Torino

the single most amazing place this trip. I was there this morning, then I went shopping at the galleria across the street, but the whole time I was at the galleria, I wanted to be back here. I want to go shopping here everyday for my foodstuffs and beverages. I want every meal to be a degustazione, with care and thought put into each bite. I thought I'd find this place to be super cheesy, but it's the real deal!


Wine on tap, Cause I love some sfuso!








Gelato. People were lined up here, so I said Hells Yeah! I'm glad I did. Nothing screams Italy like una coppeta di Stracciatella.








And finally, uno spritz, con Aperol per favore! Preferably with a beautiful Piazza and a continuous stream of older gentleman in orange pants.

L'Ultimo Giorno in Canale

Final day in Canale:
We took 4 trucks, full of barbera and turned them all into grapey-goo. Unload the trucks, into the de-stemer, through A giant hose, into a tank. No added yeast, unless later fermentation gets stuck. Giacomo (Roberto’s sun) showed me some ‘Noble-Rot’ on a bunch of barbera, it’s a grey moldy looking thing.
After all the grapes were in, we hosed down al the machines and made ready for a group of Norwegians, 20 or so to taste at the restaurant. I went downtown to look for a ravioli form for XTN, but couldn’t locate one (maybe Torino today). So I headed back up the hill to the winery, and when I got there, Roberto made me translate his Italian to the Norwegians. I think they were bored with Italian wine, because what they really wanted to know about were the differences between California and Europe. I think I safely scared them from ever trying any California wine....
After the tasting many of them came u to me, and thanked me and said they had been to 5 wineries, and this was the best tasting so far, most informative and entertaining. I think that's pretty good for not speaking Norwegian or Italian perfectly.

No pics from yesterday, Just tired. I woke up at 6:30am, walked to the Bar to get a cafe, walked to the winery to post yesterdays blog entry, then Tadshi and I were taken to Cisterna in Asti to pick the Bonarda. Oh My God. very steep hillside, with very loose footing, in the morning all was well but as soon as the sun was out I got very tired very fast. I am really glad I id it, but also very glad its over. The Romanians picked 3 rows to every one of Tadashi and I’s. At around 10:30 we took a coffee break, and it was an amazing moment. Coffee on the side of a very steep vineyard, with the Italians and Romanians arguing about what types of cars are better.
We got back to the apartment at 1:30, I showered and changed and went back to the winery to figure out how to get to Alba to meet Lane, and go shopping. Roberto ended up taking me, and I had a wonderful afternoon in Alba, and got 2 older bottle of Marcarini Brunate.
After shopping, we went to Lane and Mollie’s house and had aperitivi and wonderful conversation. Evan from the winery came at around 8 to get me and take me to a wine maker dinner in Mango. at the dinner were many wine makers and other stages.
The theme of the dinner was ‘blind’ tasting from around the world and Piemonte. We had wonderful and weird wines from the all over the world, paired with more traditional Piemontese food. At around 11:30/midnight my body crashed, ad I actually went out the the car to sleep, like a baby.
Sorry for the ‘slice of life’ style prose but I wanted to get a post up before working today, and sooo many things happened yesterday I couldn’t pick just one event.

Racolta

I made a mistake, tomorrow we pick Bonarda, in Asti. it's a very steep hillside, I oked with Roberto Damonte "come mossel?" Si! Si!. So, if you never hear from me again, I fell down a hillside in Asti. "In Boca al Lupo!". Today we recieved some old vine barbera: The pics are, barbera being brought in, destemed and the tank it is going into, also there are 10,000 Roero Arneis DOC bands

The sugar levels for the various vineyards we visited yesterday








A layer of seashells, it's about 10 feet below the surface in the Roero, 'Alluvial Soils' from when this area was completely underwater.







Chickens on the Renesio Estate, for Rebecca and Angela (And myself)

More Pics:

These Pics are of a carnival, that was leaving Alba. It cracks me up to think that there are 'carnies' in Italy.

Una 'Grillo' di Piemonte
(a cricket)
Today I spent the day in a haze of Italian, Spanish, Japanese, and Piemontese. Do Mah is Piemontese for ‘lets go’ and go we did. First to Alba, to file 3 different sets of paper for DOC certification. I received a gift of the ‘bible’ of 2009 Langhe DOC regulations. Then to the enological school, also in Alba, to receive results from some samples. Finally we went from vineyard to vineyard to test brix, or sugar levels. we went to 5 or 6 vineyard sites all over Alba and Asti, testing sugar levels (brix) for harvest. It’s my understanding that anything above 21 is good. My main job was to walk down random rows of vines and pick grapes to be sent to the enological school as samples. The Barbera at San Michelle came in at an average of 23.8, so we’ll be picking that on friday, Exciting! Tonight’s dinner was a macaroni pasta con crema e zucca, and tagliate di manzo con peperoni e melanzane, with 2008 Malvira Renasio Arneis and 2000 Malvira Trinità, e dopo, Grappa di Barolo.