Barbaresco

The town of Barbaresco lies northeast of Alba in Piemonte. This is the heart of the Barbaresco wine production, boasting more than half the registered vineyards for its namesake wine and most of its best vineyards (Asili, Rabaja, Roncaglie, Martinenga...)

The villages is very well preserved, with its castle and medieval watch tower on the top of a cliff above the Tanaro river.

In a former church you find the Enoteca Regionale del Barbaresco. It sells nearly al of the appellation's labels.

International Course on Piedmontese Wines

This week I left my boyfriend, dog and lavenderfarm alone for a few days to follow a very interesting course on Piedmontese wines at the Slow Food University (Università degli Studi di Scienze Gastronomiche) in Pollenzo.

I didn't make it through the selection, because this was a course for wine experts and people in the wine business, and well, ... you can say a lot about me but not that I know something about wines. But I thought it could be interesting as a lot of our guests want to visit wineries and come to this region, not only for its natural beauties, but also because of the great wines.

Sunday, when the course started, I heard about someone cancelling, packed my bags, and was just in time to enjoy the first diner of the course.

During this week I learned a lot about the history of Piedmontese wine-production, we tasted a lot of Barolo, Barbaresco, Barbera, Moscato d'Asti ...

There were some interested visits to wineries in Dogliani, Barolo and Barbaresco.

It was a great week, with superb wines, interesting people ...

And I must say, I was very impressed how well this course was organised.

For me, it was a unique experience even if I'm not a real "wine person" and I hope my guests will also benefit from what I learned in this course.

Wine Course at the Slow Food University

I'm on holiday !

I have the unexpected opportunity to follow a free wine course at the Slow Food University in Pollenzo (1.5 hour drive from Agriturismo Verdita) and so I left Nicolas and the dog home and here I am now in the Albergo dell'Agenzia.

Yesterday we had a great meal with wines from La Spinetta, a langhe bianco (savignon blanc),barbera d'asti superiore, barbaresco, moscato d'asti. Producer Giorgio Rivetta from La Spinetta was here too. A very charming man and enthousiastic winemaker.

A good start for a wonderful week !

Visiting wineries

Piemonte = wine !

It's very simple, when you live in Piemonte you drink wine, you talk about wine and most people also have a vineyard for their own table wine.

It's only logical that we visit the wineries in our neighboorhood, to look for possibilities to work together for our guests.

Yesterday we really found a little hidden gem. In the hills above Montechiaro d'Acqui, there is a natural winemaker with only 20 000 square metres of vineyard, but with a passion for it that I can't discribe, you have to see him. He's 80, but seems a lot younger, always smiling and telling stories about wines but also about the book he wrote (about his experiences in the resistance in WWII).

This wine farm existed when Napoleon (in 1797) passed here and it was always the same family.

With his daughter in law we made plans for pizza and wine evenings, degustations ...

I'm sure it will be great working with them !

Wine: visit to cantina La Maranzana

It doesn't matter if you're into wine or not, when you live in a wine region like ours wine becomes part of your life. But I don't think that's a big problem for most of us ;-)

Sunday we were invited at cantina La Maranzana, in the middle of the most beautiful vineyards you can imagine. It was foggy, so we weren't lucky with the views, but we had our own private tour in the cantina and they spoiled us with food and wine. The best of all : if we ask them, they will organise also a private tour of the cantina for our guests.

Una domenica in campagna

A nice initiative in our neighboorhood "Una domenica in campagna" at the Cantina La Maranzana.


Every sunday in november you can enjoy a free degustation of their wines and for those who want there's the possibility to eat a lunch with truffles in one of the agriturismo's in the neighboorhood.


There are a lot of events around wine in our region and we haven't seen a lot of tourists visiting them yet.

Piedmont, wine region

A lot of peolple think Tuscany when they think of Italian wine, but Piedmont is also famous for his quality wines. The Piedmont Wine Region, particularly in the Langhe sub region, is a land of castles, vineyards and romantic hills .

In fact, the region attracts gourmet travellers from all over the world who go there to simply eat and enjoy fine wine and it's no wonder that the Slow Foor Movement is very strong in Piedmont, a region where people celebrate their wine and gastronomy every time they can.

Pictures of enoteca's (wine stores / restaurants) where you can taste a variety of Italian wines :