The nebbiolo harvest is under way in Barolo and the weather has been
perfect

Theses nebbiolo grapes are waiting to be weighed and then it's off to the
De-stemmer & crusher. Destined for a bottle of Barbaresco in 3 years.

The last of many parties for the birthday girl at the E. Pira e Figli winery in
Barolo, its good to have friends who love Champagne as much as we
do (Pol Roger & Bollinger) thanks Bob & Chiara !!

The 2009 harvest is underway, the white's (Moscato,Chardannay,Arneis and
Favorita) are 90% finished. Producers are very happy with the 09 vintage.
Next up the red's (dolcetto,barbera,nebbiolo and many others.
This photo was taken from are kitchen balcony showing are neighbor Lorenzo loading
Moscato.

A small grower on his way to the public scale with his grapes

A sign of cooler weather on it's way, loading up our garage
with fire wood for the stuffa.

Chiaro celebrating her 40th at her friend Chiara's 50th surprise birthday party at
La Ciau del Tornavento (way to go Bob). Yes that is a freshly sciabolaed
bottle of Cristal however we still prefer Bille.

birthday(week): wine at the Piacere Barbaresco tasting with our friend and
Treiso neighbor, Andrea. The tasting was a hit, they decorated the elementary
school gym like a vineyard.

A new event this year at the tasting was a hit. The 9 glasses in the background
had extracts of veris wine smells for to to try identifying, if you got all 9 correct
you win a bottle of Barbarecso

Zero tolerance in ITALY (NOT) you have to love a country that has a huge
wine tasting in their elementary school caffeteria along with a temp wine shop
in the front office. The tasting lasted through monday so, no school !!

Chiaro teaching some newbies how to properly sciabola a bottle of bubbles
during a BBQ at our friend Stefano's home. Behind her is his outdoor kitchen
and dinning room, common here in Langhe because of the hot and long summers.

Stefano cooked a giant salmon in 15 pounds of salt in his wood-fired pizza oven
it was so good chiaro even ate some !!!!

The local cafe banter is all talking about the first lady wearing
short pants, they all want our opion hmmmm. well.......