GRAPE EXPECTATIONS

Pop the cork on the delights of Piedmont on this full-day excursion to the countryside from Turin. Wine enthusiasts will discover how some of the region’s finest wines are made while visiting a highly esteemed estate and fizz up their taste buds as they sip spumante in an “underground cathedral”.

Meet your private guide and driver at your accommodation and relax on the ride through the gently rolling hills of the UNESCO-listed landscape of Langhe, to a well-established wine estate near Barbaresco. The property has belonged to a noble dynasty since 1797 though it wasn’t until rather later that the winery itself was established. For almost two hundred years the family produced and sold its grapes in the Alba market each autumn. One of the owners, who began supervising the agricultural operations of the family estates in the 1960s, grew weary of seeing others benefit from transforming the fruits of their labours into wine. He decided that rather than just supplying top quality grapes to the best wine producers in the area he would produce the finest wine himself. In 1973 he began creating his first distinctive wines, labelled with the family’s coat of arms. Today, thanks to his dedication to the terroir and adoption of the highest standards of cellar practices, this estate’s wines enjoy recognition from Barbaresco lovers worldwide. On a tour of the cellar, led by a qualified member of staff, you will find out about wine production and ageing methods, get to know which grape varieties blend in Langhe wines and discover the characteristics of the soil and climate that make wines produced here so special. A guided tasting of a selection of the estate’s wines, including a Barbaresco, will allow you to savour the outstanding results of almost fifty years of constant commitment.

After some free time for lunch, a 30-minute drive will bring you to Canelli where you will uncover the sparkling secrets concealed beneath this town, heir to a long-standing and still thriving tradition of wine-making. Indeed Canelli is famous as a production centre of Asti Spumante, a slightly sweet, bubbly white wine which is safely stored in the network of galleries and rooms, dug deep into the tuff, that winds its way for kilometres underground. Thousands of bottles are left to age in these subterranean wine cellars at a constant temperature of 12 to 14 degrees. Excavated between the 16th and 19th centuries and complete with vaulted brick ceilings, these tunnels are true masterpieces of engineering and monuments to Piedmont’s oenological heritage. Their mysterious atmosphere and otherworldly setting have earned them their rightful nickname of “cathedrals” and it is here that wine loving pilgrims come to pay homage and give thanks for one of the region’s most exquisite white wines.

On a visit to the underground wine cellar of a historic producer, guests will learn all about wine production in Canelli, discover which techniques are used to enhance the fresh, fruity aromas and fine perlage of their elixirs and understand the importance of these underground tunnels in the history of the town. Top off your day with a tasting of the winery’s spumante before returning to your hotel in Turin.