Linn's Class Trip to Italy

So, I’ve just returned from a 10-day trip to Italy with my classmates in the Vinfera program. The actual organization was pretty peculiar. This ‘intensive’ program was paid for by the European Union which evidently has money laying around for educational programs such as this as long as they meet certain criteria. The man who set up this program is a native Hungarian who is now living and teaching a viticulture and enology program in Sweden. This guy setup the program to include students from several countries: about 20 Swedes (lecturers and students) 21 of us from Montpellier, several Italian students (a Turk a few Argentines and several Italians) and about a dozen Hungarians. The group was far from cohesive to say the least.

The vinifera group left school the morning of Friday the 17^th and had to drive by bus from Montpellier to Torino (Turin) in Italy. We had one solid day in the Piedmont with lectures at the University of Torino (one of our partner schools) had some lectures on grape varietals native to the Piedmont and the different vineyard management methods and trellising techniques. In the afternoon we visited Fontana Fredda winery which is one of the largest wineries in the Piedmont. We visited the grounds, cellars and had a tasting of one of their Barolos and one of their Barbarescos.

Next day we were off to Valpiolcella where we had a great visit to Allegrini where we saw their grape drying building facilities for the Amarones that they make. We visited a couple of their vineyards and then went to the winery and tasted their Amarone and their top wine La Poja, which is from 100% Corvina. Both were excellent.

We spent only one night in Valpiolcella and then were off to Udine for six nights. We spent two days in lectures and visits to wineries and the experimental farm for the university they have commercial hemp, corn, kiwis, and loads of grapevines. The next two days we spent out at Vini Cooperative Rauscedo learning about rootstock identification, clonal selection, and grafting- I got to try my hand at omega grafting which is a method of grafting there two pieces of vine are fitted together by cutting the end of one piece of cane so as to fit it into a hole of the same shape as the other- which is in the shape of the greek omega. Seemed entertaining but since they annually produce between sixty and eighty million vines (one of many rootstocks paired with vinifera a variety) I think that it would get old quick.

Prior to our trip a classmate- Bisso- told me that there would be a big tasting of wines while we would be in Italy we were to be in Udine and the tasting was to be held in Torino… so he and I skipped class on Saturday and drove the 500 kilometers to Torino (the opposite side of the country) and he managed to swing a free ticket through his company in Moscow (he is the news editor and a journalist for a large Russian wine magazine) for me. We arrived a bit early for the tasting so we were able to briefly swing through the Slow Food fair (the slow food movement started in Italy and is still huge) and this show was enormous… easily the largest trade show ever… aisles of cheese, salumi, regional wines, eau d’vie, grappas, honey, beer and every other natural produit du terroir (as the French call it) we rushed through with an hour to go before the tasting and then moved on to the tasting.

The tasting was held by the Gambero Rosso which is one of the largest and most prestigious wine publications in Italy… tasting thousands of Italian wines each year and then rating them on a scale of one two or three glasses.  Only the best wines get three glasses and this tasting was a tasting of the wines that received that rating. The “Tre Bicchieri” is held every year in Torino in and old Fiat factory. Bisso and I hit Piedmont first trying dozens of wines that I’d never heard of or couldn’t afford, we then moved on to Tuscany which had been picked clean of the Tiganellos, Ornellaia, and Sassicaia but several great wines remained, moved on to the Amarones, and Montepulcianos, Montefalco Sagrantinos, and some southern Italian wines we finished off with the whites which were pretty picked over by then.  A few ‘best of show’ wines for me were from: Bruno Giacosa- Barolo and Barbaresco, Mario Marengo’s Barolo Brunate, Damilano’s Barolo Cannubi, Luciano Sandrone’s Cannubi Boschis, Aldo Conterno, Giacomo Conterno, and Vietti’s wines were all great. Tried two wines from Gaia and thought that they were pretty impenetrable but I suppose they ought to be. From Tuscany I liked wines from Tenuta Fontodi, Fattoria  Petrolo, and Castello de Fonterutoli’s Sepi. From the best of what’s left I tried I had a nice pinot nero from Stroblhof in Alto Adige, a very interesting wine from Nebbiolo grapes handled in an Amarone style of production: Valtellina Sforzato Albareda from Mamete Prevostini, and a great Primitivo made to taste just like a huge Zinfandel the Castello Monaci Artas. Had a nice sparkling wine from Ca Del Bosco “Franciacorta Cuvee Annamaria Clementi” which was killer. Tried a Gravner that was decent (though a bit warm) an amazing trebbiano from Valentini and an interesting wine from Feudi di San Gregario Greco Di Tufo Cutizzi.  We tasted about 80 wines in all and then headed out to spend the night in Barolo with a good friend of Bisso’s the owner/winemaker of Vietti Lucca and his wife Helena. We drove to Castiglione De Faletto where they live and had dinner in the restaurant next door which was great. We had Deutz 1996 Champagne, and two different wines from Giacomo Conterno the 2004 Cascina Francia and the 1995 Monfortina Riserva both were great. So we had a five course dinner with the three cellar workers, Lucca and his wife, Bisso and me. Afterwards we walked across the street to Lucca’s house (which is above the Vietti winery and below the town clock) and slept in their entertainment room/ guest bedroom. In the morning we had coffee with the kids and Helena and then went down to the winery- where Bisso showed me around (he worked harvest there in 07) and we tasted through all the wines fermenting in tank and then went down to the cellar and tasted through the 2006 and 2007 wines which were in the huge oak ovals or botta. Really amazing.

We took the long way back to Udine zigzagging across northern italy- visiting Lake Garda, Verona, and Bisso’s favorite fish restaurant that happed to be  on the way back. Another amazing meal (all manner of sealife prepared pretty much ay way you can imagine) we made it back at about midnight on Sunday to Udine- dropped off the car and were back to the hotel by about 1am. We sat through a marvelous and terribly relevant lecture on the uses of Sewage Sludge (Swedish lecturer) and another lecture on energy (Hungarian lecturer) and then headed off to Trieste for our flight to Paris and from Paris home to Montpellier. We’ve moved into our final section of our warm up section for the year- a preview of what we will see in the upcoming months. This final section in Food Science which is quite interesting so far… though there was a skull crushing lecture on fluid dynamics and another zinger on lipids this afternoon. All in all though it’s nice to be back in Montpellier.