Luna de Miel, Day Three

6am: alarm
6:30am: 17 euro toast
7am: depart Monaco for Piemonte for day of wine touring, tall, windy climb up mountain in Monte Carlo and then long winding highway along coast of Italy through mountains which, though terrifying at times, is really breathtaking and a testament to human ingenuity. We see strange, seemingly purposeful, fires in and around several greenhouses built into the sides of the mountains. Curious what this is about.8:54am.... first sign of hatred of Google maps. Let me tell you all a little something about why Google maps and Europe don't mix. Europeans don't refer to road names - they simply have little signs indicating to which towns the roads lead. Google gives you street names. We spend upwards of an hour looking for SP9. We were actually on SP9 several times. When we finally committed to what we thought might be SP9, it was 12km before we received confirmation, via a little blue square sign on a rock on the side of the road, which when husband attempted to point out said sign to wife, wife questioned husband's sanity and posited that it might have been a mirage. Google maps also mentions several turns on our journey and several different roads we must take. In reality, SP9/SP102/SP52/SP429 and SP31 are all the same f***in road. But really, we aren't frustrated at all by this point.

11am.... arrive at the Relais San Maurizio in San Stefano Belbo, a full 30 minutes late to meet Giovanni, our driver from Cellar Tours, who unlike Giancarlo from Montalcino, looks like Herc from the Wire and speaks no English. Apologize profusely.

First winery, Gigi Rosso. British guide went on holiday to Italy after university and never left - she never even made it to France and Spain, the other two destinations she had planned. She teaches us the basics of Barolo (2 year wood, 1 bottle), Barolo Riserva (3 year wood, 2 bottle), Barbaresco (forget), Barbera, Dolcetto, and Arneis, a white wine produced in the Roero region. Barolo, Barolo Riserva and Barbaresco all made from Nebbiolo. Barolo can only be made from Nebbiolo grown in the Barolo area, and likewise, Barbaresco can only be made from Nebbiolo in the Barbaresco region. Tasting follows. Wife spills Barolo all over white table cloth. Husband tries to cover up with spitoon. Wife takes heat. We also taste vinegars that Gigi Rossa produces - an herbal one (just amazing), a red wine vinegar, and one made with Barolo - husband comments that he didn't know that vinegars could be so exciting! Sad we can't take vinegar home with us (no checked bags!!!), but take some bottles of Barolo back to enjoy on balcony of hotel room.

Lunch in town of Barolo. Restaurant recommended by Gigi Rosso is closed for a Danish private party, but the owner apologizes and sends us across the street, noting that the food is "ok" and is the second best around. We have sneaking suspicion, a family member must own the place across the street ;)

Second winery, Antichi Vietti. Vietti name will die as there are no sons to carry it on, but the winery will continue to use it, as the family has produced wine here for 5 generations. Vietti is credited as the creator of a single cru Barolo. The single cru Barolo and Barbaresco are still made the traditional way (entire aging process takes place in large oak barrels), but their blended Barolo and some barbarescos age for part of the time in French barrique. Tour guide, who is wife of one of the brother's who runs the winery, points out that their formula changes from year to year with respect to how the wines are aged. Wife asks and is answered that the grapes all age separately before being blended just a short time before bottling. They take wine making very very seriously here (as most of the producers we visit do). So much so, that they produced no wine in 2002, a notoriously bad year for Piemonte. They didn't even try to salvage something to put together as a blended Barolo. That's conviction.

The Vietti winery is literally built into the side of a mountain in the medieval city in which the 500 year old family home was built. Wooden beams from at least 1400s no longer serve as structural support to floors, but they built around them to show them off.

Tunnel in the house at some point connected to the castle on the hill, to provide the ruler of the town, safe escape from the castle. Husband is amazed at the historical aspects of this tour and immediately snaps out of coma induced by first tasting.

Tasting room is modern and nice. Family knows the Bastianich family well. Tour guide remembers Joe as a child, and Lidia and the mother are friends. Lidia visited the winery as part of her tv show. Husband and wife seem to have uncanny ability to convince those in the Italian wine business, that they know important people in the wine industry here, even though wife's knowledge of Lidia limited to PBS cooking show. Taste the phenomental '98 Barolo (Rocche) I think.

Cerretto is next. Banfi like production (600,000 of 1 million bottles are white), in James Bond villian like lair. Seriously, the place has sliding glass doors all over and a grape pod at the end, which we could envision blasting into space with a frozen Dr. Evil and Mr. Bigglesworth aboard. Facilities awesome, wine less than awesome.

Onto dinner and our final winery: Roagna

Try to strike up a conversation with Giovanni en route, so try and bring up soccer, but it turns out Giovanni is the only European who doesn't follow/like soccer. He likes motorcycles, which wife knows nothing about and the LA Raiders, which are long extinct. Dinner at Roagna. 28 year old Lucca runs the winery and is very passionate about his product. We eat grapes off the vine, tour his production facility and eat a meal he prepares in his own home. He stores 200,000 bottles and doesn't release them until he thinks they are ready to go (note that 200,000 is a huge number compared to the number of bottles he produces each year). He is building a facility which will house 800,000 bottles. He mentions he sells at Chambers Street Wines, which, as it is next door to Kitchenette, suggests there will be many Schulten outings to Tribeca on weekend mornings. Dinner is bufala mozzarella with cherry tomatoes, an herbed goat cheese with bresaola, tagliolini which his Nonna hand cut the day before (this is SKINNY pasta like spaghetti - the idea of hand cutting it with a knife is staggering). The pasta, it must be noted, is unreal. Main course is beef with arugula. Discuss NYC with our host. Try an herbal Barolo which husband likes but wife thinks tastes like medicine.

Bid adieu to Giovanni and hit the hay at the hotel. It was a long day :)