The Maison du Vin Wine Safari to Italy

Once again What’s On Magazine was delighted to accompany Maison du Vin and ten other lucky couples on their latest ‘Wine Safari’ to Piemonte in North West Italy.

The region is home to red wine legends such as Barbera, Barbaresco and the mighty Barolo. There are also some delightful white wines such as Gavi, Arnies and Favorita.

It’s true to say that the area does not get it fair share of tourists as it tends to get bypassed in favour of Tuscany. But we can assure you that the whole region is stunningly beautiful. Made up of a mass of rolling hills and steep vine-covered slopes. Many of the hills are topped with gorgeous ancient villages, like Sinio where we stayed in the luxurious five star Hotel Castello di Sinio.

The Northwest Italians love their food with Saturday and Sunday lunch being particularly important family gatherings. Indeed, one of the many highlights was Saturday Lunch at the ‘Nettle Vigne Trattoria.’ Now many restaurants claim to be set in a vineyard but this is literarily built on a terrace right in the middle of the vine-covered slopes. The views were amazing as was the ten-course lunch!

Every year during the first weekend in October the culinary world descends upon the town of Alba to indulge in the heady delights of its world famous ‘white truffle’ festival. These highly prized and very rare subterranean fungi were changing hands for thousand’s of euros! Needless to say we resisted the temptation. But we were treated to some white truffle shavings as part of our sumptuous eight-course dinner that evening.

The two main wineries we visited were, the internationally renowned ‘Fontanafredda’ and the legendary ‘Mario Giribaldi.’Maison du Vin is the UK’s sole shipper of Giribaldi wines. Mario and his family treated us to a superb eight-course Sunday lunch complete with a wine tasting led by Mario himself.

All in all, it was a fabulous weekend. Another triumph for Maison du Vin!

Piemonte is a magical, seductive part of Italy. Majestic hills, deep valleys and gentle swirling mists, a fairy tale land of plenty, with a strong sense of ‘La Dolce Vita’. Simply wonderful!

Next year … Tuscany………can’t wait!