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Last Day

We finally had a morning to sleep in and it was an amazing feeling not to set an alarm.  Of course when you sleep until 10:30, you miss breakfast, which as you can tell from our eating, won’t affect us too much.  We met Titziana from Guiseppe Cortese for our morning wine tour and tasting and really enjoyed tasting some different Barbarescos.  It was a nice change of pace from the many Barolos we have tried and we were fortunate to be able to try different vintages next to each other.  Only her family runs Titziana’s winery:  herself, her father and her brother.  They hand pick the grapes, do all of the maturation in their cellar together and her father is the only one who prunes the vines in the field.  It is the special care they all put into the vineyard that makes their wine so amazing.  We tried their 2009 Dolcetto d’Alba that had a nice cherry flavor with good acidity; 2009 Barbera d’Alba that is only stainless steel fermented.  We also tried the Barbera Morassina 2008 that is aged for 18 months in barrique and 30% in new oak.  I don’t think we can get it in Boston, but if you get to visit the winery, this is definitely worth trying.  Their Langhe Nebbiolo is from their younger vines and is a nice lighter style wine.  We tried the Rabaja Barbaresco vintage 2005 2004 and 2000.  It is so rare to have the opportunity to taste wines of different vintage years.  I enjoyed the 2000 the best, but found the 2003 had the most noticeable characteristics.  When Josh and I smelled the wine, we both felt like it smelled like white truffles.  Maybe you can enjoy it when you come to La Morra with some of the truffles Josh is bringing home.  Come quick though, they won’t last too long!!
 
The Cortese family does not make their reserva every year.  In fact Titziana said they have only made it in 01, 99, 96, 04, 06 and 08.  We tried the 01 and it was unbelievable.  By law, a Barbaresco only has to age in wood for one year and then one year in the bottle before being released.  For their reserve, they age it for 40 months in wood and 3 years in the bottle.  Now that takes a lot of patience! 
 
We got a little lost (for something new and different) getting to Fontanafreeda.  Josh went into the Damiliana winery to ask directions and saw the server from the restaurant the night before working there.  Small world!  So wine for breakfast and then off to Fontanefredda to meet Frederico, the export manager of the winery.  Brad Groper from Domaine Select set us up at Fontanefreeda and recommended we try Cesere’s restaurant there.  He is a very famous chef of Piedmont and opened a restaurant in Fontanefredda 3 years ago.  When you drive up to the winery, you feel like you have entered the Disney World for wine because of the flags and lights.  It is actually quite humble once you get your bearings on the property.  When we walked into the winery, yet another small world story…the waiter at the restaurant was Franco, the head waiter at La Libera 13 years ago.  He remembered us and it once again felt like we had returned home, even though we had never been to the restaurant before.  I really enjoyed trying the Fontanefredda wines with food, and Frederico did a great job pairing everything. 
 
For our last night in the Alba area, we had booked reservations at Piazza Duomo, recommended by a recent article in Food and Wine.  We almost cancelled because we were so full from lunch, but by the 3rd course, we had once again rallied.  The service at this restaurant is unbelievable.  For 7 tables there are 2 servers, a busser/food runner and a sommelier.  They all work like a machine together and make the dining experience incredible.  The sommelier was from Rome and had an unbelievable wine knowledge.  When we were trying to choose our wine, he described about 10 from the book in full detail.  I was exhausted by the end!  Before we ordered, they delivered 5 kinds of bread and 6 amuse bouclé.  I had to lean over to Josh and whisper if he ordered while I was washing my hands, because the spread before me was surely enough for a meal!  Of course, there were 7 courses that followed and we did our very best to squeeze them all in.  Our glass of 2007 Timorasso from Vignetti Massa, a vineyard and grape I am unfamiliar with, but really loved, helped, followed by a 2004 Massolino Barolo from Serralunga.  We met Franco Massolino in 2006 and are definitely going to look into putting his wines on the list.  I will list some of the courses, because they were completely overwhelming:  Beet and Root Vegetable Salad with crispy hazelnuts, Sausage and white beets in gelatin, House salted codfish with porcini mushrooms, raw meat with goat cheese cream and celery with a surprise black truffle underneath, vitello tonnato with out tonnato…just an essence of the sauce, rabbit shoulder with carrot glaze and hazelnut cream (I was silently praying this was the entrée, but no suck luck), Plin with cheese from Torino and hazelnut sauce, veal cheeks braised with red wine and potato puree, and finally dessert!  A mandarin sorbet with a pumpkin torte.  Why stop there…the petite fours were similar to the amuse bouche…6 at least!  I felt like I would have been fine with the amuse and the petite fours!!  If you have ever been to French Laundry or Per Se, they are very similar to this experience.  I highly recommend this restaurant if you want to experience Piedmontese cuisine with a very nouveau twist.  
 
We rolled our way to the final wine tasting at Fontanafredda and really enjoyed learning about the history of the winery with Frederico.  The winery began as a hunting get away for the first king of Italy, King Vittoria Emanuele II in 1858.  He used the estate for hunting, not only of animals, but also of girls.  He met Rosa Mirafiori and in order to marry her, had to make her countess of the estate as well as of an estate in Turino.  A small price to pay for love.  Our hotel is called Villa Rosa as well as the restaurant we ate at the day before after her.  Going from seeing wineries that produce 50,000 bottles (Guiseppe Cortese to 200,000 (Vietti) to millions of bottles (Fontanefredda) is really interesting.  I was expecting to find the wines at Fontanefredda produced in a more mechanical way, but every grape is hand picked and it undergoes the same care and appreciation the wine from other vineyards have.   I really enjoyed all of the wines and found tasting them next to Cesere’s food really helped me understand the variety of characteristics each wine has.  I am planning away for our dinner the end of October to highlight all of our favorite wines and food from this trip.  It is going to be difficult to choose from so many favorites.
 
As you can see from the blog, our days revolved around eating and drinking and visiting old friends and making new.  Not quite a lifestyle I could maintain for too long, but surely a spectacular vacation for us to enjoy.  Although it was 13 years ago we lived and worked in La Morra, al of the memories come flooding back when we visit.  Once again I am returning home hoping to give everyone who comes to our La Morra a small taste what La Morra, Italy is all about.