Hello dear reader! I hope you’ve had a fantastic weekend wherever you are. I have just gotten back home to Bologna from a weekend spent in Piemonte. I’ve tasted so many different wines and different foods, so in this week’s Merenda Newsletter I’ll share my weekend trip to Alba, the reason behind it and some excellent food and wines I got to enjoy.
Next week, I’ll be sharing a special edition of Merenda featuring my experience at the three Michelin star restaurant Osteria Francescana, so stay tuned for that!
Cari Saluti,
Emilia in Bologna
1. The city of Alba
On an early Saturday morning me and my friend (hi Rachel!👋🏽) took a train to Alba. The trip from Bologna to Torino took approximately 4 hours with a 20 min change in Torino. We had breakfast at Porta Susa train station in Torino and continued our journey with the regional train to Alba, Piemonte.
Alba is a small city and together with Langhe-Roero and Monferrato one of the main cities of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Vineyard Landscape of Piemonte. In addition, Alba is famous for its truffle production. So definitely a place to visit for food and wine lovers. Alba is 1h 20 minute train ride from Torino but also easily reachable by car or train from Milan. Everything is accessible by feet in the city center, so if you’re only staying in Alba you won’t need a car. However, with a car (or taxi) you could visit nearby wineries and other towns of the region.
We booked our hotel the day before, but managed to find a cute stay in the city center, with excellent reviews and a reasonable price (98€/night including breakfast for two).
Alba is quite small, so I’d spent maximum two nights there. On Sunday morning they had a farmers’ market which looked adorable and local produce on display.
I would definitely visit this time of the year and I will make it my priority to visit next November when the Truffle Fair is happening.
2. Vinum Alba Wine Fair
Vinum Alba is one of the main wine fairs of the region and Italy’s biggest open air wine fair. It started on the 23rd of April and runs on three consecutive weekends until the 8th of May. More information here. I visited Vinum Alba seven years ago back when I was doing my exchange year in Torino. It was such a fun experience, that I wanted to visit again. After checking in to our hotel, we went to the main area of Cortile della Maddalena to get our Vinum Alba passes for the weekend. We got the 30€ carnet degustazione ticket including 17 tastings, a wine glass and a pocket to carry the glass in. They also offer different ticket sets for less tastings.
After getting to the area, we started the tastings. We were first greeted by a complimentary sparkling from Valle D’Aosta which was the perfect way to start our tasting tour. The area is divided to three different areas with specialized varieties of wines. The first area of entrance has a lot of different varieties varying from Dolcetto reds to Gavi white wines. They also had several street food providers of which we tried local cheeses and lamb skewers. We tasted three different wines before moving to the next area. Next to Alba’s Duomo was Piazza Rossetti featuring Roero wines, Barbera D’Albas and even Vermouth.
After tasting a few more wines, we moved to Piazza C. Bubbio to try a Langhe Rosato, Rosé wine and some sweets. The weather was not ideal, so it was great that the best of the best wines of Piemonte were located inside the Palazzo Mostre e Congressi. So we entered the Barolo, Barbaresco and Nebbiolo D’Alba regions. We tasted some excellent reds of these regions. A few of my favorites were the Barbera d’Alba 2020 of Pio Cesare, and an organic Barolo of 2016 from Terre del Barolo Cantine in Castiglione Falletto. (Fun fact, our wedding wine was the same producers Barbera d’Alba wine).
We finished our tasting tour of the day at Piazza San Paolo which had Moscato d’Asti wines and Grappa. We also did a playful hazelnut tasting of five different varieties, having to guess which one of the five was from Piemonte.
Vinum Alba is a very well organized fair, with an excellent selection of different producers, wines, professionals and foods. I would definitely recommend visiting and enjoying some of Italy’s best wines. You can check their program here.
3. A restaurant recommendation in Alba
We had made no restaurant bookings, so we were lucky to get a table in one of Alba’s gems.
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