The hills of Piemonte make for a great backdrop for capturing sunsets bathing grapevines in amazing lighting conditions.
Category Archives: Private Italy Tours
More Stormy Piemonte Skies
Knowing Nebbiolo Hands
One of the most aesthetically pleasing things to do in Italy in October is lose yourself in a vineyard on a hillside where Italian folks are harvesting the last of the late harvest grapes; our friends at Fratelli Mossio were collecting their nebbiolo (the last grape harvested typically in Piemonte). This shot was our friend Valerio Mossio’s 92 year old mother collecting grapes, and I think it’s the most beautiful photo I’ve ever taken except for those of my children.
Winemaking Art
The art is definitely found in the glass, but not only in the glass. Walking around an Italian wine producing house, you’re struck by how ubiquitous, how ever-present the beauty can be. Even something as simple as the results of a de-stemming process can captivate.
Visiting La Morra: A Tasting With Oddero
Poderi e Cantine Oddero is one of the most well known classic Piemonte wine producers; the Oddero family are warm hosts with an amazing product that evolves in the glass as you taste, whether it’s the Gallina Barbaresco, a single vineyard Barolo, or a blended one. Great wines, and an amazing location that really popped on the camera as the sun poked through the clouds. The best part was definitely getting to do a vertical tasting across a few different vintages of the Bussia (single vineyard Barolo). A bottle of the 2007 certainly found its way home with us, and will quit getting any older when Doug comes to visit Colorado this winter.
Fun with Wine and Google, Abbona Edition
So the other night we had the pleasure of savoring our dinner with Anna Maria Abbona’s lovely “Sori dij But” Dolcetto (that’s Piemontese dialect for sunny hills near Butti, the hamlet near Dogliani where they live and produce). Fantastic stuff; we love pairing Dolcetto with savory dishes. Break out the truffles, folks! So where does this wine hail from? We of course take to Google and investigate…
From high altitude Google Maps orients us slightly east of south from Torino in the more southerly part of the Langhe; the Abbona azienda forms an isosceles triangle with Bra and Alba.
Descending with a couple clicks shows us Azienda Agricola Abbona just south of Dogliani (as in the appellation, Dolcetto di Dogliani), close to Monforte D’Alba, and about 20mi south of Barolo proper. I see also the name of the impressive Grinzane Cavour castello appearing further north. Getting a feel for where this is.
Another click lower and the contours of the colline undulate (rolling hills) the Langhe is synonymous with start coming into focus. You can see what efficient viticulture use is made of this precious land. Forza Nebbiolo, Barbera, e Dolcetto! I know we’ve been through this neck of the woods, but have spent no meaningful time here. Time to change that, I can already tell.
At what looks like middling jetliner altitude, we get a good feel for the southwesterly exposure the Abbona folks enjoy; tightly packed hills full of magical fruit and an impressive compound come into view.
Finally, clicking down to the bird’s eye view:
It’s so green, so lush, and so full of the land-loving-respectful-of-the-craft character Piemonte is so widely known for. You could spend days wandering these hills eating and drinking and not getting bored for a moment…
Time to go visit. Indeed, after reading about the Abbona winery in Suzanne Hoffman’s magical Labor of Love: Wine Family Women of Piemonte book, the Abbona operation has been high on our list to explore. We’ll be checking out more of Piemonte doing some exploration on behalf of our clients in a few weeks, and will have more to write up. The camera shutter trigger finger itches, and the wine palate jumps up and down in excitement.
Ci vediamo a presto in Piemonte!
Will Anyone Save Venice?
Interesting Venice related political rant makes the NYT Op-Ed section. Good read on the need for sustainable tourism and how Italy’s local graft and incoherent national approach to politics isn’t helping Venice. Our comment was submitted to the NYT, we’ll see if they publish it.
“No effective provision on Venice’s behalf has been enforced so far by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, although protection of environment and cultural heritage is among the fundamental principles of the Italian Constitution.”
This is the maddening bit, right here–the Italians know what treasures they have, but their internal bureaucracy and graft prevent meaningful responses to crises like this. Local authorities being at odds with Rome over preservation is an understatement, as il Sindaco, the mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro is unabashedly and unashamedly in cahoots with the cruise ship biz, and makes no secret of his favoritism toward destructive tourism. Venice needs visitors, but it needs responsible, sustainable tourism, which is the only kind we’ll engage in. Please, visit Venice, but do it in the off season, don’t take a cruise ship but instead arrive by train or water taxi from VCE just across the lagoon, and stay in locally owned boutique hotels, and eat in family run restaurants away from the tourist traps close to San Marco that cater to the cruise ship crowds. Please, to help preserve Venice for future generations.
Cooking with Isa
How to Spend Time in Venice
Venice herself is timeless, but we are not, and the time we’re privileged to spend there we think should be devoted to reflection, absorbing its essence, and appreciation for its timecapsule fairy tale presence.
Come with us and embrace the mystery:
Drawing Post
Unless you can draw this well, you probably should consider getting some instruction from @SassiDrawing. (Hint: you cannot draw this well.)
Sassi Italy Tours 