A Day Trip to Barolo, Italy: Vino, Vino and More Vino

Barolo Italy Vineyards

In Piemonte, itineraries aren’t necessary. If your day doesn’t consist of an abundance of red wine consumption, you are doing it wrong. Much like Toscana to the south, Piemonte is rich with rolling hills, ambrosial vineyards and opulent villas. There is money here and you can sense it, the absence of stagnation evident throughout the Mezzogiorno. Since our plan had already been formed for us, we woke up late at our agriturismo in Alba, munched our cornetti, drank our cappuccini and then made our way to Barolo.

Barolo Italy

In early May, tourism is limited here. We found a free parking lot near the center of town and parked easily. Lunch was first on the agenda - Osteria La Cantinella being our choice. The terrace was perfect for a simple lunch of pappardelle with hazelnuts, a Piemonte delicacy, and pesto and peppers with bagna cauda, paired, obviously, with a rich Barolo.

Barolo Piedmont Italy

After lunch, we wandered through the quiet streets, capturing photos of the stunning panorama and looking into the windows of the closed shops. There is an almost-but-not-quite Germanic vibe in many northern Italian towns, but I found it especially noticeable in Piemonte. The Barolo Wine Museum drew us in, a curious and quirky place with interactive exhibits, housed in a 10th century castle. If for some reason you prefer corkscrews to wine, they have a museum for that as well. Our next stop, the Enoteca Regionale del Barolo, is nothing if not a dream for wine lovers like us. Essentially a wine bar, they offer various tastings of Barolo from local producers, picked out by the tasters through their enomatic system. We helped ourselves to several tastings and bought what would be our first of many bottles here. 

Ceretto Vineyard

Knowing that we were visiting Piemonte, our friend Nicola from Emilia Romagna gave us a list of popular vineyards to visit. The drive back to Alba is a straight shot and luckily Ceretto Winery, one of his suggestions, was on the way. This is a relatively large vineyard and is probably most notable for its large bubble-esque glass lookout point. We spoke in length to the young man working at the tasting room bar and he graciously gave us the lowdown on the best recent vintages. He also informed us of the controversy surrounding the Barolo vs Barbaresco styles of wine production. Basically, Barolo is old school - the vineyards there don’t try to manipulate their wine in any way - no matter what they end up with. On the other hand, the vineyards surrounding Barbaresco use technological advances to help improve their stock. The biggest example of this is with wine cannons (there might be an actual industry term for this, but since I don’t know it, I’m going to call it a wine cannon). Used on cloudy days and during rainstorms, the wine cannon will shoot air and chemicals up into the clouds above the vineyards, breaking them apart, leading to more sunshine, better grapes and, ultimately, a better vintage. 

Ceretto Vineyard View

The traditionalists from Barolo find this a travesty, it’s blasphemous to attempt to control the end product. As we learned from the Ceretto employee, the previous year had been rough throughout the region weather-wise. “Era troppo piovoso,” he said. It was too rainy. When they opened up the barrels to taste the wine, Barolo was distraught - non buono. Barbaresco on the other hand, having used their wine cannons, had a much better vintage. Barolo had to scrap 75% of their production. This is a common problem in Italy - the struggle between tradition and innovation, the reluctance to deviate from how things have been done for centuries.

Ceretto Barolo Winery View

We bought a bottle of Dolcetto d’Alba to share with Nicola when would visit him later on the trip. When he sipped it, he let out an exasperated cry: “All I taste is oak! Our wine in Emilia Romagna is much better!” To each his own, I guess.