Wine Bash at Martini & Rossi Spiritual Home

It's that time of the year again, the "vendemmia" and the talk turns to the prospects of the wine harvest for the year. Some of our wine making friends say that this years quality is high but yeilds are low. Sounds like good wine at higher prices to me. It was a fitting time to celebrate the start of this years harvest and attend the launch of La Strada Reale dei Vini Torinese, held at the beautiful "Martini and Rossi"(link in Italian only ) original home and muesum in Pessione di Chieri.

This celebration was the culmination of our province's increased effort to showcase our distinctive and tempting culinary treasures of Torino(Turin) province, comprised of bountiful mountains, plains and valleys in this sprawling province. This royal wine road designation draws attention to our territorial wine whose distinct flavor springs forth from the land and tradtional grape varieties that come together with it's hard working people and noble Savoy dynasty history, to secure our place upon the Italian wine stage. Thanks go to Torino's director of provincial traditional culinary offerings, Elena di Bella who has worked tirelessly to bring the long overdue recognition that our local specialties so deserve, and Anna Rinaldi, under Elena di Bella's direction, who has put her full energies into to bringing this wine road project to fruition. Anna organized several wine tastings with a noted sommelier to offer an opportunity for us to discover and familiarize ourselves with our neighbors wines. We participated in a couple of these earlier this summer. Not only was it enlightening and fun, we also met other interesting wine producers of these tasty wines and also innkeepers, enthusiats and supporters of this project. Naturally, there are many of our colleagues involved that will offering lodging and culinary opportunities as this project takes root and flourishes. TEM, (only in Italian at this point) our personal ecological, sustainable, toursim association  is excited to support, promote and collaborate with this wonderful initiative, to put our deserving area on the map and help bring  a bit more prosperity to our "off the beaten path" part of Piedmont. Exciting times indeed.

The evening consisted of time to tour the museum in the bottom of the house that houses a very important collection of over 600 artifacts which tell the history of wine from the 7th century BC until today. There were beautiful ancient Etruscan wine vessels and ornate drinking horns and cups in the first rooms. I particularly loved the 17th and 18th century ornate and simple Piemontese carts used to carry the harvested grapes. Pictured above is a cart used to transport the finished the wine.

This good sized 17th century alambicco (alcohol distiller or "still" as we quaintly call them in the US) is what was used to make grappa. After the grapes seemingly have given all that they can for the making of the wine, the "must" is then used to make grappa even today. The museum really is an interesting attraction if you have an interest in the history of wine and worth seeking out if you are in the area.

The remainder of the evening, after all the speeches and slide show about our very generous hosts, Martini & Rossi of the Bacardi group's facilities, was filled  sampling the familiar and not as familiar wines of Torino province. There were knowledgeable sommeliers on hand to help guide and educate us about the locations, variety of grapes and wines. It wouldn't be a proper Italian aperitivo event without some tasty treats to go along with the dolcetto, barbera, erbaluce, freisa, nebbiolo and moscato wines and this was of course no exception. I must say that the chestnut porcini soup was a stand out for me and will probably find me making an attempt to make it here as we move into chestnut and mushroom season here shortly. Perhaps I'll even share it here if I get it sorted out. I know I'll be seeking out some of the wines I tried  last night to add to our offerings when you find yourself staying with us. A great event and a project worth seeking out when you make your way to Piedmont, but more specifically, Provincia di Torino. We'll be waiting for you with a bottle or two in the cantina. Cin Cin!

Torino Wine Salon

Yesterday was rather gray and not a very inspiring type of day. The good news is that we are getting some much needed moisture after much grayness and little moisture. Hope for spring flowers and mushrooms looms large. On a day like today I can only think that posting about the Torino Wine Salon could brighten my day, especially if I open something other than our very tasty yet very daily Barbera table wine, and go for a heartier find from the small selection of wine in the "cantina". I feel the day brightening up already in anticipation.

Torino Wine Salon is not as long established and as well known as many other Italian wine shows, but certainly worth the effort to sample your way around a few regions of Italy. VinItaly is coming next week in Verona and people will be flocking to it in the droves from all over the world to see how the latest vintages are faring and search for undiscovered unknown treasures. the first year we went, it was a huge event held in the Lingotto conference center. It was rather overwhelming to say the least. After a few years of infancy, the event seems to have found it's footing. Now it seems that the event is held on the alternate year of the Slow Food and right after the Bra Cheese Festival

It was a fascinating display of wines and all sorts of other oddities that seem to tag along for the ride. Like this woman rolling cigars. hand rolled cigars seem to follow the wine drinking crowd.

You could find chocolate, coffee

Dessert serenaded with jazz
Wine to try by the small and the large producers

and even the Women of Wine

Take it all in with a nice glass of wine or tw0 or three.

Wine expos are always fun.

Strada delle Vino Pinerolese

Last Monday we accepted and attended a very welcome invitation to join in the discussion about establishing a wine road designation for our very own Pinerolese DOC wine. Our Torino provincial representatives have proposed to make a designated wine road recognizing our local wines as distinct and note worthy. This is good news indeed and as one of our friends up the road, owner of Lago Laux, a popular and well known restaurant, noted, "It should have been done 30 years ago." I could agree more with Franco, but sometimes it takes an inordinate amount of time to get things moving around here. Or as they always seems to say in response here, "piano, piano...which is the equivalent of "take it easy". So we are on our way to being on the map so to speak, finally, for our wine production in our area. Pineroloese wine includes the surrounding areas of Bricherasio where we have the community collective cantina where many small growers bring their grapes together to produce their wine and as I have noted before you can "filler up rosso", the surrounding areas of Pinerolo, where our friends the Dora family make their delicious range of wines, and up into our Chisone valley to Pomaretto, whose small vineyard we look down into from our balcony on a daily basis. Our small vineyard in Pomaretto produces 800 bottles a year of Ramie' making a bit of a boutique wine, but in our backyard and a particular wine for this valley.

It just nice to see our area be recognised for it's wine contribution in addition to all of our other fine local Torino province foods, that have long been recognised for their superior quality, flavor and diversity. It's about time the Provincia sits up and takes notice and help build on our strengths to reach a wider audience. It should help create more opportunities for small wine producers and other peripheral businesses.

We were also encouraged that they had the forethought to invite a wide variety of local business that stand to benefit from this promotion, like hotel, B&Bs, agriturismi, restaurants and other assorted business to ask them to participate in creating this designation. Bravo. Roughly 70 people from all of these business fields that I named showed up to engage in the conversation, which I thought was a good showing for a last minute invitation, (which is the usual case in Italy) for an inaugural idea and process, because as i stated earlier, things take an inordinate amount of time, ..."piano, piano". Anyway, the discussion was lively and there definitely was bit of a buzz of excitement and anticipation with some solid suggestions for spin off benefits ad ideas and we're off on the way to a wine road for rounding up some of those tourists that are wandering around wondering where to go and what to do, just in case you were at loose ends for something to do. Bravi Provincia di Torino, Bravi!

Stocking up or Fill it up Rosso!

It was a few days before the Lenten season and returning home from the market, when what should appear? A fully laden delivery truck with demijohns of wine careening around the bend. Ok, maybe not careening, but it did have a bit of a sway going, whilst coming up our small road. I managed to get my camera out in time to capture him squeezing through the narrowest part of the winding road (and only road I might add) up to our house. My sister-in- law says there are 13 switchbacks in total, but I digress. Each of the demijohns hold 60 liters of wine, so he was carrying a full load that day. Fabrizio said he was doing home delivery and could be delivering from over in the Asti/Barolo region on an annual trek for the valley's orders. I surmised that our neighbors might be stocking up before Fat Tuesday too. You don't see that kind of delivery truck careening around the hills where I come from in Colorado. I love the little surprises everyday life brings.

We don't have wine home delivery. We buy from a couple of different sources, one of our main ones being a local family winery just on the other side of Pinerolo,Dora Renato. We do wine tastings with them for our guests and also pair their wines with dishes that we prepare in our cooking classes also. That is always a popular class. We also buy wine from a cooperative not to far away from Pinerolo in a different direction and I had a good ole laugh the first time we went there to bring home wine for his parents. We pull up to the back of the warehouse and lo and behold, it's filler up Rosso! I could hardly believe that we were going to fill our demijohn with wine dispensed from what looked like for all practical purposes, a gas or petrol pump. That's exactly what we did. I have purchased wine from stores and cantinas with the large tanks and they have filled plastic containers from the spigot on the front of those, but I had never seen wine dispensed from a gas pump. I still smile when we go there. We go sometimes to pick up wine for his father as this is his fathers absolute favorite and usually the only wine that he will drink, even when we or guests bring over a nice bottle of something else, like Barbera, Dolcetto, or even Barolo, all considered local wines,mah, Papa prefers Bricherasio Cantina wine. I like it also, although I do find that it seems to vary in flavor depending on many factors it seems. Since it is a cooperative, all the local growers who are too small to really make a go of their produce bring it to the cooperative to let them make it into the nectar of the gods and get their fair share of the booty and let the cantina sell off the rest. Much easier for them I would think. It's a popular way for the small grower or dabble to make their years supply of table wine and have a few euros jingling around in their pocket. The cantina seems to be a popular place stop off for an occasional tour bus as well a few times when we have been by there.

Fill 'er up Rosso, per cortesia.

Club Papillon hosts "Golosaria" at the Stupinigi

Or........how to make a glutton of yourself yet again!

On a warm and slightly hazy grey type Sunday afternoon, what better way to enjoy your day than a food festival Italian style. Yesterday we made our way to the Stupinigi Hunting Palace heading in from the mountains to just outside of Torino. We were off to see and sample yet more of Piemonte's delicacies as well as see our friend Enrico, be recognized again by the "Paniere" designation, guaranteeing that his families very wonderful Bernard Mountain Elixirs, Genepy and Barathier are the superior products that they are and a typical product of the Provincia of Torino. Our B&B Bella "Baita" (beautiful mountain house/cabin) is located in the mountains of our good sized "county" if you will, looking across the valley to Val Germansca where the Bernard family have been making their tasty products for over 100 hundred years supporting their family and the mountain culture that surrounds these highly alcoholic mountian flower and herbal infusions. All the locals swear by the restorative powers of these drinks, good for absolutely everything that ails you, as well as a good ole welcome drink or after dinner digestivo that this part of the world is so very fond of.
There was a great turnout for this event and it has continued on today showcasing so many wonderful gustatory treats. Hand made pastas, salamis, cheeses, cookies, spreads of of everysort, grissini breadsticks and my personal favorite, a very long crispy flatbread named, "lingue di Suocera" or mother in laws tongue. We enjoyed a bit of Christmas shopping that we know will be appreciated.









"Club di Papillon"(or club of the Bow Ties) who hosted this event, is an organization dedicated to the preservation, education, promotion and support of typical Italian cuisine. The guiding energy behind and out front of this organization is the highly regarded journalist, author, TV food critic and "bon vivant" Paolo Massobrio, Mr. Bowtie himself. He opened the event with a splash of celebrity with the grandson of the Ferrari car designer, Pininfarina and a bevy of dignitaries helping to cut the opening ribbon. (so that's who was driving the beautiful Ferrari parked out front!) The drinking and eating had already been well underway but now continued on to a new level of frenzy. Later, sated with oh so tasty samples of just about everything and washed down with delicious Barbera and Dolcetto wines, some of the darlings of Piedmont varieties, and groaning under the many purchases, we made our way home. Too tired to have a tour around the hunting lodge, although there was a steady stream gathering every hour to see how the royal "Savoy"family lived way out here in the country all those years ago. From the looks of all the old businesses just around the lodge, I don't think they wanted for any of their "golosso" (greedy) urges to go unsatisfied. Apparently 5,000 visitors yesterday didn't either! The gluttony continues on today till 6 pm.. Not to be missed.