A Taste of Barolo Wine Country Cooking
Highlight
Enjoy a taste of the Barolo & Barbaresco wine country as you get to know many warm local people and stroll in hill towns. Learn to cook local dishes in two cooking lessons. Drink top red wines in private winery visits.
Minimum Duration
4 days
Maximum Duration
4 days
Price Range
$1045 - $1620 (EUR)
Season
January - December
Starting Point / Finishing Point
Turin / Turin
Itinerary
Day 1
Starting off your cooking, wine and walking extravaganza, meet your group at Turin airport or railway station before departing for the town of Verduno or Barolo about 12 miles away. Your accommodation in Verduno will be in a stately, yet down to earth hotel that was once the summer home of Italian King Carlo Alberto in the 1840s. In town of Barolo we stay at a pretty, family-run hotel in the town with lovely views of Barolo castle and vineyards.
After settling in, dine with the rest of your group in a typical restaurant, drinking great local wines like Barbera and eating authentic Piedmont specialties.
Day 2
Explore the La Morra area and as you drive along its winding country roads, you’ll have a spectacular view of the verdant Barolo wine valley below. From La Morra take a leisurely walk along pathways through vineyards down to the Ratti family winery.
Housed in the Abbey of the Annunziata, the family's private wine museum dates back to 1162 when monks began making wine there. Massimo, the winery’s effervescent owner (also a local celebrity!) will give you a fascinating, entertaining personal tour about the soils, grapes, barrels, wine making in the old days. As you taste the fine Ratti wines, he'll teach you how to appreciate Barolo wine with its unique flavor characteristics. Wine connoisseurs always rave about this experience with Massimo (or a member of his family) as a good introduction to the area's wines.
Lunch today is at a restaurant in the town of Santa Vittoria d’Alba made famous by the film “The Secret of Santa Vittoria”. As you sip a bottle of local wine and savor local dishes made from farm fresh ingredients, you'll look over rolling vistas of vineyards and hills, so typical of Piemonte wine country.
In the early evening, return to Real Castello for your early evening cooking lesson. Make typical Piemonte dishes like onion tart, risotto with Barolo and guinea hen with rosemary as well as local desserts like bunet, a cocoa pudding with crushed amaretti biscuits cooked in caramelized moulds.
Before enjoying these delicious creations for dinner, visit the Real Castello wine cellars, where your host will take happily tour you through cellars and give you tastings of their acclaimed wines like Nebbiolo and Pelaverga, which resembles a spicy Barolo.
Congratulate yourselves on your fine cooking and as you savor many courses in your delicate, outstanding dinner, each paired with great Piedmont wines, you'll understand why the Real Castello's restaurant is internationally famous for its cuisine.
Day 3
Today drive to the scenic Barbaresco wine country hills and visit the famous Marchesi di Gresy winery that produces a wide range of acclaimed red and white wines including one of the best Barbaresco wines.
From this state of the art winery, travel high up into beautiful mountains into lush, green hills covered in forests and nut trees. Here in a little town, as you enter a well known bakery, you’ll feel swept away with the perfume of chocolate. In a three hour demonstration lesson in the bakery kitchen, the artisan baker owner will divulge his secrets to making his famous chocolate cakes like sachertorte and hazelnut cake.
With your sweet tooth well satisfied, we drive down to a small, family farm nearby where we meet a man passionate about making his sheep cheeses in a totally natural way. You’ll meet the sheep and learn how he makes his cheeses in the cheese making room. In a divine picnic with him, you’ll sample a range of his cheeses as he eagerly tells you all you’d ever want to know.
We wind our way through these peaceful higher hills and back down into the wine country. Dinner this evening will be in a typical restaurant full of local people in a little town in the hills.
Day 4
This morning you'll get a warm welcome at another Barolo winery such as Rocche Castamagno in La Morra. Taste their fine range of wines and chat and laugh with their sommelier as you deepen your knowledge of Barolo wines. Weather permitting, you’ll also walk through their vineyards and learn about how their vines are grown.
Before lunch you'll have time to stroll around this pretty hill town, and perhaps stop at the municipal wine store, one of the best for its Barolo selection and personal service.
We drive to a café in the hill town of Castiglione Falletto where, weather permitting, we lounge on a scenic outdoor patio al fresco, and enjoy some light local appetizers or salads with a cool glass of white wine in hand.
We then travel to the hillside town of Serralunga to visit a unique, magical medieval castle, renovated in 1340. With the castle's entertaining guide, you'll discover ingenious architectural features that kept invaders out and what life was like for soldiers living in the spartan conditions. Up on the top floor, you'll marvel at the 360 degree views of the medieval town walls and the green vine covered hills all around you.
For dinner we’ll dine in a typical restaurant on more delicate Piedmontese fare.
Day 5
Departure after breakfast. Private transport to Turin or Alba train station.
Starting off your cooking, wine and walking extravaganza, meet your group at Turin airport or railway station before departing for the town of Verduno or Barolo about 12 miles away. Your accommodation in Verduno will be in a stately, yet down to earth hotel that was once the summer home of Italian King Carlo Alberto in the 1840s. In town of Barolo we stay at a pretty, family-run hotel in the town with lovely views of Barolo castle and vineyards.
After settling in, dine with the rest of your group in a typical restaurant, drinking great local wines like Barbera and eating authentic Piedmont specialties.
Day 2
Explore the La Morra area and as you drive along its winding country roads, you’ll have a spectacular view of the verdant Barolo wine valley below. From La Morra take a leisurely walk along pathways through vineyards down to the Ratti family winery.
Housed in the Abbey of the Annunziata, the family's private wine museum dates back to 1162 when monks began making wine there. Massimo, the winery’s effervescent owner (also a local celebrity!) will give you a fascinating, entertaining personal tour about the soils, grapes, barrels, wine making in the old days. As you taste the fine Ratti wines, he'll teach you how to appreciate Barolo wine with its unique flavor characteristics. Wine connoisseurs always rave about this experience with Massimo (or a member of his family) as a good introduction to the area's wines.
Lunch today is at a restaurant in the town of Santa Vittoria d’Alba made famous by the film “The Secret of Santa Vittoria”. As you sip a bottle of local wine and savor local dishes made from farm fresh ingredients, you'll look over rolling vistas of vineyards and hills, so typical of Piemonte wine country.
In the early evening, return to Real Castello for your early evening cooking lesson. Make typical Piemonte dishes like onion tart, risotto with Barolo and guinea hen with rosemary as well as local desserts like bunet, a cocoa pudding with crushed amaretti biscuits cooked in caramelized moulds.
Before enjoying these delicious creations for dinner, visit the Real Castello wine cellars, where your host will take happily tour you through cellars and give you tastings of their acclaimed wines like Nebbiolo and Pelaverga, which resembles a spicy Barolo.
Congratulate yourselves on your fine cooking and as you savor many courses in your delicate, outstanding dinner, each paired with great Piedmont wines, you'll understand why the Real Castello's restaurant is internationally famous for its cuisine.
Day 3
Today drive to the scenic Barbaresco wine country hills and visit the famous Marchesi di Gresy winery that produces a wide range of acclaimed red and white wines including one of the best Barbaresco wines.
From this state of the art winery, travel high up into beautiful mountains into lush, green hills covered in forests and nut trees. Here in a little town, as you enter a well known bakery, you’ll feel swept away with the perfume of chocolate. In a three hour demonstration lesson in the bakery kitchen, the artisan baker owner will divulge his secrets to making his famous chocolate cakes like sachertorte and hazelnut cake.
With your sweet tooth well satisfied, we drive down to a small, family farm nearby where we meet a man passionate about making his sheep cheeses in a totally natural way. You’ll meet the sheep and learn how he makes his cheeses in the cheese making room. In a divine picnic with him, you’ll sample a range of his cheeses as he eagerly tells you all you’d ever want to know.
We wind our way through these peaceful higher hills and back down into the wine country. Dinner this evening will be in a typical restaurant full of local people in a little town in the hills.
Day 4
This morning you'll get a warm welcome at another Barolo winery such as Rocche Castamagno in La Morra. Taste their fine range of wines and chat and laugh with their sommelier as you deepen your knowledge of Barolo wines. Weather permitting, you’ll also walk through their vineyards and learn about how their vines are grown.
Before lunch you'll have time to stroll around this pretty hill town, and perhaps stop at the municipal wine store, one of the best for its Barolo selection and personal service.
We drive to a café in the hill town of Castiglione Falletto where, weather permitting, we lounge on a scenic outdoor patio al fresco, and enjoy some light local appetizers or salads with a cool glass of white wine in hand.
We then travel to the hillside town of Serralunga to visit a unique, magical medieval castle, renovated in 1340. With the castle's entertaining guide, you'll discover ingenious architectural features that kept invaders out and what life was like for soldiers living in the spartan conditions. Up on the top floor, you'll marvel at the 360 degree views of the medieval town walls and the green vine covered hills all around you.
For dinner we’ll dine in a typical restaurant on more delicate Piedmontese fare.
Day 5
Departure after breakfast. Private transport to Turin or Alba train station.
Inclusions
4 nights hotel with private bath and continental breakfast
2 full menu cooking lessons
all meals
excursions in itinerary
private transport
local guide with you throughout
2 full menu cooking lessons
all meals
excursions in itinerary
private transport
local guide with you throughout
Exclusions
wine with meals
Contact Phone
1-800-557-0370 PST or 604-681-
Visit Website: www.italycookingschools.com
