WineWed with Freisa!

Freisa Festival every Spring in Chieri

The history of Freisa vine started in 1500, back then these wines were considered exquisite and much more refined than other average wines. In 1600, Giovan Battista Croce, royal wine buyer of the Savoy family who ruled Piedmont, described it as produced by a rustic and enduring vine because it resisted dry hot summers and chilly springs. This is why Freisa is cultivated on the hills and it's considered a typical Turin wine.

Wendy Lange-Faria guest post!

Starting this week we're hosting guest posts about food!
Read the following post by our friend, Wendy Lange-Faria who has a real passion for food and food tourism and you'll immediately feel teleported in the Canadian North!

Have fun!

                     Black Bear

Why food travel and tourism? Someone asked me this question the other day and it gave me pause to think when and why my interest began!

My earliest recollections for one reason or another revolve around food - given that we as humans all have to eat and drink to survive, there are few people I know who wouldn't have at least some stories to recount around the table! Growing up in Canada's Yukon let me share a couple of tales with you.

Robiola di Roccaverano DOP

Roccaverano in Piedmont

In general, Robiola is a soft-ripened cheese, typical of the Langhe area in Southern Piedmont but it is also produced in Valle D'Aosta and Lombardy. According to where it's produced and the kind of milk used (cow, goat, sheep), its taste and look vary (round or square shaped) a lot. 

WineWed with Malvasia di Casorzo DOC

Original Label

Happy Wine Wed!!

Today we're talking about Malvasia di Casorzo d'Asti a DOC red wine produced in the Asti and Alessandria areas, in Piedmont!

The legend has it that that the name Malvasia is due to a miracle asked by Nus, a Valle d'Aosta villager, who was bringing the mass wine to the priest. As his landowner saw him carrying the bottle, he inquired about what kind of liquid it contained. The villager answered "mallow juice" making the man curious to try a sip. Afraid he could get angry at him, the villager prayed God for a miracle and said "che Malva sia, per favore, Dio mio" (My God, please, let it be mallow)
The mass wine turned into mallow juice and it kept the name of MALVASIA!

Turin & Piedmont are COOL

NW Italy is very cool because many Italian products, objects and national symbols were born in Turin or in other towns of Piedmont (un)fortunately, very few people are aware of it!
For example, Turin was the very first capital of Italy back in 1861 and despite all it still pretty much preserves all its royal heritage, understated elegance and charm. Look!

Cheese: Piedmont white gold!

Today we're talking about cheese because besides France, Italy is also a large cheese producer!
Can you guess how many different types of cheeses are produced in the boot?
403 kinds which means you can taste a different cheese every single day of the year and still have some more to enjoy the next one!

Happy Wine Wed with Carema!

For all our wine loving friends today we'll talk about

photo by crush wine and spirits

a refined DOC wine whose production is allowed only in the Turin province and that you can hardly find outside of Piedmont (as many of the high quality wines we'll talk about) because, as anything precious, it is not produced in bulks!