator" of these wines but it is clear that in this case we are more in an industrial reality that produce thousands of bottles compared to the "artisan" Rinaldi the day before. Despite this we had a nice visit of the cellar accompanied by one of the employee of the company and a lovely tasting in a very nice tasting room with beautiful view on the hills. At the end the mother of Mister Saracco, a nice old lady that was busy cooking her Sunday meal (the whole family lives there) offered us as a gift a nice bottle of their grappa, a very nice gesture that we really appreciate. On a note it is right to say that visit are normally not accepted and it is not possible to buy directly from the producer, for us it was an exception.
After all these sweet wines our stomachs were ready to get filled again...so another half an hour drive and here we are in another of my very favorite place that I already mentioned in an old post:
Cascina Abate. It is from years now that I come here but every time the enjoyment and the pleasure to have a meal in this magic place is always the same. As it is the same the passion and the enthusiasm that Giorgio (the owner) and his family put on making you feel at home and cook amazing dishes. It is difficult to say what is my favorite dish of the menu but the slow cooked (26 hours!!!) Cosciotto di Maiale (pork leg) that you can see in the picture has always a special place in my all time favorite dish. And after another 4 hours lunch was already time to drive back home with the mind (and the stomach) full of great memories, great people and amazing food and wine.
