Barolo in Barolo

The reason we are in Piemonte.....My favourite wine is Barolo.  I have been waiting and waiting for today. To be in the town of Barolo and drink a glass of Barolo.  We did just that, and much more!

We started the day with breakfast downstairs where we ran into a Swedish couple Trevor had met yesterday.  We spoke about our plans and what we had done so far in Italy.  They invited us to join them for dinner tomorrow at a Michelin Star restaurant near by recommended by someone at the B&B.   I will let you know how it is.

We then headed into Barolo for our 11:00am appointment at the Marchesi di Barolo winery.  We toured the winery with a young guy there that knew tonnes about the winery and Barolo in general.  We saw the oak barrel used in the cellaring of the very first Barolo in history.  Marchesi still uses it.  Now it is more likely used to age Barbaresco, but still that's fascinating to me.  There are only 12 hills with vines that produce Barolo, and over 100 different Barolo producers.  Marchesi is one of the largest and only produces 60,000 bottles a year.  We finished our tour with three samples of their wines.  We chose the Nebbiolo, Barbaresco and the Barolo.  Of course Barolo was the favourite.  The winery then set up lunch for us.  As we walk into the "restaurant" which is more of a dining hall set up for a wedding, we check out our attire, and for the second day in a row we are embarrassingly underdressed.  No one there seemed to care, so we didn't either.  What followed was a absolutely amazing five course meal.  Veal with tuna sauce, warm asparagus flan, ragu with handmade pasta, veal braised in barolo (for over 8 hours), and coconut panacotta and chocolate cake.

Did I mention we were the only ones in the restaurant?

We had a 2006 Barbaresco that was from the grapes literally that were on the hill that we were looking out at from our table.  The picture below is Trev holding the glass of wine up to the window that has the vines with the grapes that exact wine is made from.  Simply amazing!  We may have had an empty glass or two at the end.  The chef then offered to show us the kitchen.  What a great end to the perfect meal.  Oh wait - I think we may have spent a euro or two in the wine shop downstairs.

The day continue with a tour of the Wine Museum.  YES - a museum of wine!  Where has this been all my life?  And people say I'm not a museumist (and by people I mean me)!  It was very interesting a full of facts and wonderful views.

After the museum, we hopped into a hot air balloon to take a leisurely float around the countryside.  It was breathtaking.  Man alive though as I thought he was going to give me 3rd degree burns on the top of my head.  That thing is smokin hot!

I want this to be my Ground Hog Day!