Sunday 8 May :  taking leave of Canavese

Dressed for church, Antonino drove us in the vineyard 4 x 4 around all 45 hectares of Tenuta Roletto. His wife, equally gregarious, joined us briefly at breakfast. We eventually left at 10.00 and I tackled the quiet drive to Gattinara. We stopped for coffee and fuel before we arrived early at the hotel il Vigneto on the town’s main street to be greeted by a bemused receptionist.

This was the view from the bedroom of the newly installed water feature in the piazza below. We unpacked at last and settled for lunch in the hotel’s full and noisy restaurant as the rain began again.  

An hour’s siesta followed; then a passagiata to identify eateries, and back to the hotel for a beer and compiti. Finally a fabulous light meal at the very local Trattoria del Sogiorno where minimal staff were exemplary, as was the Rum Babà. Hurray. 

Monday 9 May: Gattinara, Costa della Sesia and Bramaterra DOCs

Our first appointment was at 09.30 at Antoniolo a kilometre north on the Corso Valsesia.  Lorella Antoniolo, sometime president of the Consorzio, had organised the hotel and our itinerary, and we met in her winery.

Distances this week were modest and thanks to Lorella the programme was efficient and less demanding. She drove us up to the castello to the NNW of Gattinara, passing a very steep vineyard as she explained the lie of the land.

We returned to her cantina and then tasted in her shop, (surviving the assault of a random brush seller who pesters regularly) before moving at 11.30 to Nervi Contorno in the heart of Gattinara        

The photos say it all! The newish project of Roberto Conterno is all glass and space and vast numbers of fermentation cylinders and beneath, huge botti. Nervi had several episodes of bad luck through the C20 and eventually Conterno acquired the company in 2018, and has completely reconstructed the old cellar, now a classy ristorante, and built this vast statement. His personal assistant in Gattinare showed us round; she warmed up quickly when we recounted our meeting with Roberto last Autumn in Monforte, and explained her role and relationship with the business. 

We stopped at a roadside restaurant en route to Brusnengo, shortly before the right turn off the old Gattinara – Biella road. For €10 we had an excellent three course meal in less than 35 minutes.

By 14.30 we found our host Andrea and his dog at Noah in Brusnengo, in Bramaterra, just off the Via ForteIn. In an upstairs room of their old cascina we tasted his five wines. A former architect, born locally, and his Milanese wife Giovanna still rent a cantina near by, but hope to build their own. 

Our next appointment at 16.30 was with Colombera & Garella  at Cascina Cottignano 2 in Masserano. Our host Giacomo was in the vineyard, though his dog greeted us energetically until contact was made, albeit by phone. (In the meantime a neighbour borrowed the lawnmower…) We entertained ourselves in the wonderful late afternoon sun.

Formerly a rice grower, his father started here in 1991. Christiana Garella joined in 2011, and Giacomo, his brother Guiliano and a cousin all work the vineyard with its distinctive red soil from the iron in porphyry and volcanic rock, and some sands from alluvium. A breeze moved through the flowering trees; very fetching. 

We tasted two wines in a small functional tasting room before heading back to Gattinara for supper in il Vigneto’s own ristorante: venison, and more seafood. Everywhere else was shut! 

Tuesday 10 May : Lessona DOC

A relatively leisurely start gave us chance to assess the DHL depot (not promising) and spot that the town market closes the main thoroughfare on Tuesdays. Thence to Lessona, just to the north of Cossato to the west of Gattinara for a 10.00 appointment at Tenuta Sella

We met Riccardo Giovannini at the Sella family’s very functional winery, at one time a textiles mill. 

The modest style (ie seriously unflashy) is a stark contrast to Conterno’s Nervi of yesterday. But this is a family who have produced wines continuously for 350 years alongside their banking traditions (the largest private bank in Italy and now into a vibrant Italy-wide venture capital culture)

We went straight into the nearby vineyard for a detailed explanation of the sophisticated netting against the hail (but also the many various animals). Riccardo is from Trentino, widely travelled, very European, and with excellent and technical English. I was gripped and now know how to protect my espaliered cherry from ravaging birds !

On to the family summer Villa at San Sebastiano allo Zoppo where the hill on which it sits enjoys a mediterranean climate partly owing to its southern aspect and its particular conical shape; sandy soil, fast draining, and low in macro elements, with milder winter temperatures. The old cellar spaces remain beneath the house, and the family use it for a focus for their meetings; the vertical canon is an early (and not very successful) technology developed to disperse hailstorms… It’s big!

Lavoro, Concordio, Parsinomio (= careful, cautious; not pejorative) is the motto of the family, punched onto the bottom of the traditional shaped bottles and lived out in their business ethos. 

.We skipped lunch in order to arrive promptly at Villa Guelpa at 14.00 in Lessona, grazing on oranges and peanuts squirrelled away from hotel stucchini. The Villa takes its name from an early minister of agriculture who lived here, travelling to and fro by train which stopped virtually at his gate. It was he who fostered the textile industries in the valley which valued the very clean water with its low ph to clean, spin and weave wool. The photos from 1932 show a great deal of civic pride in the new bridge and a worrying excess of uniformed, saluting men….

Our host used to be at Nervi, until the ‘Norwegian’ took it over and finally sold it to Conterno. It’s a small world. He has plenty of ambition – eg 60,000 bottles; an old train; more special vineyards.

The tiny steep terraced vineyards were abandoned for the factories, but Davide has finally persuaded 10 separate owners of the tiny hill behind the house to sell him the land, which he has cleared and terraced, and begun planting. The sandy soil is very special, and unusual, and deep. 

The house looks as it was in the early twentieth century, now tired and dated, but it is used not only for his family of five boys and two little girls, but also for wine lovers to stay and to taste. 

We said our farewells, and headed to Proprietà Sperino on the Via Orolungo 34 in the Lessona district at Le Piane – their offices and bottling area. Here Luca dei Marchi (son of Isola e Elena) burst in, warm, agitated, fast speaking – in English, fortunately. We talked for an hour, in the office on the little prato near the vineyards, before he drove us to the large house in Lessona which his family has inherited from distant relatives. 

The cellar there remained unused and untouched since 1906 until Luca took up his own challenge to rescue the tradition of fine wines (made in Lessona largely by and for cultured aristocratic families in the C18 and C19). The house remains as it was left in 1906, with its wallpaper said to be originally from Farrow and Ball, now replaced by more of the same, specially ordered. 

Luca’s wife joined us back at the offices, and the conversation continued until after 20.00. We returned to Gattinara to the ristorante near the hotel (ristorante Villa Paolotti) for a supper (a rabbit starter among other things) and a pleasant local Rosato, though compromised by a loud table of four one of whom spent half an hour telling us all why she didn’t like Germans. Guten Nacht! 

Wednesday 11 May : Ghemme and Boca DOCs

09.30. Torraccia del Piantavigna  on the Via Romangnano 69 in Ghemme

We drove north from Gattinara to cross the Sesia at Romagnano. There was great confusion on our arrival in Torraccia’s enoteca – we were not expected – but eventually Giorgio arrived from the Cantina where the bottling of the Rosato was going badly; he had expected us at 11… 

We tasted the range of the wines with some misinformation from and an awkward relationship with the man in charge of pouring. The shop sells not only wine, but its distilled products too.

We visited here in 2014 with the minibus group and met Nigel Brown who has now moved on to the Côte D’Azur. We made a quick visit to the cellar (once the key was found) where we tasted 2020 Ghemme, and Gattinare, in purezza. Giorgio’s Australian adventure has improved his english but loosened his grasp of Torraccia’s wines though he was able to provide us with a entrée to a rare producer of the Alba DOC (Giorgio originates from Alba) 

On to Antiche Vigneti di Canteloupe just a km south, also in Ghemme, on Via M. Buonarotta 5 to meet an elderly, friendly, slowly spoken Alberto Arlunno who took us through the vineyards’ 1000 year old history, starting with oversight and ownership by the Cluny monks, with references from San Maiolo, abbot of Cluny, and to Cardinal Mazarin, full name Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino, who ‘fathered’ Louis XIV, metaphorically. The mineral rich rocks in the vineyards were referred to as the jewels of the Cluny monks.

I was surprised to see the coats of arms of both the pope and English crown, embossed on huge botti.
The Cantina is around 40 years old, and enormous; well organised and calm. It does feel museum-like. We tasted a string of expressive and well made wines, including a cru – Collis Breclemae.

Onto le Piane at Piazza G. Matteotti 2 in Boca for 14.30 to meet Christoph whom we had met at VInItaly. He showed us the fascinating Maggiorina training system, used since Roman times. Now posts replace the trees but are still referred to as arbori morti 

Christoph also showed us the tiny Cerri vineyard which is being being carefully restored 

He showed us the very orderly ranks of his newer vineyards, where we could see the tiny Nebbiolo grapes beginning to form with their characteristic wings/shoulders/ears near the stem which are sometimes removed, and then took us to his Cantina – now being extended and reconstructed.

At 16.30 we arrived at Davide Carlone Grinasco Via M. Sagliaschi in the Frazione Torche whose cantiniere was locking up as we arrived. Fortunately he phoned Davide, who was occupied elsewhere. Soon after his sister arrived from the house alongside and we tasted with her from the tanks. Davide is busy reinstating a huge vineyard at the top of the hill we passed as we came in on the newly restored road from Boca. The huge earth-moving machinery on such steep slopes looked terrifying ! 

We arrived back at the hotel in time for a stroll around Gattinara, and then supper at the Cavallerie which was pretty competent though the service tailed off and coffee was forgotten. Expensive too.  The loud-speaking party from the previous supper arrived, but their conversation was accompanied by that of a french foursome, and several other tables. We suspected an Italian football final may have distracted both the young waiter and the owner. 

Thursday 12 May : more small DOCs east of the Sesia: Colline Novaresi, Sizzano and Fara

10.00 Francesco Brigatti Via Olmi 31 in Suno – c 5.5 hectares

The drive to Suno was straightforward – a brief delay at a railway crossing – and Francesco was rounded up by perhaps his mother from his handsome newish house, built on the footprint of an earlier, not historic building whose exact shape he had to match. We visited his vineyards 4 Km away and saw pergola Erbaluce, and several other eccentric training systems. 

A beautiful, affluent or at least comfortable area with mixed agriculture making for a bucolic landscape, attracting some retirees ( two golf courses nearby) and some who commute; well placed for both Milan and Turin. But all quasi paradisi have down sides; his are the dini – fallow –  caprioli – roe – and cervi – red – deer and  ucelli – birds.  The deer are an increasing problem, eating sometimes a third of the crop. Culling is either banned or deeply resisted by what he called the Bambi factor. 

A quick tour of the cellars, concrete and tonneaux, followed by a tasting therein. These wines are Vini Novaresi: Mottobello – Erbaluce 2020, 13.5%, followed by Selvalunga – 100% Uva Rara 2021 12.5% – very drinkable and characteristic of the territory, and to Francesco’s surprise, sought after, along with Vespolina, in the USA, in UK via UltraVino. Maria, the name of Francesco’s youngest child, is a Vespolina, 100% 2020. A very popular drink in bars these days…the cantina smells of green peppers and cinnamon when it ferments. 

Môtziflon 2018 13% is the Nebbiolo, with small amounts of Vespolina and Uva Rara, with some wood ageing. It means the hill of the song birds.  Môtfrei 13.5% 2019 is a 100% Nebbiolo grown on sabbia – sandy soils – and some new oak, half and half. Motto means hill – like Bricco; Môt in dialect. Ghemme (Nebbiolo on clay), Oltre il Bosco 2018 at 14% was my preferred Nebbiolo. 

Francesco recommended ristorante Macina close by where we had a delightful lunch of local salami, smoked salmon, rabbit and lamb… terrific, before arriving at 14.00 at Paride Chiovini on the Via Guiseppe Garibaldi 20 in SIzzano

Marie Elena Randetti met us and talked to us in the tiny cantina about the Sizzano wine with Nebbiolo, 70%, Vespolina 25% and Uva Rara 5%; the Ghemme is all Nebbiolo. Sizzano DOC is very small; only 7 hectares are declared. Imported by Luca Of Passionivini. Her background was in business and hospitality, and she has recently joined forces with Paride Chiovini, and is working on WSET course qualifications.

The wines take the names of Greek deities: Athena, an Erbaluce, ideal w fish, and white meat; Eros, Afrodite, Briseide; Hera has some dried Erbaluce grapes. 

A quick visit was spontaneously arranged by Marie Elena to one of her friends, Paolo Cominoli at Cantina Comero  just round the corner, whose parents were astonished at our arrival, but he was delightful and helpful. Formerly a farm with milk cows and cereals, (the former finished off by a lightning strike) since 2009 he has been making wine in Sizzano after university in Milan, both for himself and for others, as well as working in the summer in Conegliano. His Nonna helped him at the start, even in the vineyards. 

All from the Colline Novaresi DOC : La Grazie del Marchese is Erbaluce 100%; then Vespolina 2018 13%; and Nebbiolo  13% 2019. Then Sizzano DOC: Nebbiolo 70% & 30% Vespolina, from Località Priosa. 

We moved on to Vigneti Valle Roncati on the Via Nazionale 10/a at Fara, near Briona. 

Fara is a small DOC whose main fame came originally from rice. This was a pretty chaotic despite the attendance of a polite young man sent along by someone at Torraccia to interpret. The easily distracted Cecilia and her autistic son made this very difficult to concentrate. We learned that the mosquito season hadn’t begun; it’s when water is pumped into the rice fields that trouble starts! 

Friday 13 May : Valli Ossolane DOC

We traipsed with 17 bottles to the car before an earlyish breakfast, and set off north for Domodossola’s Mailbox (in the v centre of the old town) to dispatch them to the UK. David pushed past the caution of the woman at the desk (Brexit has taken its toll) and off the olive oil went….

Relieved, we wove our way through this complicated town and headed to Edoardo Patrone on Borgata Baceno, half way up the mountain, for our 10.30 appointment. 

Edoardo, son of a local restauranteur, has travelled widely making wine in Spain, Australia, the Langhe and returned to his home town to start a winery from scratch. His partner, Stella, originally from Vietnam, started working here in 2017 – and they soon married. 

We tasted Basin, a spumanti extra dry; then a rosato with a splash of Merlot which was mainly Nebbiolo; and a white made from Chardonnay for a neighbouring restaurant called Stella…

Four Nebbiolos:  from Eca, Maria Rita, and La Volp; then Villa Mercante’s  – Prünent, and finally Edoardo’s : Vigna Vagna  and Prünent Stella, half Merlot half Nebbiolo

Villa Mercante were unable to host us but had sent their wine to Edoardo, and Lorella’s plan was changed to a second visit to Corelo who gave us lunch at their agriturismo La Tappia, above Villa Dossola, way up the mountain, which began life as a cantina completely reconstructed by our host, Corrado Zaretti, almost single-handed, from 2006 onwards. He is a mechanic; his wife is the  cook for the ristorante and his daughter has an agricultural training and works full time. 

We tasted a 100% Chardonnay Tapiòl; fresh, clear, fruity; great acidity and sapidity, good mountain light. Also But, another Chardonnay at 13% followed by Barbarossa, 100% Merlot at 14.5%. No barriques; no wood; fruity, smooth. Finally 2,400 bottles of Prünent 100% Nebbiolo.  

The first photo above shows the borgo before Corraldo slowly restored it !

And as we tasted we learned his azienda lies on footpaths from Saas Fe; friends who live nearby (but in Switzerland) had walked in 2016 to Macugnaga valley over the Monte Moro pass, close by.

We had a slow Friday afternoon drive to Pertinasco to the wonderful new lakeside Cascina Tumas, on Via Passeggiata a lago 54, on the east side of Lago Orta; delightful – with beautiful views.

Supper was at the Hotel Apaldo – a huge hotel catering for coaches, as well as Swiss, Germans, French and Russians. We had a lake view, and after a dodgy start over a bottle of Colombo, things settled down. The food was good. We walked back along the lakeside path; well lit and entirely pedestrian to the sound of water lapping. 

Saturday 14 May 

 Changing gear isn’t easy. I was keen to go on the Navetta (Sat, Sun and Festivi only; plus daily in the first three weeks of August)  which weaves between the settlements, and our first and only stop – though we could have visited several others – was to Orta itself. The little town teems with tourists but manages to retain its charm. The views from the boat were spectacular; the air, the light, the warm May sunshine made for a memorable day.

The Michelin star hotel and ristorante there had caught D’s attention a week ago. We gradually slowed down, and opted for a quiet afternoon in our own exceptional space in Pertinasco. Great local pizza and salad in a small unremarkable ristorante and the discovery of a fine enoteca and deli (to which we returned later) made for a happy afternoon. Cascina Tumas is a real find…. 

Supper in the Vecchio Forno was disappointing, and it was a shame Chelsea lost the FA cup on penalties. The hour long journey next morning to Malpensa was uneventful, and the woman at the car-hire was very civilised about the scratches.

The flight back was also uneventful, though the baggage handling at Gatwick was very slow, but the car was delivered to level 4 of the Pink 3 car park bang on time. The M25 was Sunday evening busy but not problematic as we drove home. I’m always grateful to return safely and in one piece!