TorreBarolo Blog

When you need a break from eating and drinking all the wonderful Langhe cuisine, here is a suggestion for a few mini-excursion; go visit one of the well restored castles in Cuneo province.

My castle top picks in the Cuneo region are: Castello Roccolo di Busca, Castello Reale di Carlo Felice di Govone and Castello Reale di Racconigi.

Castello Roccolo di Busca is located a bit over 30min by car from TorreBarolo and transports one from the rolling vine covered hills of the Langhe to the fruit orchards of the Cuneo valley, the region’s capital.

The castle is named after the nets used to catch small birds called “roccoli”. The castle has quite an impressive past having hosted such famous and noble individuals as the famous Italian writer, Silvio Pellico, King Umberto I and Queen Margherita. What I enjoy about the castle is it the neo-Gothic style, which was the fashion around Saluzzo in the mid 1800’s as well as favoured by the Savoy court. The exterior of the castle combines Moorish arches, rose windows and many floral features.

Surrounding the castle is a very large, peaceful and lush park, designed in a Romantic style that contains many paths, look out points and peaceful corners.

Tours are available and access many of the rooms in the main building before continuing to the monumental conservatory and then into the gardens.

Although the town of Busca is not on my “must see list” after touring the castle you are only 20mins from Saluzzo or else if you want to cool off in the Alps, one can head into the Upper Maira Valley where one can find woods and walking trails, a paradise for hikers and mountain bikers.

Castello Reale di Carlo Felice di Govone is located 30mins from Barolo in the hilltop town of Govone, which easily can be reached from the autostrada direction Asti.

The castle is mentioned in a bill of sale from 989 when it was likely a very medieval structure typical of the Monferrato fortresses, but the current structure is the result from a major rebuilding effort carried out in the 13^th century by the Solaro counts, including Count Giuseppe Roberto Solaro.

The castle exchange hands many time in the 1800’s to finally be acquired by the Ovazza Segre family who handed it over to the municipal government in 1897.

In 1997, UNESCO designated it a World Heritage Sites. A series of careful restoration works are returning the castle to its original splendour, within the splendid setting of its vast park.

The castle is an imposing brick structure with a façade rich in decoration and sculptures. The whole building is bordered to the north and west by a vase English style garden and to the east bygarden of fountains, trees and flowerbeds.

Castello Reale di Racconigi is located 40min north of Barolo, exit the A6 direction Torino at Carmagnola. It is considered “a must see” of the royal Savoy residences.

The castle was originally built as a mighty military fortress at the end of the 12^th century/beginning of the 13^th century by the marquises of Saluzzo. After exchanging hands many times, it was then in the 16th century the Savoys transformed it from a fortress into a residence by Prince Emanuele Filiberto Amedo, then heir to the throne of Savoy.

During the Jacobin revolts of the late 18th century the castle suffered occupation and the confiscation of goods by the French troops, but after a period disuse, it returned to the Savoy family, more specifically, Charles Albert who had the architect Palagi oversee the refurbishment and also was responsible for works on the park, which he designed in English neo-Gothic style.

When the capital of Italy was moved from Turin to Rome, the castle was a favorite residence of the royal family and was used as a summer residence during the mid-1800s. The castle’s last owner was Umberto II, who received it from Victor Emanuel III as a wedding gift.

The castle is noteworthy for its majestic architecture as well as its varied interior which contain different periods and styles of woodwork, painting, stucco etc. It is admired for retaining the atmosphere of a house that documented the lifestyle of 19^th and 20^th century royal family.

The public can visit the first and second floors, the kitchens and the park.

The castle is open from 9-18:30 Tuesday to Sunday. Tickets are €5. The park at the castle is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10-19 and tickets for access to the garden are €2.

There is a cafeteria to enjoy refreshments.

These 3 are part of an initiative called Castelli Aperti (Open Castles) that open to the public from May until October 90 historical residences that otherwise would be hard to access as many are privately owned.

The Castello Del Roccolo di Busca is open April 5th – October 31st, though closed in August. Check this website below for opening hours but generally from 14:30 to 19:00. Entrance is €5.

Castles of Piemonte: here you can find many more beautiful pictures of our favourite castles in Piemonte.

CASTELLO DEL ROCCOLO DI BUSCA
Frazione San Quintino, 17
12022 Busca (CN)
Tel: +39 0171 618260
Email: zelda.beltramo@marcovaldo.it

CASTELLO REALE DI CARLO FELICE DI GOVONE
Piazza Roma, 1
12040 Govone (CN)
Tel: +39 0173 58103
Email: segreteria@comune.govone.cn.it

CASTELLO REALE DI RACCONIGI
Via Morosini, 3
12035 Racconigi (CN)
Tel: +39 0172 84005
Email: comunica@castellodiracconigi.org

Suoni dalle Colline di Langhe e Roero is the title of this year’s Alba Music Festival, summer edition and it opens July 16th in Alba and run through August 1st. The festival is the collaboration between the City of Alba and St. Mary’s College of Maryland, USA. This year marks the fourth edition of the summer program and will showcase artists from Italy as well as the US, Japan, Spain, Holland, Belgium, Argentina, England and Germany.

The program will consist of the Brass Quintet of the National RAI Symphony Orchestra, the famous Arias of Opera and Operetta with the Japanese soprano Miyuki Hayakawa, a performance dedicated to the Argentinean tango with the dancers Nancy Alejandra Micelli and Fernando Oscar Gargaglione, the Romanian State Orchestra performing Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and the Spanish dancer Monica Sanchez. Also there will be piano recitals with four international soloists paying homage to Chopin and Schumann for the bicentennial of their birth. There will also be Jazz from Barend Middelhoff and his quintet.

This festival provides an occasion to discover the many beautiful places in the area, from the castle of Grinzane Cavour and Magliano Alfieri to the splendid boroughs of Castiglione Falletto, La Morra and Verduno.  Also visitors should take time to visit the striking Tenuta Carretta of Piobesi,  the Confraternita di San Bernardino of Vezza d’Alba and the fascinating Santuario della Madonna di Hal di Murazzano.

Six of the concert venues are part of the Strada Romantica of Langhe and Roero, a driving route that highlights places that through its setting and the stories of the people who live there bring to life this special area of Italy.

See below or download the Calendar of Alba Music Festival 2010:

Friday, July 16, 2010
9,00 PM Alba, Chiesa di San Giuseppe
“Harp and dance”

Saturday, July 17, 2010
9,00 PM Vezza d’Alba, Confraternita di San Bernardino
“Virtuoso trumpet”

Sunday, July 18, 2010
9,00 PM La Morra, Chiesa di San Rocco
“Van li effluvi de le rose…”
Nocturnes, romances and songs

Monday, July 19, 2010
9,00 PM Piobesi d’Alba, Tenuta Carretta
“Music to see”
Magnasco Movie Quartet

Tuesday, July 20, 2010
9,00 PM Alba, Chiesa di San Giuseppe
“Così fan tutte”
Reality and legend in the life of Lorenzo Da Ponte
Music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wednesday, July 21, 2010
9,00 PM Grinzane Cavour, Castello, Sala delle Maschere
“En evening with the Buranello”
The sonnets for two violins of Baldassarre Galuppi

Thursday, July 22, 2010
9,00 PM Verduno, Cortile del Municipio
“Take 5”
Brass Quintet of the National RAI Symphony Orchestra

Friday, July 23, 2010
9,00 PM Treiso, ex Chiesa dei Battuti
“The Harlequin’s Serenade”
Famous Arias of the Opera and Operetta

Saturday, July 24, 2010
9,00 PM Murazzano, Santuario della Madonna di Hal
“Romantic Road”
Homage to Robert Schumann for the bicentennial of his birth

Sunday, July 25, 2010
9,00 PM Castiglione Falletto, Piazza del Municipio
“Nuevo Encuentro y tango”
Music and dance from Argentina

Monday, July 26, 2010
9,00 Piobesi d’Alba, Tenuta Carretta
“Midsummer night’s dream”
Romanian State Symphony Orchestra

Tuesday, July 27, 2010
9,00 PM Annunziata di La Morra, Chiesa della Santissima Annunziata
“The magic flute”
Music of Haydn, Mozart, Stamitz

Wednesday, July 28, 2010
9,00 PM Sinio, Chiesa Parrocchiale di San Frontiniano
“Alborada del gracioso”
Music of Franck, Beethoven, Chopin, Ravel

Thursday, July 29, 2010
9,00 PM Trezzo Tinella, Chiesa dei Battuti
“Harmonies du soir”
Music of Liszt, Franck, Brahms, Chopin

Friday, July 30, 2010
9,00 PM Magliano Alfieri, Chiesa Parrocchiale di Sant’Andrea
“Aimez-Vous Chopin?”
Homage to Frédéric Chopin, for the bicentennial of his birth

Saturday, July 31, 2010
9,00 PM La Morra, Casa Vinicola Mascarello
“Jazz Lines”
Special Guest Barend Middelhoff saxaphone

Sunday, August 1, 2010
5,00 PM Sale San Giovanni, Castello dei Marchesi Incisa di Camerana
“Nubes de Buenos Aires”

Our wine guru Gary Chevsky, back in November 2009, experimented with some Barbera wines from Piemonte:

“Unclear why anyone would want to drink aged Barbera, a wine grape that is associated with easy quaffing and everyday meals. In the land where Nebbiolo is firmly the king, why mess with that? Let Barbera and Dolcetto play their lowly part in the food chain. Affordable, refreshing, satisfyingly easy drinking table wines. What would the world do without them, no?

But of course someone is always ready to challenge status quo, try to make an eagle out of a sparrow, a Boeing out of a paper plane. Treat Dolcetto like a more serious grape, and you get Dolcetto di Dogliani, deeper, richer, more ageable. Treat Barbera like that, and what do you get?

On Monday, a small group of enthusiasts got together at a Ross Bott tasting in Los Altos to assess 1999-2001 Barberas by La Spinetta. La Spinetta has a “standard” or lower-end Ca’ Di Pian wine that costs in the teens, and a higher-end wine that costs $40-50. Having tasted Gaja’s 1995 Barbera “Sitorey” earlier this year and having found it a powerful, fresh, and nuanced wine, my expectations were mixed. After all, that was Gaja! Could anyone else approach that effort?

From the mailer by Ross Bott, the organizer:

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“Barbera is the third most planted red grape varietal planted in Italy, after Sangiovese and Montepulciano. Although planted in many of the northern Italian provinces, it is at its best in the Piedmonte region area around Asti, where it has DOCG status, Italy’s highest classification.

The varietal is naturally high in acid and low in tannins, and, when vinified in a lighter style to be drunk young, is a fine everyday wine to complement pastas and other northern Italian dishes. However, when yields are kept low and the grapes are harvested at riper levels, the resultant wines can be deep, complex and long aging, and marry particularly well with new medium toasted (or charred) oak barrels. Ironically, this approach is a relatively recent phenomenon in Piedmonte. In fact, some of the earliest examples of this approach were in the Shennandoah Valley in California, where Montevina made some great old Special Selection Barberas in the late 1970s — to my view the most exciting wines ever to come out of the Sierra Foothills.

In 1998, Giuseppe Rivetti began to make a Barbera Superiore under his La Spinetta label, a serious, high-end approach involving old vines, low yields, and aging for 12-18 months in new French oak. Rivetti was born in Argentina, but his family was Piedmontese, and he returned in 1977 to the Asti region, in an area then known for Moscato d’Asti, a fragrant, low alcohol wine made from a varietal in the Muscat family. After producing some landmark examples of this white wine, he ventured into reds in 1985, first with Barbera and later adding Barbarescos and Barolos. He produces three Barberas a year, a Ca’ Di Pian which is richer and riper than most Barberas, but sees less oak, a Gallina from a single vineyard which also provides the grapes for his Barbaresco, and a Superiore, which is a reserve bottling from a selection of his best barrels. Both of the latter get extended barrel treatment and are among the three or four best Barberas produced anywhere.

Tonight, we’ll try six La Spinetta Barberas, a pair from each of 1999, 2000 and 2001. One member of each pair will be the lightly oaked Ca’ Di Pian and the other an example of his highest end Barberas which get extended treatment in new oak.”

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From what La Spinetta I have tasted, it seems to have a ripe fruity style, perhaps closer to new world than old. On the photos below, the wines are ranked right to left in the order of scores. Easily in our blind tasting, the group ruled that more expensive wines beat out the cheaper ones. Though drinkable, the lower-end ones obviously not built for aging were slightly pickled, dusty, and funky. The higher-end “Superiore” and “Gallina” were in perfectly good shape, maintaining fresh fruit.

While the top 3 wines still “showed” young, it is as if they had artificially been beefed up to last longer, and the age did not give them subtlety, complexity, and secondary flavors that I’ve seen develop in properly aged ageworthy wines. It seemed rather pointless to me to spend $45 a bottle, then cellar it for 10 years, when in that range one finds some wonderful Nebbiolo and Sangiovese options. While obviously we confirmed Barbera’s ageability, I would not call that ageworthiness. It bothered me that the wines lacked finesse and complexity, and the question that firmly stuck in my mind was – “What’s the point!???”