“The Quest for the Holy Barolo” - Part 1

The rolling hills of Piedmont

As we’ve mysteriously suggested since our first post of this trip, we’ve had a very specific reason why we’re here in the Piedmont region of Italy. It’s a long story, but we’ll give you a brief rundown. 

Many years ago John, his late wife Sandy, and his youngest son Andrew, along with another family spent a week on an island on a beautiful Canadian lake. One day John and the other dad went to the nearest Canadian liquor store. Not usually noted for their Italian wine selection, we found a bottle of Barolo that was modestly priced. That evening John made his signature dish, Beef en Croute for 10 people. It’s a single serving Beef Wellington. With dinner, the adults drank the bottle of Barolo.

To John, that Barolo was magnificent; a nose of leather, a wonderful taste and a long finish that was reminiscent of flint! Yep, flint. Flint, tar, minerals…all noted sensory notes from Barolo.

What happened next was crazy. A major storm and tornado whipped through the area causing a power outage and much damage. The next morning we had to leave to go home. But first we had to clean up the dishes without power or water. We had to hike down to the lake with buckets to get water to heat on the gas stove to wash all the mess from the night before. In all this hubbub, we never wrote down the name of that superior Barolo. If you don’t already know, Barolos are rather expensive. So, over the ensuing years, John has yearned to come to this part of Italy to taste as many Barolos as possible, in his “The Quest for the Holy Barolo.”

So, after leaving the Croatian ship we flew to Milan, Italy; spent the night in a lovely villa converted to a hotel.

Old style luxury. We felt like kings and queens of old.

The next morning we picked up our rental car and headed toward Piedmont. Both John and Nancy separately and together have traveled all over Italy, but never to this very northern region. They tell us that on clear days you can see the Alps. We’re still waiting for a glimpse.

Our first stop was in the town of Asti where we stopped for lunch at a restaurant suggested by our Airbnb host Helga called Ristorante il Podesta.

Your typical underground Osteria. Barolo #1. The remains portion of our amuse bouche. Our lunches. Nancy with her after lunch drink. And outside the restaurant.

After a short winding drive we made it to our first Airbnb, called “Villa in Asti.” Picture an Italian villa! Go ahead, we’ll give you a second. The picture below is what’s shown on Airbnb for the backyard.

A pool, a garden and a pond…paradise

Now, here’s a picture from the living room looking out at the backyard that’s shown in the Airbnb pictures. Slight difference, no? Yea, they missed showing all of the high rise building all around the villa.

All in all though, it was a lovely home with a super nice older Italian couple, Sergio and Guillana. This place was rented by Nancy so all they knew was “Nancy Hayes”. When John told him his name was John Zuchero, the dad immediately said, “Giovanni Zucchero” then, changing to English said, “John Sugar!” He thought that was a riot and so did John. 

Showing us around the yard we came to a nice sized out building. 

Upon opening the doors there was an indoor dining room with a wood-fired PIZZA oven. Nancy explained, using Google Translate that John has a pizza oven too. John pantomimed swirling pizza dough in the air and everyone laughed. 

The next morning, we left Asti and traveled to Novello, which is just a few miles from the town of Barolo. We stopped in Alba and found a nice little outdoor restaurant for lunch. Here John had his second Barolo, which smelled like leather (that’s a good thing) and had a taste of plums (also good, but not what he’s questing for). So, Barolo #2 was a no.

After lunch we headed for our next Airbnb, where we’ll stay for six nights. John picked this Airbnb from the pictures online. He kept telling Nancy how “beautiful” it is. When we arrived it turned out to be nice, but not beautiful…the owner’s photographer did a great job of making a place much nicer than it actually was. One particular example that made us laugh is shown in the photos below. On the left is the owner's image of the bedroom, the second and third pictures we took. Watch out for your head!

But, all in all it’s nice and we won’t be in it all the time since we have lots of day trips planned. 

However, driving here was really beautiful, the wineries that comprise the Barolo region stretch for miles and miles. Even in fall after harvest with the leaves turning orange, yellow and red it looks amazing.

Before we arrived, we stopped for provisions at a Lidl along the way. As a gag, we bought a bottle of Barolo for $12€ ($14 USD). Most Barolos begin at around $30/bottle and can run easily into the hundreds. So, a $14 bottle of Barolo from a grocery store had to be given a slot in “The Quest for the Holy Barolo.” Needless to say, “it wasn’t worth the quest”…drinkable, but just. So, Barolo #3 was a non winner.

The next morning, we met Alessio Marin who arrived at our Airbnb at 9:30 am. The three of us took off for our all day tour of the wineries of the region. We stopped first at the Silvano Bolmida winery where we were greeted by one of the owners, a young woman named Alessandra. After a tour of their production facility, where the barrel room was carved into the hill behind the rest of the facility, we went upstairs to their tasting room. We tasted four of their Barolos, each from a different vineyard, some facing south and some west. All very fine examples, but none with characteristics John was looking for. So, Barolos #4-7, while excellent, are still not winners of the quest.

The second winery was Luigi Pira in the town of Serralunga d’ Alba. This tasting room was located in the village above the vineyards. We met the owner's wife, who walked us through a number of wines. However, the strangest part of the tasting was a man at another table who had brought a bottle of Pira Barolo Margherita from 2001…a 24 year older bottle of the wine than we were tasting from 2021. For whatever reason, he poured Alessio (our wine guide) a glass of the 2001 wine. He seemed to be so proud of his 2001, he even poured us a glass and we tasted it next to its younger version. Both excellent but in different ways. But, all in all Barolos #8-12…sorry to say, none matched the quest’s criteria.

Alessio then dropped us off at a wonderful little Osteria where we had a nice lunch and another Barolo…..#13, still no winner.

Our final tasting of the day was in a tiny place tucked into a side street of La Morra, called Poderi Marcarini. Here we tasted Barolo #14, sorry…no winner yet. But! We tasted their Dolcetto D’Alba and fell in love. Dolchetto D’Alba is a black grape variety from the northern Piedmont area. While John was familiar with the name, he and Nancy were both blown away by this wine. So, no Quest-worthy Barolo, but a new wine to enjoy.

By the end of this, we were tuckered out, having tasted multiple wines, plus wine at lunch. On our drive back to the Airbnb Nancy and John relaxed while Alessio traversed the winding roads and hills until we were safely back “home”.

The next morning, we booked a truffle hunt where we and a group of others followed Marco (an authorized truffle hunter) and his dog Kiera through the woods outside of La Mora. About five minutes later, Kiera stopped and laid down in the leaves on the side of the trail. Marco began to dig and came up with a black truffle about the size of a golf ball. John quietly joked to Nancy that Marco probably buried that one so we’d at least find one.

But, over the course of the next two hours, Kiera found three black and two white truffles in deeper and deeper woods. It was a fascinating tour. When Kiera would find the truffle, she would lay on top of the ground (truffles are always a few inches below the surface).  She often became so protective that Marco would have to sweetly push her away so he could dig it up. 

Saturday we went to the city of Alba again to take part in a portion of the 2025 International White Truffle Fair. As we later discovered, this is the 95th annual fair. We came into town this time for a cooking show with chef Fabio Sgro. John booked this back in June, and as is his MO, didn’t read the fine print. Because this cooking show is part of the truffle fair, he ‘assumed’ it would include truffles, but upon more in depth reading it appears there’s no guarantee we’ll get truffles. 

Nancy drove us into Alba while John tried to locate a parking lot. He found one but when we got there it was filled with RV-style campers and tons of cars. As we came around we found a tight spot between two campers. Nancy masterfully squeezed our Volkswagen Gulf into the spot like an old Philly driver.

Earlier John was wondering if the truffle fair was some type of small town affair that may attract a few people. Weren’t we surprised when we came into the piazza and hundreds of people were packed into this huge tent, sampling wines, truffles, cheeses and every other Piedmont goody. 

Our cooking show was in a large modern room with three large screens, an elevated kitchen, and about 50 tables for two lined up like we were in a classroom, but with the most interesting couch. 

The strange couch. The chefs. John’s last name the way it was originally spelled (with double c’s). The truffles under glass. The truffle lady. The dish.

The menu, which was unpublished, turned out to be vegan and was excellent! Off stage Chef Sgro and his team had cut celeriac (using a mandolin), added caramelized  onion and rolled it into a log then cut it into a coin sized shape about 4” and baked them for 20 minutes. While we watched, they then sautéed them in a pan brushing a coffee sauce on them. At another station, one of his chefs was making small slabs of celeriac mixed with tapioca that they fried in oil until they formed a chip. Other chefs were making two sauces, one a sage and the other a creamer sauce made with almond milk. The resulting dish was this lovely wheel of goodness topped with the two sauces topped by the celeriac chip and finalized with a small bright green corn sprout. Dang, who knew vegan food tasted this good? At our tables were paddles, like you see at auctions. However, written on the paddle were the words, “I want truffles!” If you lifted the paddle, two women came around and shaved truffles on top of the dish. Yes! John got the truffles. A really good lunch.

After lunch, we walked through the main tent which was so packed we stayed just a few minutes. The next hour was spent walking the Saturday outdoor market where John convinced Nancy to buy a cool jacket in one of her signature colors. After that we headed “home” and sat outside in the warmish afternoon sun.

We spent a quiet Sunday morning reading about the “No Kings” marches back in the US (and around the world; in Estonia one American stood in front of the American Embassy for an hour with his “No Kings” sign before heading home.)

Later we drove back into Alba for lunch at a wine bar restaurant John had read about and made reservations back in June. It didn’t turn out as we expected. John’s wine was very good: Barolo #15 - I think we’re getting closer. But the food was just ok; the portions were huge, which contrary to what others think of Americans and the size of our portions, we like smaller. John’s appetizer was big enough for two for an entire lunch. Nancy’s main course, duck breast, tasted like liver. Oh well, “ya win some and ya lose some”.

After we left the restaurant we found ourselves in the middle of the Baccanale dei Borghi, a two-day street celebration that runs alongside the Alba White Truffle Fair. It included costumed reenactments, flag-throwers, medieval/Renaissance-style atmospheres, food and wine stalls, and performances throughout the historic center. But the part we loved were the games; there were all types of crazy games. Our favorite was throwing darts at a salami, if you hit it and it stuck you got a bottle of wine. One guy hit the salami three times and two stuck, he went home with two bottles. 

The shoot the darts at the swinging sausage. A game of fishing with small rings that you try to get over the wine bottle neck. A game where you throw balls into a hole and if the ball hits a metal tail it pushes the donkey to the top and you win the race.

Today is our last day at the “beautiful” house before we move to another part of Piedmont tomorrow. There’s still time for John to find that Holy Barolo; this coming week we’ll be going to six to eight more wineries. So, stay tuned.

Best,

Nancy and John

This Blog’s Quote 

It’s scientifically proven that a good glass of wine, delicious nibbles and great company won't better the world, but it will improve your day.