after Cuneo, it was off to wine country. being told that we should make reservations to have tours around the vineyards i had written to a couple places over the summer but was overwhelmed by the amount of producers in the area - how was i supposed to pick the best places to bring my parents?! i also didn't want to create a time-strict schedule for us to have to follow. luckily, i got an email back following up to a previous tour-requesting email. so off we were to paolo monti's vineyard in monforte d'alba.
the piemontese countryside of the barolo region was beautiful with rows and rows of verdant green growing vines going vertically along and horizontally across the rolling hills. the chalky white soil appeared only to draw demarcating lines across the landscape. the buildings in the towns were cluttered together along the tops of the Langhe hills creating little picturesque communities while the red clay roofs of small and big estates appeared scattered amongst the fields of vineyards. the sky was endlessly blue without a cloud in sight. we slowly drove along the curvey road taking in the surrounding scenery and salivating at the juice-bursting purple grapes dangling at the bottom of the vines just had an arm's length away. there weren't any fences anywhere, so that didn't deter us from stopping to pick a couple grapes to taste....like a teaspoon of welch's jam bursting out of a thick protective skin.
a couple of wrong turns, a shakey hazelnut-picking woman and a couple turn arounds in wrong drive ways later, we eventually showed up to paolo's unmarked winery. he stuck out his arm and introduced himself, "ciao, paolo monti." the owner himself! already impressed. we chatted a bit and then he brought us around to see the vineyard, tell us about the different vats and casks they use, brought us down to see where they are stored in a modern cellar and then on to the tasting. and we tasted each of the wines he produces: Barolo "Bussia" D.O.C.G, Barbera d'Alba D.O.C, Langhe Dossi Rossi D.O.C, Barolo D.O.C.G, Nebbiolo D.O.C, and the white L'Aura D.O.C. maybe a little tipsy-enduced...but I liked each one more than the next. they recently started importing directly to the US market via California and had mentioned a couple restaurants in NYC - including Lidia Bastinach's - so I'm sure my parents will be looking out for his name in future wine lists. the winery was more modern than other ones we had visited but paolo gave us his entire attention, describing his work, the place's history, and the wine making process to us while graciously pouring us his wines. it was so personalized, i think my parents were more impressed than any of the wine tours they went on in napa or sonoma. we would've stayed longer if we didn't have reservations for lunch.
wine tasting. is it noon yet?
with paolo.
obligatory feet pic. dad's.
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