Wednesday 8 May 

After breakfast we joined Alessandro for a tour of Tenuta La Cova here, while his local ‘family’ (perhaps dipendenti – employees) dealt with a huge conifer tree that had fallen across the narrow drive 20 m from the electronic gate. Roberta had ‘escaped’ at 07.30 so its collapse was very recent. Once clear, we followed him to their other property beyond Santo Stefano Belbo where Roberta was already looking after guests, and tasted there too.  Both wineries use the traditional name of this smaller, more homely agriturismo – Cadgal. It was a clear bright day, such a contrast with the mist, drizzle and heavy rain of yesterday. 

We drove to lunch in APE in Santo Stefano Belbo where David and Allan had eaten in 2022, and sat in a sunny glassed verandah while the staff finally began to take out the summer tables and chairs. As David worked on their wifi, I snoozed on an uncomfortable bench to the right of the path, (se RHS of LHS photo below) opposite an earnest young couple (see LHS bottom corner of same photo below) who talked there for hours, (the young seem to have forgotten other ways of communicating) and in view of the steep hill beyond, whose position is reminiscent of the hill of Hermitage…

We were due at Emanuele Gambino’s Monvì Wine Relais at 16.00 and we arrived at this beautiful former Cascina once owned by the family of Marquis de Gresy (see Barbaresco) which Emanuele has renovated very tastefully, retaining its original external features, on a site which on a clear day commands 360 degree views of the Alps (still with snow, which last fell on the first of May) to the north, la Morra to the west, the mountains behind Genova to the south and even Milan to the east.

The interior holds 10 bedrooms, a wellness centre and saunas, and we enjoyed room 10 with its bedroom bath. His mother Patrizia Robino, owner of the Tenuta La Romana, and whose home is a stone’s throw away, joined us at the end of the tasting, and we ‘dined’ on antipasti and russian salad while she and Emanuele battled for air space. The Maitre-di /minder Paul left us to it at 19.45, (above on RH side of first photo) as did Christina on reception (both seeming to be as much in charge of Emanuele, as he of them) and the chattering only stopped when Patrizia’s partner called it a day.

David was keen to explore the dramatic town over which the cascina looked before the light failed. It was only as we reached the rather scruffy square at the foot of its enormous castle that we realised that two years ago we had witnessed a marriage at the little church on the left, and indeed had eaten in Enoteca Caffé Roma, and stayed in a B&B nearby. The town is no less dreary at night than it had been then! 

Thursday 9 May

We left at 09.00 to drive to Pico Maccario for 10.00,  conveniently situated just before the E17 motorway that we would be using to reach Gattinara, en route passing extraordinary views of the landscape (above)

We were greeted by Nicolò;  very tall, quietly spoken wine maker who clearly enjoys the scale and the ambition of this winery; its size matches him, as does the foresight in the 90s of constructing a large, well-organised, efficient plant, as well as creating vineyards from the start which would accommodate very high tech management and harvesting. He was a great host, and at every point we could see why this place works. 

The huge bright-coloured pencils seen in the vineyards at the end of each row are matched by a palette of colours, one for each wine, in the tasting room shop. The pencil-shaped tins which contain each bottle continue the theme… The cellar, built with Moretti’s pre-cast concrete blocks (Cf Petra in Tuscany and 137 others!) reverberated under my feet as I tapped the floor. A layer of water beneath the concrete apparently to maintain temperature and humidity.   

But it was the monster, computerised harvester that stole the show. It responds to the data collected electronically just before harvest about the vigour, various ripenesses, yield of every square metre, and can collect, sort and de-stem on the go, from two differentiated areas.  

We ate in the modest Osteria del Gallo Martino in the Commune di Frascaro where the menu was simply a list delivered by the madrone. I had tortolini con bacala and D had a beetroot risotto. €23 later, and on the road again by 14.00, we were heading north to Gattinara.

Google produced two different routes on our two phones, but we stayed with motorway and came off at the Ghemme junction, close to Fara, and drove up a few km to the bridge, and then south into Gattinara. The hotel Il Vigneto was exactly as we had left it; grandad slumped in front of a war film (germans versus italians on horseback?) next to his zimmer frame. I doubt much will change until he goes… 

A pleasant enough hotel room, a bright afternoon’s sunshine, and a short walk to Delsignore where Stefano arrived at 16.30 hot foot in a small, old Renault from his tiny vineyards. The yard gate, near the roundabout opposite Nervi, swung open and we stepped back in time into a property which in his memory had housed several related families and chickens, and fodder storage as well as a small cellar. Stefano was a great host, showed us around, explained his history and his choices, as we tasted in his small and very cool tasting room.

We left at 18.30 and to warm up sat on a warm stone shop window ledge facing west in the hot sun. We had rehearsed the dinner options with Stefano, opting in the end for traditional La Brioska, knowing that tomorrow lunch was at the very opposite end of every scale – at michelin-starred Nervi. At the end of the meal we found ourselves part of a multi-lingual conversation across three tables; largely Swiss French but interjections of Swiss German, and alot of English. Hilarious ! 

The main church of Gattinara is brick built, and as Stefano pointed out, the decoration around the West entrance tells us that grapes have been an important part of life for centuries

Friday 10 May 

At Vinitaly Alessia and her mother Cinzia of Travaglini, had invited us to visit them, and at 09.15 we found our way to their large winery built by her grandfather on the edge of Gattinara, close to their vineyards.

Alessia had commandeered the estate’s especially restored Land Rover and drove us all around their 55 hectares along the most extraordinarily narrow roads and tracks, passed elderly curmudgeonly neighbours tending their modest plots to the high spot of the…. vineyard, where we also saw Conterno’s new outsized ‘garage’ as Alessia called it, and one of his small robotic tractors.

(The photo is misleading! The wine glass is an installation, matching that on the central roundabout in Gattinara and not a tractor component!)

There seems to be little love lost between these two main Gattinara growers; and Delsignore showed rather more tolerance of his newish neighbour and friend. Alessia welcomes 2,500 visitors each year and wants to show the vineyards to the very keen. A laudable aim but the difficult topography and the limiting transport infrastructure is challenging – hence the adapted Land Rover, which she clearly enjoys driving. 

The tasting was excellent, and the large barrel room was extraordinary – they looked like a herd of elephants ! The original moulds for the eccentric bottle shape now reside at the winery:

After a fascinating morning we left for a 12.15 appointment with Elisa at Nervi to taste the recent vintages before lunch in their ristorante. She had shown us around two years ago (see Piemonte 10) and after a late start we had a friendly warm catch-up and tasting of the recent vintages.

Lunch was a curious business, partly due to my unrealistic expectations of expensive dining, and the noisy foursome already ensconced in the chef’s table row. It was surprising to be greeted in an exaggerated and sycophantic way by a local winemaker whose winery we had visited two years ago, and annoying not to be able to avoid hearing all their often banal and noisy conversation. 

The chefs meanwhile busied themselves with constructing elaborate and indisputably tasty dishes (though the meat dish was decidedly tepid and a little tough) from pre-prepared components kept in myriad plastic boxes. Not a pretty sight.

So much for ‘chef’s table’ dining. It was more a delicate construction site than a kitchen. The only actual cooking I saw was preparation for the evening’s fish dish, as we were leaving. An old lesson re-learned: courtesy and good taste (literal and metaphorical) don’t always accompany money.