One of my favorite parts of living in Europe has been exploring all of the different wine regions! The first weekend in July we went to the Barolo wine region (which is in the larger Piedmont wine region in Italy) with our friends. This wine trip was extra special because we were meeting up with a friend we had met during a trip to Napa a few years ago.
Patrick and I met Pier when he led our tasting at Gary Farrell Vineyards & Winery a few months before we moved to Munich. He moved back to Italy and started his wine community Oneonthehill in Alba. We kept in contact and we were finally able to visit this gorgeous region of Italy. Pier put together an amazing itinerary for us and we had the best time! Patrick was really looking forward to this trip because Barolo and Barbaresco are some of his favorites.
We flew into Turin early on Friday morning, rented a car and explored the city. We grabbed coffee, did a walking tour, and then met up with our friends who live in Switzerland because they were driving in to Turin.. We had lunch in Turin and then made our way to wine country!
Where we stayed:
We knew we wanted to stay in the heart of this wine region so we stayed at this airbnb (Get $40 off your next booking here!). Pier actually now has an airbnb that he and his wife run as well, you can see it here. We are definitely staying there next time š
We did love the airbnb we stayed at. It had the most beautiful view of the vineyards, was huge, super comfy beds, and fit all six of us very comfortably. The only downside was we visited in July during the crazy European heat wave and this place had no air conditioning….or even a single fan in the house. Which is totally understandable because the heat wave was very unusual and normally this area of Italy would never get that hot so they don’t need AC. But it was pretty unbearable the first night.
Our favorite part of this airbnb was the terrace. It was huge and had a gorgeous view of the village and the vineyards. Our first night there, we had eaten a big lunch in Turin so we walked to the village grocery store and picked up wine and ingredients for dinner. We ended up setting it all up on the terrace and stayed out there past midnight. SO much fun! Probably a little too much fun since we were wine tasting the next day š
Wine Tasting Itinerary:
Pier picked us up and dropped us off and walked us through each tasting. What a great experience! I cannot recommend his service enough! We really had the best time.
10:30am Cascina Adelaide: We loved this place! The views right outside their tasting room were unbelievable. We toured their cellar and we all ended up having some wine shipped home. It was really interesting learning how Cascina Adelaide is working to blend the regions tradition with innovation and state of the art equipment.
Lunch at Argaj
2:30pm Massolino: The entire drive up to Massolino was GORGEOUS! Massolino is located at the top of a hill so the views are AMAZING! I couldn’t believe the views were real. We again did a cellar tour where they explained there production and wine growing techniques. Massolino has made wine for 4 generations!Ā They also have a BEAUTIFULĀ panoramic terrace off the tasting room where you can see some of their most precious vineyards. I think my favorite wine of the day was here, theĀ 2015 Luigi Pira Barolo Marenca.Ā Again we ended up having some wine shipped home š
7:30pm: Dinner at Osteria More e Macine
Where we ate:
In addition to making our tasting itinerary, Pier also made all of our restaurant reservations for us. I cannot emphasize enough how helpful this was!
Argaj: We ate lunch here on Saturday. LOVED this place! We sat outside in the shade and enjoyed the sweeping view of the surrounding vineyards. The food here was so good and Pier was with us so he helped us with our wine selection.
Osteria More e Macine: We had dinner here on Saturday and really enjoyed it. The dinner menu was small and the wine menu was HUGE. I had the ragu pasta and the dinner portions were large. We sat outside on the terrace and were able to see the sunset. They also had delicious house made gelato here.
La Terrazza da Renza: This was my favorite place we ate at. We had lunch here on Sunday before we drove to Turin for our flight home. We were definitely the only tourists here. We arrived right before the lunch crowd and were able to grab a prime real estate table on the terrace with again, a gorgeous view of the rolling hills of vineyards. We had a really long, leisurely lunch. They had a fixed four course menu and we split a bottle of wine and a bottle of Prosecco. And of course we couldn’t turn down dessert!
