Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Barolo: the Wine of Kings (and also a beautiful town!)

Last weekend (after returning from Marrakech), we decided to take a last minute day trip to Piedmont, more specifically the city of Barolo. Barolo is known for its wine that is named after the city, and the wine is considered the "Wine of Kings". This was a fun town that offered a beautiful palace with a wine museum inside, a wine tasting, and beautiful vistas with mountains in the background and vineyards as far as the eye can see! The wine museum was very modern, but extremely interesting. They showed that not only are the elements and location important when making wine, but the input of the wine maker is more important. The wine makers ingredients and style change the wine. The main point of the museum was that when you have the same grape, same conditions, and even the same ingredients, the wine will always taste differently between wine makers.

Josh took some fun pictures with his fancy camera, he hasn't uploaded them yet so those will be posted later. In the meantime, I wanted to at least post some information about the trip. Barolo (the wine) is made from the Nebbiolo grape- Nebbiolo wine is considered the "Queen" to the "King", Barolo. When the wine is not aged long enough to be considered Barolo, it is called Nebbiolo. The reason Barolo is called the "Wine of Kings" is because in 1843 the wine production was changed for the grape- it was previously a sweet red wine. The marquise Falletti of Barolo changed the process to more of a French style, and the newer style of Barolo (rusty and tannic) was born. The ruler of the house of Savoy in Turin, Count Camillo Benso of Cavour, was so interested in this new blend that he ordered enough barrels of the wine to last a year! It apparently was quite the caravan traveling to Turin. The king Vittorio Emanuelle II also showed interest in this great wine, and the name "Wine of Kings" was born!

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