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Piemonte to Venice 8- Day Food & Wine Tour with Vino Rosso - Beginning in Neive and ending in Verona. September 22nd - 29th, 2010 CLICK HERE TO READ MORE
posted by System Administrator on 01/02/10
Slow food / Fast carsPiemonte means "at the foot of the mountains," the Alps, in fact, and has a culture and dialect that is closer to parts of France. Bordered by France and Switzerland it is rich in gastronomy and wine. Small Vineyards has several estates here in this region, and we want to introduce you to them! A region virtually unexplored by Americans, with some of the best food of Italy! Local cuisine has French influence and includes things like chard, anchovies, garlic and white truffles. Other great products include rabbit, vinegar, honey, grappa, chocolate, pasta, hazelnuts, panettone, cheese, and above all, Truffles. This region produces Asti white wines & include Moscato and sparkling Asti Spumante, and home to full-bodied reds that include Barbera, Barolo and Barberesco.Tre donne in Neive is one of our favorite estates! The story goes....As much as Alessandro Lequio loved his daughters, there was no way he was going to hand over the family vineyard to women. Four generations of fathers had handed the estate down to their sons, and even though he had not had a boy, Alessandro would be damned if the family business was going to be run by the fairer sex. “Marry a good winemaker,” he would tell them. Just as stubborn as their father, the sisters all staunchly refuted this notion, and assured him that he would be handing the estate over to them one day… In the end (and presumably tired of arguing), everyone agreed to a “do-or-die” wager, and literally bet the ranch: Deciding he could trick them into failure, Alessandro agreed to give the gals everything if they could pass three years of his rigorous tests, culminating in a single vintage of wine which he, himself would judge. To everyone’s surprise, the Sisters never gave up… and moreover, they actually won more awards in their first year of production than Alessandro had in his entire career! True to his word, their papa changed his tune and turned the estate over to his daughters. He even allowed them to change the name to ‘Tre Donne’ – which means “three women.”Day 1 - Chocolate and WineToday, we meet in the morning and get situated in our beautiful Hotel San Georgio, www.locandasangiorgio.it before hiking to the estate of Tre Donne, a short three KM's away, and for those of you who want a ride, it is available. Remember our fearless driver Fabio? We meet here at Tre Donne for an incredible tasting and tour of the estate, and a light lunch. In the afternoon, we tour the SLOW FOOD UNIVERSITY, and sit down for a lecture on what Slow Food is. The wine Bank, located in the historical cellars of the Agenzia di Pollenzo, is a centre of storage and refinement for the best wines of Italy. WOW! At the same time it is also a museum of Italian wine, offering visitors the chance to discover and to taste the wines from some of the most prestigious wineries around Italy.In the beautiful tasting room of the Winebank we offer you a sweet experience. We will enjoy different types of chocolate from Cherasco, with five sweet wines and grappas. A new challenge to see how chocolate can be matched with, sipping nice dessert wines.Dinner at San Giorgio tonight is fabulous. So much food, and impossible to resist.Day 2 - Touring the LangheToday we concentrate on Small Vineyards Estates. We tour the Langhe area, La Mora and Mon Forte. We have an excellent opportunity to see the countryside and taste Barolo and Barberesco wines. We stop for you to grab a snack along the way. Tonight, after a long day of being welcomed into family estates, we sit down to a fabulous and relaxing dinner at La Luna Nel Pozzo.At Small Vineyards, we like to find winemakers who listen to their own inner drum. Immediately upon meeting Federico Stella, at Podere Elia, one becomes aware that he is just such a man. Meticulous beyond belief in the cellar, and seemingly oblivious to the outside world, this young and talented producer possesses an uncanny instinct for making world-class wine. Respectful of traditional varietals, but unrelenting in his desire to improve, Stella experimented with over 30 combinations of French oak before settling on his cooperage formula! (Imagine that expense for a small estate!) Consistently he takes all of his wines right up to the edge of modernity, but then masterfully hovers there, never once crossing the line or going too far.Day 3 - Day trip to Torino.An agricultural center and industrial one as well, Piemonte and it's capital of Turin is a powerhouse that has young people flocking to work here. The city of Turin is also the capital of Italian engineering and its southern suburbs the home to automobile manufacturers Fiat and Lancia. With the second largest museum in the world of Egypt treasures, we can linger and enjoy this elegant city. Dropping us at Piazza Castello, we will take a tour of the city and enjoy this one-time Olympic site. Lunch is on your own today and we suggest you have fun at EATALY. After spending all day in Torino, also known as Turin, we head back to Neive for another fabulous dinner at San Giorgio.Day 4 - grappa, grappa, grappa. A visit through the distillery and a generous tasting of 6 different grappa's will finally answer the question "What is it!" The main ingredient of grappa is pomace, which consisits of the grape skins, seeds, and stalks that are left over from the wine-making process. These are taken through a second process of distillation, which extracts the remaining flavours from the pomace before the waste is discarded. After you breath fire and can decide if you are able to appreciate it!We visit Alba and enjoy some shopping. Charming and medieval, with old houses and stone towers, the city is in the heart of white truffle country and each Fall, truffle lovers the world over converge on the town for its annual truffle fair. Alba is also home to wine favorites such as Barolo and Barbaresco. To the south of the town are the chalk and clay hills of the Langhe, covered in vines, Oak, and Hazelnut trees. A view from this area explains the culinary gifts that nature has bestowed upon Alba.
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