Residenza del Lago, we were recommended this restaurant while recently visiting the Cieck winery in Canavese. Our lunch was excellent!

It doesn't look like much from the street, but as you enter you walk into paradise through a lovely flower garden that takes you to the restaurant and hotel.

Frederico, the owner, greeted us and showed us to our table.  He is a sommelier and very passionate about food and wine.  This was confirmed by the over 400 bottle, well chosen, fair priced, winelist.

We started with a gift from the chef of little crostini topped with a tuna patè, followed by 3 types of delicious homemade bread; nut, sun-dried tomato and olive.  

We chose the smaller tasting menu of Tajarin con Coniglio e Sugo di Pepperoni Pasta with a Red Bell Pepper and Rabbit sauce followed by Cosciotto di Maile con Senape e Miele con Spinaci e Patate al Forno Ham with a Mustard and Honey sauce with Braised Spinach and Roasted Potatoes.

Don't forget to save room for their desserts!

Everything we tasted was fresh, seasonal and made in house.

Just a half hour north of Torino in the Canavese wine region, this is a perfect place for a few quiet, relaxing days near Lago di Candia Lake Candia, which is a few minutes drive from the hotel.

The rooms are beautiful with arched red brick ceilings, nicely restored while keeping the style and feeling of an ancient Canavese farm house.

Tajarin with Rabbit and Pepper Sauce

Perfect Pork

Even the bread was homemade

Huge wine list

Looking north on the road from Neive to Barbaresco the vines are growing fast.

This looks like a blast from the past, but is a classroom in are village of Neive. Nice too see that there are still classrooms that focus on the basics without distraction.

From our kitchen balcony we are able to keep tabs on the weekly festivals. Maybe we should start a photo blog called
Italy as seen from the Alexanders Kitchen....

We are back, The mother board and video card died on Robert's computer but thanks to Apple who covered the costs the great folks at Pixel Assistenza in Torino all is well again

Barbera Festivals aren't new to us but this was our first time in Nizza Monferrato. A very well planned event with lots of new labels of Barbera for us to try and no surprise that we found some new favorites.

The tasting was of Barbera made in and nearby Nizza Monferrato. A great way to taste many new wines or current vintages for a small entrance fee of 5 euros that includes the glass. We met up with our friend, Adrian, who lives nearby and had a fun day of tasting. The festival was throughout the city with many food vendors, specialty products and lots of live music on almost every corner. We have already marked our calendar for next year!

Tags: Barbera, Nizza

Our little village of Neive is getting ready to be overrun/taken by the Alpini of Langa. Our local chapter
is busy stringing banners and hanging flags up all over town. Neive was chosen to host the annual reunion for chapters from all over the Langhe.

No festival, here in the Langhe, would be complete without the local chapter of 10th Alpini Regiment “Alpini Veci”. These are former members of the elite mountain corps.

Main street was closed for a parade, each town was represented in the parade wearing their
retirement uniforms.

Even the current active local unit showed up to remind folks what these old guys were capable in
their hay-day.

As you can see the weather was perfect, warm and sunny.

Ok, it's not wine, but we found a really cool brewery between Fossano and Cuneo in Piedmont. We were driving to Cuneo to pick up our new "Permesso di Soggiorni" and saw the brewery. On the way home we stopped to check it out. What we found was two brothers, one in the bar/dining room and one in the kitchen and great artisanal beer and food!

After spying on the food coming out of the kitchen (which everything looked yummy) we decided to order a hamburger. To date, we haven't found too many good burgers here and we were very skeptical. What we found was one of the best burgers we have eaten in Italy or America. We started chatting with the owners and found out all the meat is very high end "Piemontese" beef from La Granda in Savigliano CN. The other items on the menu include antipasti of artisanal cheese and salumi, salads, steaks and french fries.

On the chalkboard was advertising for a single malt scotch tasting in April. If you live nearby or traveling through the neighborhood, we definitely recommend this place. Open Weekdays 6pm to 2am and Weekends 5pm to 1am.
www.birrificiotrunasse.it
Reg. Pedaggio Sottano, 194
Centallo (Frazione San Biagio) CN

The warmer it gets there are more vegetables available for Chiaro to choose from at our local Neive market every Wednesday.
Soon the famous Roero strawberries from Canale will be in season.

With the warmer temps puppy Cotta's balcony, just off the kitchen, is open for the season along with the first
flowers "Primuli" of the season.

On March 17 Italy celebrated it's sesquicentennial, so in the true Italian spirit the local police along with the
carabinieri (State police) were showing some of the local medal winning wines at the weekly market.
As americans we were curious how big or small of a celebration this would be. Turns out up here in
Piemonte not a lot of fuss. We saw a few flags but no local parades, however there was a lot going on in
Torino (45 min. from here). Most Italians, as we do, think of the Italian culture as very old. Most of our
village and home was built before 1280, so the idea of throwing a giant party for its 150th unification
anniversary seems a little over blown. They (Italians) didn't even get a bridge holiday, so it was back to
school and work on friday.

The 2011 travel season has begun, our first group arrived on the 11th of March and we were very worried.
Just a few days earlier it had snowed, but we lucked out as the weather cleared up just in time.
Leslie is explaining vineyard management to a few folks from the group.

After a few days in Barbaresco and Barolo we headed up to Lake Como and stayed in Bellagio, which was just
opening up for the season. Hard to believe these quiet streets will be jam-packed in a few weeks, by mid April
this photo will be impossible.

While Leslie and the group took the ferry to Varenna for lunch, I stayed back to gas up the van and check-
out a pizzeria we have yet to try, verdict: pizza was good, wine list not good, wine service cute/good, the
vino popolare (house wine) was served old-style in a Brocca.

I grabbed a cappuccino at the gas station and once again was reminded how serious Italy takes its coffee.


After dropping folks off at Malpensa airport, we stopped by the wine region Franciacorta to scope out some wineries
and restaurants for future trips when we stumbled on a cool wine shop specializing in bubbles! the sub zones
with-in the region were nicely displayed along with the producers. Sipping bubbles while shopping is mandatory,
wiener dog optional.

Just across the piazza and down the street from us is Longoria, yet another winery with in crawling distance from our home.

We hade a wonderful time meeting Carlo, along with his wife. who showed us around the property.

The wines all showed well but it was a bit to cold in the tasting room, as a result, the reds were a little closed so we all
decided to come back when the weather warms up. Since we are neighbors, no problem to stop back later in spring!

Gabrielle............ working on winter pruning, he's 84 and still works 6 days a week.

The new clone of Barbera (cross between Barbera and a palm tree) is showing up in a few vineyards here in
the Langhe, expect tropical fruit on the nose!

The vines like sunshine, therefore every spring the trees and brush that grow between the vineyard and the street are cut
down. What is not saved for wood heating is burned off next to the road (almost on the road). Chiaro, the firebug, loves
lighting fires, this year she taught our friend Lorenzo what girl scout water is, benzina (diesel).

Roberts first ride of 2011 was only 6 weeks since his last ride, almost makes winter bearable. Snow on north facing
vineyards is almost gone.

First BBQ on the balcony, not bad weather for feb. 10

And the strongest sign is that the vineyards are full of growers working there vines.

The streets of Neive alto are clean and dry, waiting for the much needed crush of tourists.

Just up the street from us is Hotel Castelbourg, which has a resturant / wine bar around back called Degusto and has recently
reopened under new ownership. Great wine list paired with a menu of well chosen local “Piemontese” specialties, plus,
always important, a nice spread on the bar at aperitivo time.
The atmosphere is warm and welcoming, with Andrea or his sister Alessia always right there to get you your drink of choice or seat
you at a table in the arched, brick dining room for lunch or dinner. We can’t wait for spring to sit outside, looking over the piazza.

Andrea on the far right is the new owner, Massimo the chef in the middle and on the left is Danielle, Andrea’s cousin, who
has helped his cousins to get the place open and given lots of support during the first week.

Being sommeliers we are very excited about the wine list. Andrea has a strong wine background working in italy and around the
world in the wine trade. There are a lot of our local favorites and he’s not afraid to think outside the zone (the Barbaresco zone),
we even spotted a Gruner Veltliner in the wine cooler along with a Timorasso from Gavi.

Leslie is displaying one of her paintings, “Ciabot in La Morra” in the display window of the wine bar.

Later in the spring we will post an update of Degusto’s coolest outdoor dining/wine drinking deck in Neive along with a few food shot’s.

We just had our second snow this winter and its almost all gone . Snow melt patterns were used here hundreds of years ago to
find the warmest microclimates on a given hillside. This area is saved for producers top Nebbiolo, usually their Barbaresco or
Barolo. Above is the sweet spot in Cru Montersino.

Just to the east of Barbaresco, all the prime spots are snow free. In the foreground is Cru Gallina, one of the top vineyards
in the Neive sub-zone of the barbaresco region. In the distance to the right of the tower of Barbaresco is Cru Montefico
one of our personal favorites in the Barbaresco sub-zone in the Barbaresco region (wow doesn’t that roll off the tongue nicely)

Stumbled across this chart in USA Today. We find this a funny because pasta is never a main course. Here in Langhe,
pasta is served as a primi (starter course) and always a small amount hmm... must be because pasta is eaten every day
as a primi for lunch and dinner.