It was a real treat the other night to tag along with my local friends to a sneak preview of the new museum inside the 15th century Castello Faletti, since it’s only a 5 minutes walk from TorreBarolo. The castle has been closed for more than a year as it has undergone a complete transformation and expansion, with the official opening in the next few months. Castello Falletti 1 280x235 Sneak preview of Barolo wine museum at Castello Falletti

I had toured the castle once before and to be honest, other than the library of the famous Italian writer Silvio Pellico, there wasn’t anything interesting in the castle other than the Enoteca that had a massive selection of old Barolo bottles and of course the possibility to do tastings.

The best way to describe my overall impression of the new museum is to say that it is more a wine fun park than traditional museum. Gone are the boring displays of vintage wine making equipment and dusty bottles of wine. In its places is a wild world that attempts to capture the cycle of a wine’s development. I don’t want to give away all the surprises but out of the 5 floors and probably over 20 rooms that I toured, there are 3 that reflected that you are actually in a castle.

The architect of the renovation is famous for doing the Film museum in Torino. Upon entering, the first thing you see is a elegant and super contemporary cylinder glass elevator with a glass landing that leads into the first room, which is a wicked room with crests and shields on the ceiling and a fireplace large enough to stand in. It is certainly a room I hope the commune decides to rent out for private functions. Castello Falletti 8 280x247 Sneak preview of Barolo wine museum at Castello Falletti

Of the wackier rooms is a room that represents the land, as effectively they are attempting to have you experience being a root of a vine. There is a room that is the sun that is painted bright yellow with a mirror floor, followed by a moon room where a giant moon that rotates throughout the room. Entrance into each of the different rooms brought to mind: “what on earth” or “how bizarre”, or “how cool”.

Not all of the features were in place but it was explained to me that in of of the larger room on the 1st floor there will be talking mouths to explain the history etc of the area and wine making production. My favourite room was the cinema complete with movie billboards of movies about wine, leather club chairs, red velvet curtains and I was told they will run clips of a selection of movies that focus on wine (i.e. Sideways, A Good Year, etc…). Below the main floor, the renovation included digging out 2 new floors and these gigantic bunker-esque rooms will be used for virtual lecture rooms to showcases a variety of wine experts.  Castello Falletti 2 280x186 Sneak preview of Barolo wine museum at Castello Falletti

There will also be an Enoteca, though our guide didn’t have the key to that room. The castle is missing a cool hip bar where you can sit and ponder the bizarre exhibits but maybe that will be included in the Enoteca.

The grand opening is sometime in March/April. They said they didn’t know yet what the entrance fee will be but I got the impression a reasonable fee to encourage visitors. This is certainly a museum that both kids and adults will enjoy and showcases a new thinking in what a museum can be. It is a fun attraction for a small town and one you surely should check out.

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