Friday 26 January 

We had a slow start, recovering from the tensions of the last 24 hours (see previous blog – Turin: 24 26 January 2024: David’s Book Launch), and trying to create extra visits in Caluso, to the north of Turin, on the way to Val D’Aosta. We used a taxi to reach the Hertz office near Porta Nuova (D’s knee makes walking tricky especially with luggage) where we collected an Opel, which David drove cautiously through the maze of roads and carriageways of central Turin towards Caselle and the north. Strangely his knee is fine when driving! 

Our first appointment was in the afternoon but David had been offered a tasting before lunch at the Caluso Cooperativo (whose traditional method sparkling Goccia Ora had been served as brindisi the night before). We arrived there at noon, and hastily worked through their opened bottles before they closed for lunch on the dot of 12.30. Our lunch was a pretty indifferent salad and a very ordinary pizza – we had been warned – at the local pizzeria. 

We arrived early at Cieck near San Giorgio at 14.20 just as Leah arrived and she took us straightaway to see the new style training systems – which her enterprising father has designed to reduce humidity and the render the grape bunches more accessible, at chest height. Cieck enjoys a superb view of Gran Paradiso from their gates.

We toured the building and admired the mix of old and new technology – her father is very handy and is able to maintain and continue to use some classic equipment, including an elderly sparking wine corking machine and an ingenious hanging system (using curtain clips) in the vinsantaia. There is even a mobile stove which they use in the vineyards to burn cuttings. We had a great tasting and achieved a swap : D’s book for two bottles of her passiti. 

We returned to the cooperative at 17.20 to taste the remaining red wine and their passiti, before tackling the very eccentric B and B Villa Albaluce in the centre of the town. Undoubtedly the vanity project of a very wealthy enthusiast collector of bric-á-brac, the rooms are on the first floor of an elegant house with a gated courtyard on one side and a fine enclosed garden on the other. 

We were first shown the salon and living rooms, said to be furnished authentically with extravagant, chintzy, highly elaborated pieces from the nineteenth century. The carpets, parquet floors, wallpapers and ceilings were all painstakingly restored. Having been shown round what felt like a museum, we didn’t venture there again.  

The apartment was comfortable; the only inconvenience was an awkward set of steps between the two levels of the kitchen and bathroom, and the bedroom. The heating worked well, aided by a versatile air-conditioning unit whose instructions were (for once) comprehensible! As their offerings for breakfast were unappealing we ate three times in what we named the WI (Women’s Institute) cafe: L’Angolo della Luli which offered modest portions of home-cooked vegetables and very friendly service.

Our first supper however was at Grillo, a very traditional restaurant with a good wine list – as well as back room full of locals enjoying pizza, while the tourists ate front of house in formal style, including a french-speaking swiss couple who we later realised were fellow guests at the Villa Albaluce. 

Saturday 27 January

Our morning appointment was at Benito Favaro 40 minutes away between Piverone and Viverone on the south-facing slope of the huge terminal moraine known as La Sella d’Ivrea. It was a gorgeous clear day with bright sunshine illuminating the Alps as we drove northeast towards the great bank of rock on which these vineyards sit. The soil is shallow, and boulders of granite of all sizes, shapes and geological eras emerge from the soil and are gathered for building materials…

Camillo surprised us with his own literary achievements including a serious tome on the wines of Burgundy, an english copy of which he kindly gave us, and his background in wine label design and other larger creations. He has also named his ‘eggs’ after the Beatles…

He is an interesting and realistic person whose wines are both delicious and uncomplicated. His young 40kg son has a role in grape-crushing, his father was cutting back last year’s growth as we spoke; a family concern entirely based in their cascina.

Sadly the very popular traditional destination ristorante 200m away was full, so we drove towards the lake to a large though very quiet Fior di Loto with its anxious and keen to please new Padrone, and ate a pleasant enough mixture of gnocchi, grilled vegetables and fritti misti. (Our meals on almost every occasion been prefaced by vegetables, as antipasti, often from the corntorni menu)  

We moved on to La Masera just to the north of Piverone, to meet Alessandro Comotto who showed us the pergola vines, still awaiting their winter tidying up. The warm sunny weather is delightful but there’s a risk that the vines will end dormancy and begin to grow, risking serious frost damage. He was an excellent guide, and showed us what turned out to be a rented cantina beneath a large community cascina made up of several occupied flats. 

During the tasting Alessandro gravely explained that this was to be his last. He began the business (with other partners) after a thirty year long career with Olivetti, and has enjoyed ten successful years in which the property’s production has doubled. Further expansion would require serious investment, not only of money, time and yet more work, and he feels ready for a different lifestyle and/or challenge. He finishes at the end of January. We wished him well. 

I think he will miss the view if not the seven day week!  

We drove down to Viverone lakeside, and hobbled along the little promenade by the lake’s edge past a café full of middle-aged bikers and perched on a concrete wall, to watch grebes, coots, possibly mallards and a few cormorants, as the sun went down over Caluso to the west.

We drove back to the Villa Albaluce in Caluso via Villareggia and Mazzé which felt long and slow; supper was once more in L’Angolo di Luli, where local families were gathering for their suppers and a small child held court happily until well after 21.30

Sunday 28 January

David’s lack of mobility meant we made more use of the car than we might have intended. Certainly walking around Torino was out of the question. Instead we hit on a drive north to revisit Carema with its extraordinary columns and pergola training on the very steepest and stoniest slopes. It was another gorgeous day, and of course every self-respecting Italian family had made plans for lunch in their favourite trattoria or ristorante so we struggled to find lunch.

We abandoned Carema and drove a couple of kilometres north to Pont St Martin within the Aosta region and stumbled on a very local, rather basic locanda with one chef and one man front of house in Donnas. The service was slow; our fellow guests very ordinary but it was fascinating to be part of a different mindset and style, with a window view of such steep pergola vineyards!

The journey was devised to take as long driving on the provincial roads from Caluso to Carema as the journey back via the motorway from Carema to Torino: 45 minutes each way. In reality a roadwork funnelling three lanes into one – albeit for a very short distance – added 20 minutes to our journey and we reached Torino as the sun was setting.

The next challenge was returning the car to the closed Hertz office south of Porta Nuova. We had been given helpful instructions which worked a treat – the car park opposite the very near petrol station in the adjacent Piazza doubled as an informal Hertz depot – and the keys were duly deposited in a letter box by the office. 

We had even more luck when an empty taxi pulled up at a red light, and we piled our luggage in and headed for the Hotel Diplomat, very close to Porta Susa. This is a very functional hotel, well placed for Grandi Langhe at the OGR (old railway works – another huge successfully repurposed building of real architectural style) and for buses and trains for Caselle Airport and Alba (as we were to demonstrate on the coming Wednesday). By 17.30 we were in room 411, David with his right leg elevated, and me in the shower. 

Supper the next two nights was eaten at the takeaway Poke immediately next door. Tremendous value, cooked/assembled on demand and bursting with vegetables. 

Monday 29 January

The hotel breakfast was more than adequate if understaffed and a tad chaotic. Supply couldn’t quite match demand but there was plenty of choice, at least theoretically. We walked (slowly) the fifty metres to the taxi stand, and in no time (for a princely € 7.50) we were piling out at the gates of the OGR.

Having signed up for the seated, ristorante service lunch (an ‘abundance of caution’ is the current motto – sitting down is key!) ) we sailed in on the dot of 10.00 to our first appointment with a relatively new winery whose young third generation family member and his very competent, english-speaking partner had launched on an estate which had until very recently simply sold on its grapes. Their fourth month old baby was in attendance, and was (as many first babies are) very content, even passive in one or other of his parents’ arms. 

The time passed remarkably quickly as we navigated the stalls, arranged alphabetically (!) though grouped in four areas: red, orange, green and blue, chasing down growers David had identified as of interest. The mornings are relatively quiet, and we bumped into many winemakers we knew, and David was complimented by complete strangers at least three times for his book, and especially its inclusion of the less well known varieties and denominations. 

Lunch was slow, but very civilised and comfortable, at €40 for two courses. We returned to a much busier, crowded hall and continued our progress. (Add list of producers from D’s records?) 

At the end of the day we crossed the very busy through road to the top of Corso Stati Uniti and phoned for a taxi, which came within minutes; all very civilised, though the young woman driver instructed us to use the house no.s next time! More rest, more Poke, and this time, a 660ml bottle of Birra Moretti for me from the take-away. (The second one is for tomorrow evening!)

Tuesday 30 January 

We repeated the processes: though a more chaotic and exhausted breakfast, a convenient taxi, and easy entrance; a different type of €30 lunch booked (still seated, but buffet not table service) and selected tastings, all at a sensible pace.

At 14.00 we met Valentina and her friend Erica. We had glimpsed her the previous day looking radiant, and as suspected, she is now much happier. She has a new Puglian ‘boyfriend’, a 48 year old wine maker, and they commute by train between Asti and Puglia as often as they can. 

Valentina is keen to organise another book launch in Monferrato. David also hopes to build on Ceretto’s similar suggestion, and plans to talk about dates, locations and occasions to Roberta Ceretto, over lunch in Alba’s La Piola on Wednesday ! 

Our final evening was spent in the very local La Piola di Torino with a bottle of Alta Langa and traditional food. 

Wednesday 31 January 

We woke early and after a quick breakfast I set off for the airport bus (no. 268) parked at bus stop 13 opposite Porta Susa train station. By 08.00 I was heading north through less salubrious areas of the city to Caselle and the airport. It couldn’t be much easier! The luggage was checked in, and security negotiated in a flash, and I settled down in a sunny corner of the departures area to await the gate number.

We were boarded 15 minutes before scheduled take off!  The plane was half empty, the flight left on time, and I arrived at Gatwick soon after 12.00, collected luggage immediately and was on a train to Clapham by 12.40; caught the 13.27 there, and arrived in Andover at 14.30; home by 14.50! A fantastically easy journey! 

Meanwhile David made his way cautiously to Porta Susa to travel by train to Alba, fist to have lunch with Roberta, and then to the hotel Calissano to take part in the very serious four day Nebbiolo Prima conference, organised by Albeisa. What a line up! 

Each morning tasting 45 bottles of: Thursday – Barbaresco ‘21 and Roero ‘21; Friday – Barolo ‘20; Saturday – more Barolo ‘20 and on Sunday, 20 bottles of Reservas from Roero ‘21, Barbaresco ‘20, and Barolo ‘18… visits to Marrone and Sordo, top quality inputs from Anna Schneider on Ampelography of the nebbiolo grape, and Edmondo Bonelli on the geology of the territory; and four dinners with several different groups of producers in ristoranti around Alba. 

David arrived home late evening on Sunday 4 February via Malpensa to Heathrow; another fantastic trip!