nikkilou

I'm assuming wine tasting in Italy is similar to Napa or Sonoma... you can show up for a tasting w/o a reservation most of the time, but if you want a tour you need a reservation... is that true?

Also -- should I be concerned about mid-day closures? Thank you! This forum is extremely helpful.

Sampaguita

Nikki, I don't know which part of Italy you plan to be in, and I can only talk for Piedmont. It is different to Napa and Sonoma in so far as there are only a few wineries which are set up with tasting rooms and sales points (such as the movie Sideways). Generally the more famous wineries in Barolo area will need a reservation in advance(probably the same in Tuscany) but the hundreds of small wineries are usually quite friendly to visitors, although you might not always find English speakers, and are happy to give foreigners an impromtu tour and open a bottle or 2 (good etiquette to buy a few bottles too). But don't go close to lunch, nearly everywhere in Italy takes a break from 12-3pm (except restaurants) and wineries need teir lunch-break too. I always suggest visitors to go around 10.30 to a winery, have some tastings and a tour and take lunch at a local restuarant, all wine areas have good food, then visit another cantina around 4pm.

nikkilou

Sampaguita,

Awesome advice. Huge help. We'll need to perhaps make some reservations if we intend to go to some larger wineries. We will be in both Piedmont and Tuscany... any recommendations on wineries to visit in Piedmont?

Also -- do you recommend planning where to visit ahead of time due to not all the small wineries being open for tasting/tours? Just seems like it could be a shame if we try to just pull off the road to visit and none are open, you know?

Thank you so much!

bellacqui

I can also only talk for Piedmont. There are a myriad of wineries to visit. It depends upon what wines you are interested in. In Sampaguita's beautiful region there is Barbera d'Asti, and many choices of vineyards, large and small, which you can visit. The Asti zone stretches down to about 3 km from where we live, which is the Acqui Terme zone. On the border area here there is again the Barbera d'Asti and it flows into Dolcetto country. Further west of the Monferrato (the area of Piedmont where both Sampaguita and we are located) you will find yourself in the Langhe, where you can enjoy trying Barbaresco, Barolo, Barbera d'Alba, and Dolcetto di Dogliani and d'Alba as well. We bring people around often, as Sampaguita mentioned, English is not always spoken at some of the smaller and less well known Piedmont wineries.

Some wineries which we enjoy in the Monferrato region include Gancia, Scarpa, LaBarbatella, Guido Viotti, Sant'Ubaldo, LaGuardia. The area for these wineries stretches from Nizza Monferrato in the Asti Region down and over to Ovada, towards the Ligurian border. There are a couple of English-speaking wine makers, Noceto Michelotti in Castel Boglione for one (Chardonnay and Barbera d'Asti) is owned by South Africans as is Villa Christiana in Nizza Monferrato (South African hosts - they make two grades of Barbera, a regular one and a superior, both are excellent wines).

Your hosts (wherever you are staying, I particularly know this is true of both the lovely Villa Sampaguita and ourselves) will help you arrange your wine tours and tastings, making the necessary arrangements.

The biggest thing to be careful of at Piemontese wine tastings is not to drink too much!!! The wineries are often very generous with their wine.

nikkilou

Holy cow, I really appreciate you providing such great information about the region, wines, and wineries. I speak some italian, but am not fluent and am not proficient in wine-specific vocabulary, but don't want to miss out on some of the quaint smaller wineries just on account of language ;^)

nikkilou

Oops, I accidentally posted that in the middle of writing my reply.

We were planning on just staying in Torino and therefore wouldn't have a host as you say... would you recommend staying outside the city instead? We used to live there so we wanted to spend some time in Torino and visit some of our old spots. But we also planned on spending 1-2 days in the wine country - so now I wonder if maybe we should stay out there and just drive into the city one day. What do you think?

Sampaguita

Nikki, Diana has provided a quite detailed answer to your question, I would add that if you are a serious wine person 3 full days is the minimum I would recommend for touring the central Piedmont wine region (4 days better, a week is awesome). Torino is not far from the Monferrato/Langhe area, it takes me 30 minutes to drive there from Asti. So it depends on you what the emphasis is, whether you want to stay in Torino with some wine touring days or stay in the wine country with some Torino days.

Don’t worry about finding wineries, they are all over the place waiting for you to come and sample their wines (except at harvest when they will be quite busy), and if you speak some Italian so much the better. I would also check out the regional enotecas, both in Tuscany and Piedmont, they are wine shops who specialize in the local area and who normally offer tastings of a selection of wines. Some good ones are the ones in Barolo Castle, Mango Castle, Barbaresco (in the old church) and Acqui Terme. Also don’t miss the “cathedrals of wine” in Canelli, huge underground cellars carved into the limestone hill, but you normally need a booking for these (ask your hotel), not to mention the many wine festivals held normally every weekend in both Piedmont and Tuscany. And you might check out Mitchell Beazley’s wine touring guides available on Amazon, there is one for Tuscany and for Piedmont, which provide a wealth of information not just on wine.

nikkilou

wow, again, great information! Now you have me thinking of staying out in the Monferrato/Langhe area instead of in Torino. Great suggestions on the enotecas. I like that idea to get a sampling of what's in the area and then if we really like something, we cathedrals of wine sound amazing, I'll definitely look into that!

We will be in piedmont the very end of september - specifically the 27-29 -- might you know of any festivals in the area that we should experience?

Sampaguita

You will miss the big wine festival in Canelli on 23/24 but I believe that the Donkey Palio will be on Sunday 29th in Alba, you can check with www.langheroero.it.

bellacqui

Sampi is right on the money with his idea. You need to decide if you primarily want a country vacation with a city element, or a city vacation with a country element. I agree, 4 days is the minimum, a week or more is optimal in this area because there is simply so much to see and experience and taste. In four days in the Monferrato and Langhe, you will get an overview of what the area has to offer. But the real beauty is taking time -- traveling slowly-- and absorbing the beauty around you... walking in the vineyards, observing the harvest, tasting the porcini and all of the other fall dishes which will be in restaurants and kitchens everywhere at that time.

Just want to add (Sampi you know I do like my Dolcetto as well as your beloved Barbera!!), that the city of Dogliani has a very good Bottega di Dolcetto in the cellar of the cathedral, all the local Dolcetto di Dogliani producers are represented there. Dogliani has a particularly good reputation for Dolcetto because of its proximity to Alba and Barolo.

Any really good enoteca provides a person with a starting off point. Go to a good enoteca and try some wines. If you like one particularly, then observe where the winery is, and try to make a reservation! We do this all the time, it is so much fun, and even though we live here, we discover new wines all the time.

TJinSOMA

We arranged a driver and he set up appointments at several vineyards in Tuscany. Three were great (very small) and one was a bit disappointing (too commercial). More our fault as we didn't make it clear that we didn't want any big commercial ones. Agree with earlier post that you definitely need reservations as most don't have tasting rooms like Napa.

tuscanfan

Here's a link to a web-site that gives some information on visiting the wineries in Tuscany:
http://www.tuscany-wine.com/visit_tu...ne_estates.htm
Good luck!