jczinn, where have you chosen to stay on your upcoming trip?

Julie, we are actually staying closer to Acqui Terme, in a small town called Olmo Gentile, five nights at a B&B that looks lovely: Borgo Vallone (http://www.borgovallone.com) We had originally planned/hoped to stay at Baur B&B in Acqui Terme, but unfortunately it is currently closed while they are renovating; Diana of Baur B&B recommended Borgo Vallone and I totally trust her recommendation. We are staying in this area because I wanted to explore some new places and visit the coast one day (Camogli, Portofino.) But we will spend a day or two around Alba and the Barolo towns, for sure.

correcting link:
http://www.borgovallone.com

JC: I will look forward to your report! That area should be a super base, since you can also venture to the coast.. If we had had better weather, we would have done a day trip to the coast near Savona which is only about an hour-plus or so from Alba.

There is just so much to explore around there that I feel as if we barely scratched the surface in 7 days.




Here is a bit more:


After lunch, we drove through the vineyard-covered hills to the tiny hamlet of San Rocco Seno d’Elvio, and from there, up the hillside to Podere Colla, the domain of Tino Colla and his niece, Federica.
I cannot recommend this winery enough; Tino Colla is a charming man with deep roots in the Langhe and a passionate interest not only in the wines, but in the land that produce them.

We had a walk through the vineyards, followed by a memorable tasting of Dolcetto, Barbaresco, Barolo, nebbiolo and pinot noir blends, and even the DOC Riesling that Sr Colla grows on Bricco del Drago, one of the three estates under the Colla name. Another highlight was Bonme, a small production wine imbued with absinthe. The setting of the tasting was equally fascinating because the tasting venue also serves as a mini-museum of old agricultural and wine-making tools and there is a story attached to each implement.

For more information, here is their website. I would recommend a visit only for those with serious intent; as at most Piemont wineries, tours and tastings are conducted by the winemakers themselves.


http://www.podericolla.it/default.htm

Hi Ekscrunchy, so glad after all your reviews on Italy that you spend some time in Piedmont and a great write up, even if we are disapointed that you didn't stay with us!! BTW not to beat our drum too loudly, but we do informal cooking classes too, for thos ewho asked on this thread. Happy to find Piedmont's famous wine and food country so well represented.

Tim, that is very sweet! If we had had more time I would have at least wanted to have a visit with you! I hope you are enjoying this report, and are not finding too many errors!

We really enjoyed our time in Piemonte and I look forward to visiting the Asti area sometime in the future! I want to thank you again for the tremendous help you have provided, both to me, and to many other Piemonte-bound travelers on this forum!

For newcomers here: Tim's wife is reportedly a fabulous cook, so I would recommnd investigating the cooking classes (and the lodgings) offered at his very-well-reviewed agriturismo, Villa Sampaguita:

http://www.villasampaguita.com/Live/home.cfm

and thank you for your sweet words about us too. This year there have been very few posts on this forum about things to do with Piedmont and so your well written and detailed review is wonderful to remind readers of what us locals consider Italy's best food and wine area (there's a challenge)and your restaurant reviews are worthy of E-Gullet's forums:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?...3&showforum=39

I think you must have been here in April, which was very wet this year, almost every weekend rained, more then just April showers, but just when May came along the weather has changed and we are having clear blue skies and sunny weather with wonderful mountain view panorama's, I have posted some of our Facebook page at:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...a/196228155536

Your restaurant guides are spot on, the Osterie Vignaiolo is one of our all time favourites, the Trattorie della Posta always gets good reviews, although we have yet to eat there. La Libera sometimes gets mixed reviews from our guests and Profumo di Vino is new too us, we must try it, although ist so hard in Piedmont as there are so many good restaurants, in Treiso, as well as La Ciau del Tornavento people give rave reviews to Osteria dell Unione as well as Risorgimento, and head futher on the road to Barbaresco and you run into Vechio Tre Stelle, Antina, Rabaja and Antica Torre, to name a few. (BTW this May, every Friday you can experience Barbaresco a Tavola, when 12 local restaurants included all the above named are offering more then 20 types of Barbaresco 2006's).

My comment on your review is that its too bad you had so little time in the region, there is so much to see and do, as well as eating and wine tasting. For those who don't know the area, we call the central Piedmont wine hills "the zone", not just the Langhe, but also the Monferatto South from Asti to Acqui Terme and centred on Nizza Monferrato, the Monferrato North which includes Cocconato and Moncalvo as far as Casale Monferrato, and the Roero, on the West side of the Tanaro river between Asti and Alba, centred on Canale. The Langhe is famous and trendy because of Barolo and Barbaresco, however the whole "zone" features countless little mom and pop osterie and trattorie as well as michelin-starred restaurants, innummerable wineries and loads of charming hill top towns and castles, almost any weekend there is a festival somewhere. And lets not talk about the famous white truffles from the "zone". When you say visit the Asti area, this is actually a misnomer, Asti is just up the road from Alba (20 minutes) and the centre of the "zone" as well as a quick hop to Turin, and the best placed town for visiting the whole area. Alba and surrounding towns(and hats off to Roberta for her wonderful hospitality at Villa Favourita)would be best if you only wanted to focus on the Barolo and Barbaresco areas, likewise the other towns mentioned for their areas. but wherever you stay in Piedmont, we hope that our magic rubs off on you.

And you were in Cherasco and didn't stop off at Bra to visit the temple of Slow Food Boccondivino - shame!! But as I said too much to see and do.

Last comment is that you will find Bagna Cauda served as an antipasto, howeveras a main dish is really a late fall and winter dish in Piedmont,and it really is a family thing where everyone sits around the table and dips into the bowl as you mention. Oh and you didn't get to try any fresh black truffles? We do have these in Piedmont too, just coming into season. Enough, I could go on and on. Ciao Tim

eks and others interested in wine --

I did contact Gallo Winery in La Morra after seeing your note above regarding the possiblility of shipping. The answer that I got back was not what I was hoping to hear!

Basically shipping to a private home in the US is a no go. If you take a chance and mark the box as being something else other than wine, you may get lucky. But if the box is opened for inspection, the wine will be confiscated. I think I would literally cry if a case of Barolo and Barbaresco was confiscated! Sampaguita, since you live there and have a great deal of knowledge, do you have any suggestions on this topic?

Great info on the restaurants! Thanks for the preview! I have also now added Cherasco to my list of must-sees.

FYI, we arranged to have a cooking class while at La Favorita. We will be cooking a three course meal with Rita, and have requested a lesson in making the agnolotti dal plin.

Ciao!

Thanks, Tim, for your comments and compliments. Stay tuned because I have more, which I will get to soon. We were there the third week in April and the weather was indeed, pretty bad, not only in Piedmont but throughout much of Italy. So it was impossible for us to escape the rain, even by driving to another region. We did have a couple of nice days at midweek, however.

Although we had a full week between Alba and Turin we did not even get to scratch the surface of the region and hope to return someday.

Regarding bagna cauda: The Provencal dish related to bagna cauda is anchoiade; in my haste, I forgot the"n."


Drbb: I am very impressed by your organization. But this is bad news, indeed, about the wine. I suppose that everyone here who mentions shipping wine has declared it as olive oil.

I know in New York State we have the ridiculous three-tier system, but I did not know that all states had these arcane laws. Well, they need to get their tax money, right!? What state do you live in? I used to bring lots of wine home, but we can get so much here that I just do not bother much anymore.

I certainly understand that you would not want to take the chance of having the wine confiscated. What about bringing one of those special wine-packs designed for airline travel? Or bring two of them!

"Regarding bagna cauda: The Provencal dish related to bagna cauda is anchoiade"

I beg to differ. Bagna Cauda is also a Provençal dish (warm sauce) and anchoiade is always cold.

Thank you, PV. I do think they are related, however, even if one is served warm and the other cold. There are quite a few food links to other areas, including the many obvious ones to Liguria.

Regarding the use of anchovies, one theory is that since there is comparatively little wine grown in Liguria, the Ligurians would travel over the mountains to Piemonte with casks of anchovies. They would empty these casks and fill them with Piemontese wine to take back to the coast. This would have given an unusual flavor to the wine.

I will try to get back to this later today.

Regarding bringing/shipping wine home, we used to bring home up to 16 bottles in luggage and carry on--that was before the new carry-on regulations, of course, and before the fall of the dollar! Now, we concentrate on bringing home only what is either unavailable here (small producers, or older vintages of big producers) or something that will hold a special memory (say of a producer we visited). As eks says, just about everything is now available here, and at pretty good prices if you look at sales at a place like Zachy's in Westchester, NY (where we buy most of our higher-priced bottles.) We bring along these great inflatable wine bottle packers by 3M (no longer made, as far as I know, but we bought them years ago and reuse them). And pack one small bag inside a larger one so that on the way home, we have one extra bag for wine and oil. Hopefully we'll bring home about 8 bottles this trip.

We leave today, whoo-hoo! Hope that summer weather Tim is talking about holds.

Thanks EKS for the great reviews.

Dear eks - We live in Louisiana , and yes the laws are quite archaic. There is much protectionism in regard to beer, wine and liquor distributors in this state. My husband and I were just introduced to a Baton Rouge couple who actually produce some wine in the Piemonte under their own label and import it, so I'm hopeful that maybe I can get some help there.

We have brought back as many as 12 bottles before the carry on restrictions, and as many as 8 in just checked luggage. We do buy wines that are either unavailable to us or that are memorable. In Baton Rouge, fewer wines are available to us of course than in a place like NYC. We have bought from Zachy's, Sherry Lehmann, etc., but it's always fun to have bottles from your trip.

jkczinn- have a great trip and I will also look forward to your trip report!!

"Regarding bagna cauda: The Provencal dish related to bagna cauda is anchoiade; " Since Piedmont and Provence were all part of the Kingdom of Savoy before the risorgimento (reunion of Italy) there are many cultural, food and language simularities on both side of the Cottine Alps.

eks,

An EATALY was slated to open in Manhattan last year. Do you know if it ever did?

You mentioned overhearing German tourists making future group reservations. One of my impressions of my time in Piemonte was that a lot of the menus and tourist infrastructure (big breakfasts, roasted meats, etc) was oriented toward German tourism. Did you have the same impression?

For future visitors to Trattoria della Posta, the panna cotta there is the best I've ever tasted in Italy.

regarding anchovies in Piemonte:

The story I have heard is that salt was so precious, and such a valuable and heavily regulated item of trade, that it was smuggled into Piemonte from Liguria under layers of anchovies. It was in this fashion that anchovies became introduced into Piemontese cuisine.

Whether the empty barrels were filled with wine before returning to Liguria, I don't know. But the motivating focus of interest was Ligurian salt, not Piemontese wine.

Zeppole: Yes, I heard something along those lines, too. But the Piemontese winemaker I spoke to is convinced that is was their wine that was the goal! Your version sounds more plausible.

I have to look into this because the reasons that regional preferences developed as they did is an interest of mine.

Yes, we are supposed to have an Eataly in midtown, but it has not opened and I have read nothing in the past few months. But I am not so excited about it because I fear it would be just another gourmet store with sky-high prices and restaurants. Well, we will see and you can be sure I will report about it if it does open!

I did not see any evidence of catering towards the German tourists. But we only stayed in 3 places; a look at the guest book at La Favorita revealed a mix of nationalities, many from English-speaking countries but also Europeans and a few Asians. But no Germans that I can recall. I would say that most of the (very few) foreign tourists we saw were French or German. Probably some of these were Swiss, however.

Lots of roasted meat as secondi, but I don't think that is what you mean. But I have no doubt that in tourist season the area receives many German visitors. But surprisingly, most restaurants did not have translated menus; a few did have the English translation written on the main menu, but most did not.

The guy at della Posta was involved in such a long conversation with the owner; he was at the next table so we could not help but overhear. He was planning a dinner for a large group (of Germans) and the debate went back and forth about which wines to serve, and how much he was going to pay per person. I thought he might be a tour operator. In the end, they were going to pay 55 euro per person, with wines and a set menu! I am sure the truffles were not included for that price!

I did not have the panna cotta there, but I did have one of the reputed best panna cotta (panna cotti??) in Torino. I will report on that soon.

It is a busy week so I apologize for taking so long..

I asked an Italian friend and basically there is no special Italian word for amuse bouche in the concept of a complimentary nibble that precedes the first course. They would still be antipasti according to her. Of course the drink that precedes the meal is an aperitivo, and perhaps that term has been extended to the nibbles that may go with it - ??

Gourmandise served with coffee are called dolcetti in some places, she says.

ekscrunchy, where are you??!! I need my Piemonte fix!

Drbb: I will write more as soon as I can; I am a little busy until tomorrow night. I am so glad you are enjoying the report--I love to "talk" travel!!

Thanks for the info on the amuse. I remember hearing at least two servers use a word like "appetiti." Maybe that is Piemontese slang. You will have to do the on-site research!

More soon!!

And here are a few interesting websites devoted mostly, or entirely, to Italian wine; the first is in English and the last two, in Italian:

http://vinowire.simplicissimus.it/

http://www.vinodautore.com/regioni/piedmont-12.aspx

http://www.lavinium.com/


The next day, Wednesday, the weather began to clear. We thought of taking a ride to the coast but decided, in the end, to go only halfway, to the designer outlets just over the Ligurian border in Serravale Scrivia. I had had a taste of these huge outlet malls last fall when I had a highly successful shopping expedition from Lake Como to the outlets in Mendrisio, Switzerland (see my Liguria/Lake Como trip report for details) and wanted to investigate this popular venue which draws shoppers from Milan, Turin and Genoa.

The Via Michelin directions were straightforward. Except that I managed to direct my partner to take the wrong highway to Genoa, so we lost a bit of time after making a wrong turn near Alessandria. The drive should take just a few minutes over an hour and the quickest way involves all highway driving, with a good bit of truck traffic.

The roads in this area are so well-marked, however, that driving is quite easy and it would be virtually impossible to get truly lost on major roads (Please disregard previous comment about taking a wrong turn!)


About 70 minutes after leaving La Favorita, we exited the A7 and, a few minutes later, following the signs to “Novi Ligure,” we parked in the immense and mostly empty lot and set out to do some bargain shopping.

http://www.mcarthurglen.it/serravall...me.php?lang=en


Serravale Scrivia’s faux Ligurian village, with mostly upscale shops hiding behind pastel painted facades and clusters of buildings separated by flowering walkways, is one of the most physical attractive malls I’ve seen. (I admit that my experience is rather limited, however). We had the place virtually to ourelves on this Wednesday April morning.

Most, if not all, (there was no Todd or Hogan, for example) of the usual suspects were represented: Loro Piana, Gucci, La Perla, Malo, Prada, D&G, and two of my favorites: Bric’s (excellent buys on luggage and handbags)

http://www.brics.it/


and McKenzy (which I had discovered in Medrisio; excellent buys on cashmere and cotton knit sweaters);

http://www.mckenzy.it/


However, with the sun now shining for the first time since our arrival 4 days before, I could not work up all that much enthusiasm for the diligence required for outlet shopping.

My partner enjoyed himself wandering through several sporting goods shops and found one offering a buy-one-get-one-free deal on leather sneakers (made not in Italy but in Vietnam, however). That was the extent of HIS shopping for the week. Due to the euro-dollar conversion rate, the prices were quite a bit higher here than they had been in Switzerland a few months ago so I could not get too invested in the
prospect of bargain hunting. MAny shops, however, were offering sales and discounts on top of the usual outlet discounts.

Less than 90 minutes after we arrived, we were on our way back to Alba, with two boxes of Reebok men’s sneakers (total cost: 29 euro) in the trunk.

Although we took the highway back to Alba, there is another route that would allow a stopover in Acqui Terme; on retrospect, perhaps we should have explored that option.

As embarrassed as I am about revealing that we spent half a day at an outlet mall, I am a thousand times as embarrassed about the blunder I made the following day!


More soon, including dinner at an agriturismo in Verduno!