Europe Part 2 (Food and Wine)

Day 1. Our first meal was lunch in Courmayeur. Pizza, salad, wine and local wine and Peroni beer. The pizza was 4 euros and was large and  good. After lunch tried my first real gelato and it was amazing. We had cantelope and peach. The flavors were intense and prices were very reasonable- 2 euros for a small cone.
We had dinner prepaid at the hotel. Mistake. 3 courses of nothing special although I had a decent vitello tonnato which is one of the specialities of the region. Thin slices of veal with a scoop of tuna sauce. Apparently there are a number of ways to prepare it. Courmayeur is in the Valle d' Aosta section of Italy. Had a glass of local red wine which was light and fruity.

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Day 2. Had breakfast at hotel. Buffet with fruits, meats, cereal, breads and one could boil an egg. Lunch was at a roadside restaurant. We ate outside and had roast beef, 2 kinds of quiche, salad, and french fries. It was the lunch special. The Aosta area is a mix of french and Italian.
Drove to the hotel Castello Di Sinio.hotelcastellodisinio.com
The hotel is owned by an American, Denise Pardini, who is also the chef. Dinner is in a beautiful room of the castle. We started with a Prosecco rose then were served an amuse buche of pea soup. We then had quail and fig salad, tagarin - thin pasta with local bra sausage ( a local specialty), leg of rabbit in tomato sauce, and lobster tail and beef. Dessert was strawberries with merangue layers and petit fours. For the wine I settled on 2 half bottles -- Pio Cesare 2007 Barolo and Pio Cesare 2007 Barbaresco. 26 euros each. The wines were a revelation.

Apparently Barbareseco is considered the more feminine wine and Barolo the more masculine. The 2007 vintage is not widely available in the US yet. It is an excellent vintage. The fruit and balance of the 2 wines was unlike previous Barolos that I had tasted. I do not remember previously having a Barbaresco. Apparently the 2007 vintage is more accessible early in its development than many other vintages. Both wines were superb although we liked the Barbaresco more. The dinner was beautiful and we met several other couples at dinner. When we  were ready to leave we could not believe that we had been there for over 3 hours. This meal was our most expensive of the trip and with wine cost over $220.

Breakfast the next morning was good. We had very good breakfasts everywhere.

Day 3- Our next stop was Le Case Della Saracca in Monforte d' Alba saracca.com. This is a small B&B type place with 5 rooms in an old building on a very steep hill in town. Guilio our host was great. He has a wine bar in the lower portion of the building. The wine bar is a rambling space with many rooms and alcoves over 3 floors. There are wines and tables everywhere. We met Giulio for a drink of prosecco and helped us plan our day. He suggested that we go to the town of Barolo and he made reservations for us at his friends winery at 5pm.
We drove around the area and went to Barolo. We tried to eat in Barolo but nothing clicked although we wanted to visit the wine museum. We tasted some Barolo in a small shop. It was good and then we went to La Morra for lunch.
The wineries in the Barolo area are generally small and there are lots of them, over 350. Some are located in people's houses. So one has the ability taste a tremendous amount of wines.
Walking in La Mora we came  upon an osteria that was busy. We had lasagna and ravioli with black truffles shaved over it. The ravioli was small and very delicate. We had a glass of Dolcetto D Alba which was light and fruity.
We went back to Barolo and visited the museum.
It was now time for our appointment at Podere Ruggeri Corsini. http://www.ruggericorsini.com/ It was down a side road and then a turn off to a dirt road. We arrived 20 minutes early and no one was around. We left and came back 15 minutes later and we met Loredana. She was delightful. We tasted about 6 of their wines and she served us some cheese and  bread.
wines tasted were ( I don't remember all of the vintages):
Langhe bianco DOC- white wine 50% Arneis, 30% sauvignon blanc 20% chardonnay
Dolcetto D'Alba DOC - 100% Dolcetto
Barbera D' Alba Superiore DOC "Armujan"
Langhe DOC Pinot Nero "Argamakow" 100% pinot nero"
Barolo DOCG "San Pietro' 2007 100% nebbiolo $25
Barolo DOCG " Corsini" 2007 100% nebbiolo $34
The wines were excellent. I bought a bottle of each Barolo. The Corsini is from older vines.Loredana handled the wines with great care. She poured a small amount into a glass and swirled the wine around the glass. She then poured that small amount out and poured a small tasting.

We discussed the wine business and how her wine is distributed in the US.  Our tasting confirmed that he 2007 vintage is producing wines that we found appealing.
She then showed the celler where the wine is made and stored. Barolo is fermented in large barriques and small barrels depending on the winemakers preference. There is a modern and traditional style of Barolo. the wines of Podere Ruggeri Corsini are available in NY and Washington state. She told me that DePalos in Little Italy in NYC carries her wine. I will be checking it out. BTW Decanter magazine just rated their 2006 San Pietro Barolo their number 1 wine in rating of hundreds of Barolos.

We then went back to the hotel and decided to eat dinner at Giulio's wine bar. We ordered pasta with a large shrimp in the shell and large roasted pork shank with roasted potatoes. We had an 07 Barbaresco from Boccalini to start and we had an 05 Barolo and a 1998 Insieme which was a blend of cabernet, merlot and nebbiolo. All of the wines were excellent although  I noticed that we were enjoying Barbarescos more than Barolos and we were really liking the 07 vintage. The wines that we were drinking were much better than the Barolos that we had at home and I don't believe it was a local ambiance effect.

Day 4- We had this day to explore since we were staying at Giulio's place another night. We went to Saluzza, a medieval town and Manta, which has a castle. Saluzza was a waste of time and the castle at Manta was closed on Mondays. My wife was not happy when I failed to read the sign at the bottom of the hille and we walked up a steep hill to then find out the castle was closed. We had lunch at a pizza place that ripped us off.
We went back to Monforte and decided to go to the food and wine places off the plaza. I owed my wife some nice wine after our morning ride. We stopped in a wine bar and had a glass of Pio Cesare Gavi 2010 and a glass of Elio Grasso chardonnay. The glasses of wine were 2.5E  Also had an apple cake/tarte. The wines were refreshing. We then walked around the town and stopped in a bakery and got an assortment of cookies. The cookies were not that sweet and we enjoyed them. We then went back to the wine bar and bought a bottle of the Gavi for later.

We later stopped in Giulio's wine bar since he was going to recommend a place for dinner. We suggested Trattoria della Posta, a mile out of town. trattoriadellaposta.it He made reservations for us. We had some arneis (local white wine) with Giulio and went off to dinner.

The restaurant was in a pretty location. We ate outside. We decided to order local specialties. We had vitello tonnato, onion stuffed with cheese, spinach ravioli with goat cheese, tagarin, strawberries and meringue for dessert again. We liked this version better. All the food was very good. For the wine I wanted to have a half bottle of Prunotto Nebbiolo d Alba and a half bottle of Parusso Langhe Nebbiolo. They did not have the Prunotto so we had the Parusso and then ordered a glass of Barolo and a glass of Barbaresco. The Nebbiolo was very nice but the wines by the glass were not good. The Barberesco was funky. Anyway I recently read an article by Antonio Galloni in the Wine Advocate issue 187, where he basically came down hard on the way restaurants in Piemonte store their wines. He recommends not even ordering an older wine in a Piemonte restaurant. Food for thought. The meal cost us about $120.

Day 5  Next stop Milano. Note- I am not trying to be pompous in some of my spellings of European cities and places but why have we change Milano to Milan, Piemonte to Piedmont, Italia to Italy etc. We drove to Milano and stopped in Alba for a  snack. we found a bakery for cookies and a small bar for prosciutto sandwiches.

We found our hotel in Milan. BTW my wife was our GPS unit for the trip. We went off to figure out the trains and to find a restaurant for dinner and find the Duomo.