Friday 17 November

After our unplanned visit to Burzi, we hurried into Alba as the Friday tea time traffic was building, to drop our luggage at the curious apartment just off the via Cuneo. We had assiduously studied the remote check-in video, keen to gain access, but in fact the two outer doors of the apartment were unlocked, and the keys were lodged in an open key safe.

We were due at Carlin de Paolo at 19.00, a winery near Cisterna so we joined the long stream of cars heading north to Canale, and arrived perhaps ten minutes late, to be greeted by Paolo, the youngest of four sons who between them cover all bases at their winery. We also met the eldest, Gian Carlo, who is the admin and business lead, since the sudden death of their father in 2017. A third son Francesco is the chef for whom the new ristorante area was recently built, and who also deals with the animals and cultivates an orto, and finally Davide – who we didn’t meet – is the enologist. Paolo was very enthusiastic and spoke very fast, as he rapidly showed us around the winery.

Supper was on the house. A couple of larger groups arrived, and we were seated at a table for two, first for a tasting, and then to eat their excellent food – but in very large quantities. (Three traditional types of antipasti; two types of pasta…all prepared by Francesco. We passed on the secondo and dolci, heading back on the now quiet empty roads to Alba to sleep in our strange apartment for the next three nights. 
Kate, their export manager, she filled us in when we met her later at the Truffle Fair (see Sunday) 

Saturday 18 November 

We woke late, and lay in; the week had been hectic and a deadline free morning was welcome. We moved slowly to the smarter bar just across the via Cuneo to use its wifi, before strolling around a packed Alba. The truffle fair clients competed with the usual market attendees, as even Via Vittorio Emanuele II was packed with stalls (as it had been in the summer)

We opted for Il Trittico for a light lunch. Chiara, looking as tired as she said she felt, chided David for failing to rate our group’s meal on trip advisor! This was quickly corrected. Their weekends are very busy, but she still has no help front of house.

We picked up the car from the public car park and drove to Julia Negri’s cantina on the south west side of La Morra to meet Daria, whom David had ‘met’ in a zoom interview for the WSET job-share post. The journey took us high up via Roddi and Verduno, a wonderful route along narrow, quiet roads.

Daria showed us the cantina, and explained the layout, height and aspects of the various vineyards from that glorious terrace that overlooks the woods and on to Cherasco. There was a spectacular view north, stretching towards the alps as the sun began to set. The tasting was interesting, and David filled Daria in on the WSET business, and she described her academic journey with its spell in France, and a second Masters degree, based last year in Asti, and now in Alba. She shares David’s love for learning and for knowledge, and spoke very highly of Prof Giacosa.

The evening was spent in Armonia about which David had read in a Gambero Rosso write-up. It’s a new ambitious contemporary ristorante with a ‘Piemontese/Calabrian collaboration’ and a very courteous, slightly pedantic front-of-house person who both apologised for David’s too cold glass of Nebbiolo and then waived its cost. The rest of the service – by young and probably inexperienced staff – was fine if stiff; the ristorante has some way to go in terms of a confident delivery. This was perhaps the one expensive meal too many! 

Sunday 19 November 

Kate from Carlin de Paolo had supplied us with tickets for Alba’s Truffle Fair, so we set off quite early on this cold clear morning, making our way through Alba heaving with Sunday shoppers. An enclosed courtyard contained dozens of stands, many selling truffles, of course; others a range of cheeses, and prosciutto, wines, olive oil and other delicacies.

We left mid morning, walking once again to the big market carpark, and drove to Cherasco to rendezvous with Sara and Fabrizio Matteodo by the clock tower on the very handsome main street, after a quick coffee nearby. Sara took us to see her mother’s cascina in what used to be the jewish quarter, where she runs a bed and breakfast, and where the Matteodo family will move when the granny flat is ready.

We drove back to our apartment, via Verduno and Roddi in the fading light; to pack, shower, and change for dinner at La Visione in Tre Stelle, whose interior was simply elegant and assured, and the food outstanding if very rich.

A lovely bottle of Lange Nebbiolo provided a last hurrah before we leave in the morning by train for Turino. On our return to Alba we carefully parked the car where we had found it a week earlier – in the big public car park in front of I Castelli and dropped off the keys in the key box of the Maggiore office nearby.

Monday 20 November

We walked to the station with our luggage, to catch the 09.07 train for Turino, and Forum Nizza. Tickets were a princely €6.70 each, for a journey lasting an hour and a quarter.

We arrived at the big terminus in Turino, and remembering our stay earlier this year made our way on foot to the centre of the city, to the hotel Turino Castello via XX Settembre; enjoyed a coffee on the house while our room was being prepared, and then moved on to the ristorante to meet Silvia, from the agency.

Here we met Stefano Chiarlo, only two days after his father Michele’s death, aged 88. Many condolences were exchanged; Michele was the founding father of the Nizza denomination, established in 2014. Lunch was black truffled, in the Balui ristorante next door to Fresh Cut, where we ate a lunch in January, and close to the Egyptian Museum in the very centre.

From there we followed Silvia to the enormous  Palazzo Carignano with a staircase designed for giants and into a first floor suite of rooms furnished with huge paintings of the great battles of the liberation and the heroic Garibaldi. It felt like a film set or a series of posters advertising some epic. Never mind a film about Napoleon! Where is the one for Garibaldi?

David worked out that he had tasted all but two of cantinas represented in the masterclass, (which was hopelessly long and drawn out and perpetuated the myths around Barbera’s origins with scant regard for contemporary genetic research) but it was good to re-connect with some familiar faces, who showed keen interest in David’s book.

Supper was at Le Vigne, a small unpretentious ristorante where finally Bagna Cauda and funghi porchini were on the menu, served by waiter reminiscent of the pirates of the caribbean cast.

Tuesday 21 November

We slept well, breakfasted and used a taxi (driven very fast by a friendly and talkative driver) to the airport. Our final excitement of the trip was the result of ‘an abundance of caution’ as the pilot described his last minute decision not to complete the landing at Gatwick owing to ‘turbulent crosswinds at ground level which threatened the plane’s stability’. We eventually landed safely…. Home in time for choir!