September 22 – 29, 2012, we will spend a week with the publishers of Edible Santa Barbara and enjoy an in-depth and all-inclusive culinary tour of this stunning region of Italy. We will visit wineries, craft breweries, artisan food makers and cheese producers. This tour is geared for the food and wine lover who wants a unique experience in a small, friendly group of like-minded foodies.

Day 1: Arrival in Torino

In a country famous for its food, Torino is known for its culinary excellence and as the center of the slow food movement. On our first day, after checking into our hotel in Torino, we will take a tour of the city, drink an aperitivo in one of Torino’s famous cafes, then enjoy a dinner of regional specialties.

Days 2 through 4: Monferrato, Asti and the Langhe region

We’ll head into the heart of the Piemonte region to our base in Monferrato. This magical area is characterized by stunning fall scenery and historic castles dotting the landscape. The beautiful castle estate we’ll be staying at is home to a winery producing its own Barbera d’Asti and Barbera del Monferrato. Over the next few days we’ll visit some wineries, a couple of craft breweries, a salumi maker, pasta maker, take a cooking class, go on a white truffle hunt and eat… a lot.

Days 5 and 6: Barolo

Next we’ll go right into one of the most famous wine regions of Italy. We’ll be staying at a charming hotel and restaurant, surrounded by vineyards with stunning views of the Barolo castle. During these next couple of days we will visit a gorgonzola producer, a goat cheese producer and, of course, some wineries. We will also visit the beautiful Lake Maggiore.

Day 7: Back to Torino

We will head back to Torino where we will visit Eataly, Italy’s mecca of artisanal foods. You’ll be on your own for lunch at one of Eataly’s enotecas or restaurants, then have the afternoon free for additional shopping, touring or resting, before our final meal together in Torino.

For more information about Edible Santa Barbara magazine, check out www.ediblesantabarbara.com or write to us for a free issue.

The cost of this special tour is $2995 per person based on double occupancy.  Do not hesitate to get in touch with us for more information!

Then Palma and Brad (who had flown in the night before) left for their tour of Bologna. Palma leads groups there through Palmabella’s Italy.

Then we escorted Nancy, from a Wine Lover’s Wanderings, and Jill and Kevin of The Fletchers’ Travels to their respective lodgings for the remainders of their trips via the crowded vaporetti.

It was sad saying good-bye to everyone but soon it would be time to move on Spain and our next groups.

Jill & Kevin enjoying a spritz

Then we drop our bags back at the Palazzo and head out for our last bit of touring. We head out to the Ghetto to show them the small area that was once home to 5000 Jews. Afterward, it’s time for a bit of “fortification” so we stop for some cicchetti and ombra before moving on to Santa Maria Miracoli and San Giovani e Paolo.

After our “culture” requirement for the day is full-filled, we return to the Palazzo where our group splits yet again, some resting, some packing and some do some last minute shopping.

Later in the afternoon Shannon and I begin to prep dinner.

It’s a multi-course affair, and I’ll try to remember what we served.

For starters there was:

Proscuitto and melon
Sardines e Saur
Burrata (flown fresh from Puglia that morning!)
A huge mixed green salad

Enjoying Dinner

For our main course, an assortment of sausages and grapes with a side of steamed asparagus and shaved parmigiano.

For dessert, we were fortunate as one of our guests is a wonderful cook and she offered to make Nutella Panna Cotta for us – yum!

We washed it all down with some 12 bottles of wine (yikes!). We sat, and talked and laughed for several hours; it was a great evening!

Dead Soldiers

Campanile outside St. Pietro di Castello

There we visited St. Pietro di Castello (the first basilica of Venice), housed on its own little island. From there we walked over to Via Garibaldi – a canal filled in, to create a wide (probably one of the widest if not the widest thoroughfares in Venezia).

The Group Getting Fortified

Of course we needed to fortify ourselves with tramezzini and spritz before everyone split up for an hour or so to stroll the via and visit the gardens.

Outside of the Clock Tower

We regrouped (and after a bit more “fortification”) headed over to the Correr Museum where we met our guide for a wonderful tour of the Clock Tower.

View from Inside the Tower

"Digital Clock" from inside the Tower

The tour lasts about 55 minutes and provides interesting tidbits about the history of the tower as well as some great vistas but be warned, it’s stairs only, winding, narrow and high. On the plus side though, you do stop at every level for some more history so there’s plenty of time to catch your breath.

One of the "Moorish" Bell Ringers (and our guide)

View from the Top of the Tower

Our Group (those that made it to the top)

After the tower, our group split up again, some headed back for an afternoon rest, while others strolled through the streets, enjoying “fortification” along the way.

Dog at Wine Bar (A Face Only a Mother Could Love)

Dinner was at a local wine bar where we had amazing antipasti, seafood and grilled meats!

Antipasti Platter

Seafood Platter

Rialto Fish Market

Lolo and the Group

Afterward, the group went for an amazing seafood lunch at Lolo’s restaurant (actually, the lunch is his wife’s idea. Lolo likes to refer to her as, “the boss of the owner.”).

The afternoon was spent in free time for the group and later we all gathered to meet up with some fellow travelers from Slow Travel Talk.

Everyone was on their own for dinner Wednesday night and we went to hunt down some of Shannon’s favorite Pinot Nero at a local pizza place.

There our guide met us and took us for a lovely day visiting a small winery (producing some amazing Valpolicella Ripasso and Amarone) for a tour and tasting, followed by lunch at a local trattoria (the type that will never make it into a guide book but has amazing food), followed by a drive and stroll around the cute town of Bassano del Grappa.

We returned to Venice in the evening and snacked on assorted “antipasti” before calling it a night.

Touring the Vineyards

Pouring the Wine

Wine Tasting

Risotto with Amarone in a Parmigiano Crust

Bassano del Grappa

Can you see the snow-capped mountains in the distance?

We spent the day tooling around the lagoon in an open boat, meandering through the “grand canal of Murano”, by Burano, landing on Torcello (to visit the cathedral) and then enjoying a picnic lunch (including wine and prosecco) on the open waters before returning to Venezia.

A totally beautiful day!

Along Murano's Grand Canal

Burano

Preparing our Picnic Lunch

Our Group on the Boat

First though, it held off until after breakfast so we were able to enjoy our first breakfast together on the veranda but once that was done, it started to pour and pretty much continued on that way until after dinner.

We headed over on the crowded vaporetto to Piazza San Marco, where we wound our way through the crowds to visit the Correr museum for just under two hours. It worked out well, with some of the group wandering off on their own while others stayed together, we all met up at the entrance at the agreed upon time so we could head to lunch at a local taverna.

Piazza San Marco in the Rain

Pasa w/ Pesto, Green Beans & Potatoes

Right, on a rainy day in Venice, that’s what you do, have a long leisurely lunch. A few shared salads and many pasta dishes later (I had a pasta genovese – pesto, potatoes and beans, which now that I think about it, might have been a bit “traitorish” given Venice’s history with Genoa – oh well), but some had lasagna, some pasta with mussels (I believe) and I think someone enjoyed liver.

After lunch, the group split up, with some opting for naps and relaxing while others headed over to an exhibit of photos of/by Hemingway from his time in Paris.

We reconvened about 6:30, heading out for drinks followed by pizza for dinner – yum.

Pre-dinner drinks

It was a relatively quiet, lazy but good Sunday!

I’ve been on the ground here in Venice since Wednesday, and our tour officially started Saturday! We have a great group of people, I’ll see if I can get permission to post links to their blogs too, five in all. We’ve got two apartments in a Palazzo in Cannaregio, with a shared balcony overlooking a lovely garden.

Yesterday we moved into our digs, had a bit of a snack and welcome lunch out on our terrace and then headed down to the Arsenale. It’s open only once a year or so (besides Biennale) for Mare Maggio and this weekend was the weekend. Amazing being able to walk around in the area that once housed 16000 workers in an almost assembly line set-up, hundreds of years before the industrial age. The bar set up with the water, wine and Prosecco didn’t stink either (actually, we all had water – it was very hot out, but on Friday Shannon and I had gone down and had a bit of Prosecco).

View to the Water Towers Guarding the Arsenale

After spending some time about Arsenale, we hopped back on the vaporetto, and rode the 35 minutes to our stop at San Marcuole. A quick pop into the Alimentari for some nutello, tonic (our guest, Kevin, has a bottle of Bombay Sapphire with him – we’re with the right group) and limoncello, and we were back at the apartment for rest up before some cocktails on the veranda.

Cocktails - notice our vin sfuso!

Dinner tonight is at an Osteria about 20 minute walk away. We had some amazing risotto with asparagus and those tiny shrimp local to Venice (sorry can’t remember the name) as well as some steak with tomato and rosemary (yum, very tender). Actually, I think most of us had that but Megan enjoyed this spaghetti with clams and mussels that had a nice kick to it (we all got a taste), that was pretty darn good too.

Risotto with Shrimp & Asparagus

Steak with tomatoes and rosemary

On the stroll back, we stopped at Ca d’Oro for some gelato (peanut and ricotta with honey-sesame bits for me). Pretty good. Shannon and Palma headed for a café (me thinks that might be code though for “after dinner drink”) while I went back to the apartment with the rest of the group.

A good first day.

St. Francis Winery

St. Francis offers a food and wine pairing (they also offer something called charcuterie by the fire) but the food and wine pairing was more of a structured event, around a communal table of up to 14 people for which you must make a reservation.  So about 10 days out, I called and reserved a spot for us on a Sunday at eleven.  The woman to whom I spoke asked us to arrive a few minutes early and we did about 10:50 (They offer another seating at 2:00pm).

We entered the tasting room, filled with about 1/2 dozen people trying wines, told them why we were there (for the food and wine pairing), and they offered us a glass of one of their Chardonnay’s while we waited. It wasn’t long though before Ronnie called us along with one other couple into a a different room, where we sat near a fire around a table set for 14 though there were only four of us. Ronnie was to be our host for the tasting.

Roasted Winter Squash

He first poured us two Chardonnays, their 2007 Behler and their 2007 Wild Oak.  The Behler seemed to me light, fruity (pears and peaches) and was not an oak bomb. On its own, I’d say it was a good sipping wine. The Wild Oak had some hints of what I refer to as cheese (one day, I’ll figure out what that scent is in correct wine terminology), some pine or mint, and had some tannins – enough to make you pucker. Ronnie explained he wanted to offer both of these wines with our roasted squash dish to demonstrate between pairing wines that are of similar characteristics to the dish (sweet, fruity) verus those that contrast the dish, to see which we prefer (normally, they only pour the sweeter chardonay).  I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer to this. With much in wine, it’s a personal preference though it seems to me that people feel intimidated to speak about what they like what they don’t like, what they taste, what they smell.  Anyway, in this instance, I prefered the latter wine, the Wild Oak.  I felt the dish to be very rich, though it was a vegatable, and I think the tannins of the Wild Oak cut the richness of the food nicely.  With the Behler, I though that the richness of the dish overpowered the wine.

Mushroom Dumpling

Next Ronnie poured us their 2006 Lagomarsino Cabernet Sauvignon, with grapes grown closer to the coast and harvested later, around the first week of November.  Actually, it’s a Cabernet (91%), Merlot (9%) blend. I thought it had some serious tannins and could age for another 5 – 10 years easily. Scents and tastes, well, unfortunately I didn’t write it down, and several days and several wineries later, I can’t recall.  I can tell you this, they paired it with mushroom pot sticker and it was amazing. It didn’t over power but supported the earthiness of the mushrooms in the pot sticker (oh, and by the way, I could have eaten a few dozen of these babies).

Cassoulet

After the pot sticker, they brought out a mini cassoulet with lamb sausage, duck confit and bacon (got a big honking chunk in mine) and with that they served their 2007 Wild Oak Syrah.  They blend this baby with grapes from two different locations including a bit of Dry Creek Petit Syrah.  To me, it had some subtle chocolate notes on the finish and a smokey nose. Honestly, it reminded me of November in Montalcino which is always a good thing.  Mouth feel, I noted it dry on the teeth – another age-worthy wine.

Blue Cheese Slider

Last dish they brought us was a slider (aka mini-burger), with blue cheese and carmelized onions. Chris thought it had too much blue cheese that overpowered the burger, I thought it was all pretty good.  With the burger we drank their 2006 Behler Merlot.  It’s blended with 6 – 8% of Cabernet (almost the opposite of their cab), and I noted scents of cocoa and again, serious tannins on the finish.  For years we didn’t drink Merlot, they just felt, bland, characterless, ambivalent, but this trip we’ve noticed some powerful merlots and this was one of them.

That concluded the “official” tasting which, by the way, costs $35 a person and is only offered twice a day (11 and 2). I felt it enough food for lunch, Chris wanted a bit more.  But Ronnie wasn’t done with us yet because he brought out a small dessert, a sweet little cake and served along with it their port.  Sorry no notes on the port.

View from St. Francis Winery

And yet, we still weren’t done.  After some picture taking with our new friends from Wisconsin, we were invited into their reserve room, usually “reserved” for members of their wine club.  Their Ronnie continued to pour, and unfortunately, my notes have dimmed here but I know we tasted their Catie’s Corner Viognier (because we bought 3 bottles at 50% off), with the intent of having this slightly sweet wine with spicy Thai food and/or fried calamari.  We also bought two bottles of their Baachi Zinfandel (for two people who set out on this trip to find Pinot Noir’s we liked, we ended up with a lot of Zin).  Chris liked the Bacchi (grown from 105 year old vines) and I noted it as huge, with I think hints of eucalyptus.  We also tried their Giovanetti Zin (85 year old vines) and their Rowe Vineyard Zin.  More than that, I cannot say. I do know that we spent quite some time their talking to Ronnie and another gentleman, basically wiling away a chunk of the early afternoon.

St. Francis wines seem to run from the low twenties into the forties. If you’re looking for an inexpensive food and wine pairing event, I think that St. Francis is definitely worth a visit.  The experience, friendly people and wines were all a pleasant surprise.