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BEERMAN

100+ Posts
First, a shout out to Colo, he recommended that I join this informative site! We are a family of 3, our daughter is now 27...but we may have done something right because she still loves traveling with us. We've always enjoyed travel, the Caribbean is a primary go to, we sail a bit. Years ago our daughter was studying abroad in Lugano, of course we went to visit! She later returned to Lugano as a "house mom", of course we returned to visit! Our European trips, so far, include Switzerland, Italy and France. As you know Covid put a wrench into most travel plans the last couple years, but when the removal of travel restrictions was announced in June we immediately started planning. We are heading back to Italy in September, soooon! Thank you for including us in your group!
 
Welcome!

September not too far away now :). Where are you heading?
 
Thank you! We will arrive and overnight in Milan. Train to Santa Margherita for 3 nights, then via rental car head to Guarene, for 3nights and last 3 nights in Nesso.
 
Sounds like a lovely balance, of size/settings, of transport, and hence a broader experience! My sort of trip.

Planning to visit Barbaresco villages when in Guarene? If so, I'd very much recommend eating in Treiso, as they have 4 restaurants, all good in their different ways, from a Traditional trattoria (Risorgimento), a cosy osteria (dell'Unione), a fancy ristorante (Tornavento) and a modern enoteca with good light food (Bottega del Grande Vini), plus now a 5th that's opened since we visited (Le Rocche). All in a small village that otherwise has just a post office, alimentari and bar (cafe). I'm told Neive also has some good dining options, but we've not been. Barbaresco itself I find more hit & miss, but good for winery visits and an unfussy central consorzio enoteca.

Alba also remains a lovely place to stroll around and there's a decent outdoor market (though obviously not on the scale of the special sprawling market when the truffle fair is on).

A slightly quirky suggestion for when in Santa Margherita. I was chatting with someone a while ago of our shared love of the late afternoon / early evening passeggiata, and he recommended Recco near Camogli as a really good example of a somewhat humdrum location having a wonderfully vibrant and enjoyable passeggiata. There should be trains to get you back to SML. (La Spezia also good for this, from my own experience, but that's much further away)
 
Welcome Beerman!
Some of the great info available I told you about on this board has started with Ian's post above!

Have a great trip!
 
A "broader experience" is always a goal. Ian thank you, I'm putting your recommendations in my notes joining Colo's previous advice. We have a couple "would like to do's" in each location, these are always subject to change depending on our moods. Barbaresco, Alba and Barolo are on the list, but with a car and paper map we will probably meander a bit. We like to hike, so at least one good hike from Santa Margherita...obvious choice is probably to Portofino. Might trade hiking boots for bikes in Piemonte, still trying to figure out best starting point for this...and haven't yet looked at Lake Como hiking options. Sunset strolls a must every night! Great food, coffee and wine are a must, but I do enjoy beer, thus the moniker!
 
Ooh! if you like walking, shared ownership of vineyards in the Langhe means almost all are open to anyone to walk through, which makes for wonderful walking routes through vineyards we recognise from the wines we drink. That's not to discount the cycling options, as the roads are nicely quiet, and whilst there are some steep hills, it's definitely not mountainous. There is a very useful little walking map sold in the tourist offices (and possibly other shops), which is likely to be around €12-15. Whilst there are some signposts, plus if heading towards a village, they're often elevated, it's more reassuring to have a map to track.

On the subject of beer, you might see Baladin around Piemonte, and although they've grown into a sizeable outfit, I still very much like what they do. Also worth trying Luvabeer from the outskirts of Torino if you see it, with an interesting beer that uses Barbera grapes (amongst others). There are others, and it's fun to try them. For a more lager style beer, I do like the historic Northern Piemonte brewery Menabrea. Will be interested in any that you taste and enjoy on the trip.
 
We will look for that trail map! I did see a loop from Guarene to Barbaresco, but since you mentioned Neive that town has my interest now, could do a loop to Barbaresco from there. We'll know better when we see the area. These types of decisions, for us, often can be made simply seeing a sign when driving and we'll say "looks cool, want to try that?"

As far as beer, I found a local micro-brew walking distance from our lodging in Guarene, Birrificio Artigianale Alba, looks interesting if we have time!
 
Hi Beerman and welcome here!
We went through Guarene and that area of the Roero on our last trip to Piemonte in 2016. We are always on the look-out for small producers of foodstuffs, and we learned that Guarene is the birthplace of the Madernassa pear, a delicious variety of one of our favorite fruits. It was harvest time, and after finding out that there was also a unique Madernassa pear cider , we decided we just had to find a local vendor of the region's products. And we did : l'orto smeraldo, a lovely family-run fruit and vegetable store just outside of Guarene. The staff there were really nice and even offered us a pumpkin for free. I believe they also have a pear beer there, just for you.
If I recall correctly, there is also a "pear trail" that goes through the orchards above Guarene, but we didn't try it out. Needless to say, a stunning area for walking or driving around in the countryside.
 
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We will look for that trail map! I did see a loop from Guarene to Barbaresco, but since you mentioned Neive that town has my interest now, could do a loop to Barbaresco from there. We'll know better when we see the area. These types of decisions, for us, often can be made simply seeing a sign when driving and we'll say "looks cool, want to try that?"

As far as beer, I found a local micro-brew walking distance from our lodging in Guarene, Birrificio Artigianale Alba, looks interesting if we have time!
Ooh! They're a new brewery to me, and a range that certainly looks appealing, including a blonde, wheat beer and other 'belgian style' beers, plus two using grapes. 'In walking distance' is always something I look for as well.
 
Welcome Beerman - and thanks for spurring Ian to advise on Piemonte. We are early stage planning for a few weeks there next Spring, so glad to see his thoughts and whatever suggestions you may have upon returning.
 
I am happy I listened to Colo and joined this group! Wasn't expecting so much great info in such a short time!

Penn251 I am fairly active on another site and have written many trip reports there. I expect a learning curve I'll need to work through for attaching photo's etc, but I will post a trip report... Colo expect an email in a few weeks ha!!

Joe, we like pears and cider, the town is small, we will find that store!

Ian, I have never knowingly had a beer made with grapes, I will certainly try it! Since it is in walking distance I think we could possibly check off most of their products ;-) Our daughter loves craft beers.

I'm sure I'll have some specific questions, should I start a post in the Italy section at this point? or keep it going here? Thanks again!
 
I'm sure I'll have some specific questions, should I start a post in the Italy section at this point? or keep it going here? Thanks again!
Whichever works best for you. It can be useful to start a specific thread in the Italy forum as it might attract more viewers / keep the comments focused on that subject, but the group is pretty chilled, so continue here if easier.

This group isn't huge on numbers, but I do love it for very high proportion of seasoned travellers, with experience well-beyond the mass tourist trail, and in the genuine joy in sharing knowledge / thoughts that may help others. One of those lovely little corners of the internet!
 
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It has been hot and dry in Virginia, our pond is down a foot during the draught. I have seen some pics around Italy during their extreme draught, Lake Garda and Po River pics were shocking. With the current front that moved in temps in Northern Italy seem to be cooling. I saw a brief article that says grapes are being harvested early this year. I'm having trouble finding local news in the areas we are visiting, does anyone have good news sources?
 
I've not seen harvesting info about Italy, but did see that Bordeaux harvesting this year was (by a day or two), the earliest ever. Similar to early Bordeaux reports, this (Alta Langa - A large area, mostly to the south / south east & south west of the Langhe) report seems to suggest the drought wasn't as damaging to quality as expected, and hot/dry can certainly help avoid a lot of issues, even if I tend to prefer the more grumpy structured wines from less hot vintages :D.


The phrase 'in vino veritas' (in wine there is truth), was originally I believe referring to the alcohol relaxing us so the truth came out, but in these situations is nowadays sometimes co-opted to refer to holding judgement until the wines are made, bottled and poured into a glass - only then is the truth revealed :cool:.

It will be interesting if you have any producer visits planned, to see what their view on it is. The timing might mean they'll be harvesting the Barbera/Dolcetto/White grapes when you're there. That can be a problem for visits, but provided a lovely highlight when we visited a small family-run winery in Ghemme (Mirù). They were bringing Nebbiolo grapes in that day, and they went straight into the press when we were there. The winemaker (Marco) offered us a glass of the freshly pressed juice to taste. I doubt I'll ever taste a more enjoyable fruit juice in my life!

On a non-wine related note, our local market (in UK) has stocked chanterelles for a couple of weeks, which is very early. Not sure on volumes, but they look (and taste) very good. Hopefully a little rain over the next week might bring the porcini out en-masse. It should be a perfect time of year for them.

I've not specifically hunted out local news online, but this site appears to have decent coverage

and I also forgot to say that the www.langheroero.it tourist office site (and bricks and mortar locations) are very good indeed, with lots of activities and listings.
 
Testing adding a pic....is it really this simple?
 

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Seems to work! Ian, thanks for the news link! I'll ask if they expect any nuances in this years grapes. FYI, I am not "Wineman" so my only critiques will be something like, "tastes wonderful"! We would enjoy seeing the harvesting activity if the timing is right.

These chanterelle pics are from our property in the George Washington National Forest along the Virginia/ West Virginia state line. We had a great year for chanterelles, started harvesting in late July to mid August. Looking forward to Italy's porcini mushrooms, which are my absolute favorite and not readily available here.
 

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They were bringing Nebbiolo grapes in that day, and they went straight into the press when we were there. The winemaker (Marco) offered us a glass of the freshly pressed juice to taste. I doubt I'll ever taste a more enjoyable fruit juice in my life!
Yeah, and the tragedy of it all is that then they wreck it by turning it into wine! ;);)
 

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