A DAY’S EXCURSION IN THE LANGA BAROLO; OLD WINERIES AND A GEM OF AN OSTERIE

Very interesting Tim--grazie !

I'm excited to see the mention of this vineyard. About five years ago I bought some wine on clearance at a tiny wine shop in a small town. They didn't have any of this wine open for sampling, but I thought at $7 a bottle, I had nothing to lose. I bought several bottles of Giacomo Borgogna & Figli Riserva 1990. I gave a bottle to a relative going through a bit of a rough time (he always loved Italy and wine and I had managed to get him there a few years earlier). Neither one of us has opened the wine. He says when he has something to celebrate we will open it, that it's been more fun talking about it and wondering if it's still good or vinegar. We hadn't been able to find out much about the vineyard except that the French had sued over the name at some point because it was too close to their burgundy. It was proven the vineyard had been operating since the 1700's so the French lost the lawsuit. I was afraid they had gone out of business since I had googled them a few times over the last few years and didn't find much.

Several bottles of Borgogna Riserva 1990 at 7 bucks a bottle, what a steal! At the winery this year will be over 200 euro a bottle. If its been well stored it should be in good condition, the old style of Barolo's were intended for long aging. Still if you have a few bottles left, I would be tempted to pop the cork on one for thanksgiving to check if you can keep the wine longer or whether it needs to be consumed soon.

I think I'd be tempted to pop the cork on one as well, but I'd wait until after Thanksgiving when everyone has gone home!

Thanks Tim for a great story about this winery. While we were in Barolo we bought a Luciano Sandrone Cannubis Boschis Barolo, and it is interesting to me that Boschis is also a family name.

There was an article in the most recent Wine Spectator on the 2005 Barolos. Did you see it?

Hi Drbb, Boschis seems to be an old family in the Barolo area, another winemaker in the family is Chiara Boschis, I think the sister of the brothers who run Borgogno. She bought the old E.Pira & Figli cantina about 20 years ago and makes a modern style of Barolo, aged only in barriques, and she is quite a character.

The Cannubi Boschis refers to an individual vineyard formerly known as Monghisolfo before it was taken over by the Cantina Boschis (which is now Rinaldi). The vineyard is adjacent to the famous Cannubi vineyard going away from Barolo on the old via Alba, past the cemetery and opposite the road that leads to Cantina Sandrone. I think Sandrone owns most of the vineyard now.

I don't get Wine Spectator except when guests leave a copy, so I haven't seen the story on 2005's. James Suckling?

After the tasting we decided to skip the more famous restaurants in Barolo and Monforte d’Alba and chose the Osterie “da Gemma” listed in Slow Food’s book in the little town of Rodino, between Monforte and Serralunga – the price also looked good after spending the winter’s entire budget in Barolo!

The outside of the restaurant was very low key, and not terribly inviting, but going up the stairs we found a new dining room with picture window views over the Alte Langhe (or would have been if it hadn’t been a foggy day). Very nice and crisp linen on the tables, but still a rustic touch. At one o’clock on a weekday the place was quite full, mostly locals, even some painters in their overalls, definitely not a foreigner in site. The menu was fixed, and as we sat down a couple of chunks of salami (one crudo, one cotto) on a cutting board with a knife appeared with the bread for us to slice ourselves (is this what they call an amuse-bouche?). No wine list, everyone was drinking the house Dolcetto in an unlabelled bottle (5 euro), but after those Barolo’s we needed something a bit more substantial and selected a 2005 Nebbiolo d’Alba by Teo Cappellano (another venerable Barolo name) from the wine shelf.

The first anti-pasti course consisted of two generous portions, an insalata russa, a bit like egg mayonnaise sandwich spread with peas (in November?), the other an insalata di carne cruda for meat lovers like Rina who pronounced it great.

I told them that I didn’t eat red-meat and so they brought a plate of fresh-made agnolloti al plin, stuffed with spinach. It was nothing new, but absolutely fresh and delicious, obviously made in their kitchen (how fresh we were to discover a bit later). Rina’s next anti-pasto was vitello tonnato. Living in Piedmont, what can we say about vitello tonnato? Delicate thin slices of veal with tuna sauce, for serious foodies it’s always a question about the combination, but somehow they work very well together.

The next dishes up were the tajarin (tagliatelle), plain for me (no problem, it was fresh and delicious with a touch of parmigiano (not really needed), and tajarin al ragu for Rina. Everyone has their own way of cooking ragu, which is basically mincemeat and tomato sauce, most common, however Gemma definitely had her own style and Rina ate the whole dish! This was followed by a ravioli al ragu for Rina, the same sauce from the pasta.

As a second the server asked us if we would like Rabbit or Chicken and proposed a cheese plate for me, however we did plump for the chicken – which was definitely not the plump-buttery variety, a touch of toughness in the meat indicated free-range, confirmed by our waitress as pollo della compagna, however quite delicious and accompanied with finocchio cotto (stewed fennel) which I thought was quite nice as an accompaniment.

We had seen an incredible range of deserts circulating our neighbor’s tables, including the biggest Bunet we had ever seen; a whole dinner plate’s worth, which instantly explained the English translation of “bonnet”, and which you cut yourself as much as you wanted. Rina is not a glutton for sweets, but I insisted in the name of science that we try them all. Besides the Bunet, which was delicious, firm and mouth-melting, there was dolce all'ananas – more like a tiramisù with pineapple - OK but not mind-blowing, a meringata, a sort of pudding with crisp meringue, of which I had two helpings and a strudel, which we were just too full to eat. Sadly they did not have any passito wine by the glass.

After chatting to our neighbouring table, 2 men from Torino having a “business lunch” which included grappa to fortify them for the hours drive back; we collected the bill, a numbing 40-euro for the food including table charge and coffee, plus 15 euro for the wine. They did give us a discount for my “vegetarian plate”, normally its 25 euro each for the set, and for the amount and quality of the food, you could not beat it.

On the way out we asked to thank Gemma in person and were directed to a room on the ground floor, where we found the equivalent of the Rodino ladies pasta-bee all busy making up the fresh pasta. Gemma was chopping the taglioni by hand, and the others were preparing the agnolotti. Rina got an impromptu hands on lesson in making the Agnolotti al plin (literally pinched), mini-ravioli’s made by holding a spoonful of the filling in the left hand, and a table knife in the right, using the tip to transfer the fillings onto the edge of a flat sheet of pasta, rolling over the edge, pinching the individual packets and then cutting. No wonder it all tasted so fresh.

Now one more winery if we can manage it….

Osterie da Gemma website: http://www.leradicieleali.it/

Osterie pictures on our public-access Facebook album: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=341485&id=196228155536&ref=mf

quite a find, villa. the osterie looks terrific.

A friend of mine [actually a fellow student at the italian class I attend] spent what he described as a wonderful fortnight hear Alba this summer. It's definitely moving towards the top of my list for nex tyear or the year after.

I just don't have class! A few years ago, I went to a good friend's housewarming. I bought a bottle of Borgogna Riserva as a gift. My friend opened it and we proceeded to drink it. I don't think I ever had such a vile wine in my life. I know I'm not a connosieur, but I know what I like. That stuff was terrible. It's a very heavy wine, and the flavor is akin to kerosene. Like I say, I ain't no expert, but I know what good stuff is, and I'm not out to impress anyone with my pseudo savoir fare. The stuff is lousy!!!

Hi Waldo, IMO wine is not about class, but about sensory perception, commonly referred to as taste, or more basic, I like, I don't like! Who knows about the bottle you got, whether it had been stored incorrectly, or even a counterfeit (it happens with the more expensive names, although I wouldn't put Borgogna into the same price stratosphere as 1st growth Bordeaux or Burgundy). It really sounds like it was a bad bottle, I would have poured it back in the bottle, corked it and brought it back to the store where you bought it for an exchange.

I agree Villa - sounds like it was corked, which apparently occurs to as many as 1 in 10 of all wine bottles, though I've only ever come across two or three [and I've drunk far more than 30 bottles of wine!]

I love the pictures of the agnolotti making. I have similar photos from my cooking lesson. Your meal sounded mouthwatering. You have insopired me to make tajarin this weekend - with butter and sage of course.

These little agnolotti were actually agnolottini.

Are you going to make tajarin in the traditional way by rolling and chopping, or will you use the slicing attachment on the pasta roller?

We have an Imperia pasta machine with a fettucine size attachment, but I think I will try the rolling and cutting method.