A couple of weeks ago, I talked about Alba as a classic regional Piemonte town. One reason I am a big Alba fan is due to the numerous foodie and wine events the city host throughout the year. Given TorreBarolo is just a 15mins car ride to Alba, it is easy to get there and enjoy these events for a few hours. Moreover, given the size of Alba, these events are low-key affairs where you don’t have to worry about queuing to sample a selection of wines or walking endlessly around a huge convention center.
The International White Truffle Fair that commences in October for 2 months is well known and attracts serious foodies given the passion that exists for this mysterious musty smelling fungus. One event that is less well known is Vinum, Langhe and Roreo’s annual wine festival. Vinum’s function is to showcase the mom and pop wineries as well as the regional stars. As many of the smaller wineries don’t export outside the region, I see Vinum as an excellent opportunity to familiarize myself with the vast offerings from the local producers. Also exciting is that the producers use Vinum as the event to release new vintages of Barolo and Barbaresco.
Recently Alba hosted the 34th edition of Vinum and although I was able to attend, being 7 months pregnant did put a damper on being able to enjoy any of the tastings. The set up this year was different than other years I have attended as this year the organizers decided to contain all the events within three separate marquees/exhibition centers. (I must say I preferred this to walking through the streets of Alba looking for the various kiosks).
This year’s three areas were divided into the following: 
Palavinum 1: hosted the “Grand Langhe and Roero wines”. For €12 you would get a ticket book to taste 10 wines, a wine glass, a pouch to carry your wine glass in, a bottle of water and discount vouchers. For an incremental €4, a 2nd person could join you. Given the quality of wines in this exhibition hall, it looked like a deal to me, especially since I never saw many tickets exchanged and think that as long as you had a pouch and a glass you could go on tasting.
Palavinum 2: hosted both wine and food and was titled “Appetizing Encounters”. The price for this event was the same as Palavinum 1. The difference with this marquee was that the wines weren’t exclusively from the Langhe/Roero region and were from Piemonte in general, however, most of the placards I saw were of local vintners. Given I didn’t recognize many of the wineries in this marquee I am going to make the broad statement that this is where the smaller mom and pop wineries exhibit. Also in this marquee there were numerous food producers offering samples of everything from my favourite Castelmagno cheese, to the special Bra salsicca to the delicious local “Torte alla Nocciola” (hazelnut cakes). 
Palavinum 3: hosted the big dogs and instead of kiosks to walk around and sample various wines, there were set times for events and the prices reflected the prestigious wines on offer. For example, there was a retrospective of great Barolo vintages where participates sampled 16 wines for €40. Palavinum 3 events were spread over two days and there were many special events during these days to enhance your knowledge and appreciation of the region’s world famous wines.
Vinum extends over the last weekend in April and first two weekend of May. Mark your calendar for 2011 so you don’t miss out on this excellent wine lover event!
