Why this winemaking region is the perfect alternative to Tuscany
Idea
In this series called My Happy Place, our writers reflect on the holiday destinations they cherish most in Australia and around the world.
It’s hard to be in a bad mood when the sun is shining and you’re riding shotgun through the Italian countryside in a convertible.
It’s a lesson I learned when I first saw the Langhe, the winemaking hills slowly receding from Alba, a town in northern Italy’s Piedmont region. Still simmering after a fight with my boyfriend the night before, my anxiety instantly evaporates as I gaze out over a landscape of vine-striped hillsides dotted with the occasional cluster of medieval towers. I feel like we’re walking through a fairy tale.
My friend Rod Smith and I took an impromptu detour to Serralunga d’Alba, one of the Langhe’s premier wine villages. We had a better time than we expected, from our home in Nice to Lake Maggiore, where we bought tickets to an open-air opera performance by the water. Rod, one of approximately 420 Masters of Wine in the world, has a winemaker friend from Serralunga who called ahead to see if he could join us for lunch.
I recently imported from Australia to Europe, I have been working for a wine company in the south of France for two years; That’s how I know Rod. I’m still in the honeymoon phase of living on the continent. The landscapes are diverse, a three-hour drive from Nice, making it ideal for a weekend break. I’ve camped on the edge of the beaches near Saint-Tropez, snowshoeed through Narnia-style pine forests on the ski hills north of Nice, and wandered around sunny villages just outside Peter Mayle. A Year in Provence. But nothing has ever given me a chance to smile like this one.
Those smiles grow bigger as we take in the view from Serralunga through the vineyards towards the Cottian Alps rising in the distance. The scene is so still that it looks as if it has been painted as a background. The day is so clear that we can see all the way to Monte Viso, the highest peak of the mountain range, 3800 meters high. Some say this is the inspiration for Paramount’s iconic mountain logo.
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Inside the village there is not much more than a few cobblestone streets that wind like a 14th-century snail’s shell. Castello di SerralungaRod’s friend Paolo Manzone and his wife Luisella join us for lunch at Vinoteca Centro Storico, a cozy wine bar in the shadow of the castle. A new friendship is forged over a shared plate of cheese and charcuterie and a bottle of arneis (the local white grape variety).
This was 16 years ago. And although I don’t remember how the argument with my boyfriend (now husband) ended, Langhe manages to instantly lift my mood every time I return. This is as often as I can.
Paolo and Luisella’s vineyard agritourism, Cascina de MeriameIt quickly became a base for visiting other wine villages: big names like Barolo and Barbaresco with my two sisters, as well as smaller places hidden in the landscape like Monforte d’Alba. This is where a group of my high school friends from Sydney are traveling around Europe, and I’m inside learning local delicacies like Vitello Tonato and Tajarin Le Case della Saracca and marvel at how we managed to reunite in a small village in Northern Italy, in a collection of old stone houses converted into a stylish restaurant.
For a long time I strayed from major regional centers and preferred the quiet tranquility of the countryside. But Alba, as the home base of the Ferrero family, is a powerhouse that has given the world Nutella, Ferrero Rocher and Kinder. This is my kind of place: Turn a corner and you’ll find a wine festival in a medieval courtyard or a farmers’ market overflowing with hazelnuts, another point of pride here. The town, in late autumn, Fiera Internazionale Tartufo Bianco d’Albaa celebration of the region’s prized white truffle crop.
On my last trip this May, I finally visited the nearby town of Bra, known as the home of the Slow Food Movement. I stayed on the edge of town while traveling with my youngest daughter on a work assignment. Albergo dell’AgenziaIt was originally built as a royal estate for the rulers of Savoy. As well as the Pollenzo University of Gastronomic Sciences or the University of Slow Food in the same complex Banca del VinoA library of 70,000 Italian wines. We had dinner that night Osteria BoccondivinoThe restaurant where the movement started. Fresh, local, seasonal; this was the mantra of the Langhe long before it spread around the world.
On my first visit in 2010, I thought I had found the equivalent of Tuscany without the crowds. I’ve been waiting for the secret to be revealed for 16 years. But it still didn’t happen; You won’t find me complaining.
