And this time we’re off to my favorite corner of Italy — the Piemonte — but with a few far-afield adventures, too.
We start in Turin and we finish in Milan. In between, we’ll be making an overnight excursion over a gorgeous high Alpine pass back into my neck of the French woods, the Ubaye Valley, before hunkering down in the environs of Alba for four days of winery visits and evenings spent enjoying exceptionally fine-dining. The Langhe, the Roero, Monferrato and the new Nizza DOCG will be our playground. In route to Milan, we’ll taste bubbles in Franciacorta and spend a night on Lake Como.
Until COVID shut down travel, I had made a pilgrimage to the Piemonte at least once a year from 1997 through 2019, then again in 2021 and 2022. I’ll have visited three more times before we begin our nine days in culinary/oenological heaven. As for Turin, I spent almost three weeks there covering the 2006 Winter Olympics. Believe me, there is no finer place on this planet to enjoy cutting-edge cuisine paired with Italy’s greatest wines and gorgeous scenery.
We’ll gather in Turin on Wednesday, May 22, and say our fond farewells in Milan on Saturday night, June 1. Lots of tweaking and fine-tuning remains, but, just to provide a sampling of where we’re going and who we’ll be seeing, a list of links for places that are certain to be on our itinerary are listed below.
It’s $7,750 per person — all inclusive once you’re on the ground, and only four of our maximum 10 spots remain. Contact Pablo Valqui (pablo@gourmettours.biz) to secure your reservation.
Hotels
http://villatiboldi.com (Shown above; It will be our base for four nights in the Alba area)
http://villamorelia.com (For our night in the Ubaye Valley, with a chef-prepared dinner at my home)
Wineries
http://ceretto.com (shown above)
http://malvira.com (adjacent to Villa Tiboldi)
Restaurants
http://enotecadelbarbaresco.com
H-town Happenings
Free Tastings every Saturday: Noon-5 p.m. at French Country Wines. http://frenchcountrywines.com
Free Tastings every Wednesday: 5-7 p.m. at Montrose Cheese & Wine
Tastings every Thursday at Cueva in the Marriott Marquis Houston: 6:30-7:30 p.m. every Thursday. $40
Stella’s Wine Games — 7 p.m. Tuesdays at Stella’s Wine Bar in the Post Oak Hotel. $50. http://www.thepostoakhotel.com/restaurants/Stellas-Wine-Bar/Stella-Wine-Games.asp
Nickel and Nickel Winery dinner: 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 10, at the Atkins House. http://eventbrite.com $130
Platinum Wine Vault Luxury Tasting Event: 6:30-9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 11, at Bayway Cadillac in The Woodlands. https://www.wineandfoodweek.com/events/2023/platinum-wine-vault-2023
Women & Wine Empowerment Weekend: 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 12, at Norris Conference room at CityCentre. http://eventbrite.com $97-$1,500.
SERCA Gran Corte Vertical Tasting: 4-6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 26, at the SERCA Tasting Room. SERCA Wines – Upcoming Events $80 ($64 members)
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Others to follow
Jeremy Parzen (http://dobianchi.com)
My podcast partner in crime writes: “Traveling across small-town country in the U.S. is always a reminder that an overwhelming number of Americans care little about fine wine. In big and medium-sized U.S. cities today, it’s almost impossible not to find at least a handful of venues where the wine program is thoughtfully authored and managed. But as our recent trip to Orange Beach (near Gulf Shores), Alabama revealed, even in popular tourist destinations like the pristine white beaches of the Alabama coast, wine is just another adult beverage like the tequila, vodka, and beer etc. restaurateurs use to fill their bar wells . . .”
Sandra Crittenden (http://winelifehouston.com)
Sandra writes: “For Galveston Monthly’s July issue, I wrote about chillable red wines to beat the heat during the hot days of summer and beyond. Try one of these wine recommendations and keep your cool today . . .”
Russ Kane (http://vintagetexas.com)
The Texas Wineslinger writes: “
In the 1600s, Spanish missionaries heading north from Mexico brought vine cuttings to plant when they crossed the Rio Grande and entered the frontier land of Tejas, now called Texas. Their vines were Criolla, a cultivar of a European vinifera wine grape that made its way from Spain to Argentina and on upward to Mexico and finally into Texas. These days, many people just referred to the Criolla grapes by the name “Mission” because they were used to make wine for sacraments in the Catholic services at the missions. Fast forward to the 1970s, May 1974 to be exact, when a young UT grad and Houston marketing consultant Dean Joyner announced that his Haversack Wine Company would be opening its general office in Fredericksburg. He also announced that his wine company had a partner, a California wine producer. The goal was to begin a brand merchandising program built around the “haversack” theme. What’s a haversack? Well, read further and you’ll find out . . .”
Jeff Kralick (http://thedrunkencyclist.com)
The DC writes: “At the beginning of August, our family hopped on a plane and left Houston for France. Although the purpose of the trip was to travel a bit and to deliver our older son Nathan to Lyon where he will be studying for the semester, it sure was nice to get away from the heat in Houston . . .”
Katrina Rene (http://thecorkscrewconcierge.com)
Kat writes: “Looking to broaden your white wine horizons? Why not do it for National White Wine Day? Yes, it’s anther “XXX” day, but I do find the wine days are fun ways to explore things I don’t necessarily think about. It’s funny, because when I first started drinking wine, you were hard-pressed to get me to drink much white wine. I was all about Pinot Noir and then eventually bolder red wines. You know, after I got past my 5-gallon box of White Zinfandel phase. Hey, we all have to start somewhere! And it was that way for a while. But over the years, things began to shift . . .”
The Sporty Wine Guy 