Following the advice of those who have been there and the the locals when you get there leads to an authentic, unique and interesting visit to a new place.

Kate, our bartender friend at Denver’s top northern Italian eatery, Barolo Grill, had just returned from Barolo Grill’s yearly sojourn to Borolo to discover great new wines and authentic new menus and dishes to bring back to Denver. She told us that if we were to go to Barolo, we should go this quaint typical Piedmont restaurant in Serralunga D’Alba called Centro Storico.

Being a mere 3.5 hours from La Soleiade, we emailed the restaurant and made a reservation, as recommended as it has only 8 tables, made a hotel reservation in nearby Grinzane Cavour and off we went on an adventure!

Great recommendation from Kate – the area was beautiful – rolling hills of Nebbiolo, Barbera and Dolcetta grapes 🍇 amongst other Piedmont grapes with hilltop castle towns dotting the landscape – Serralunga D’Alba, Grinzane Cavour, LaMorra and Barolo.

We stayed at the charming Casa Pavesi in Grinzane and had sweeping views of the vineyards and castles from our terrace. Our equally charming proprietare was so helpful and guided us to a small family run local winery, where she made us an appointment for that same morning.

Simon, the grandson of the original winemaker, gave us a tour of the property and told us wonderful stories of his grandparents and how he and his parents now run Bruno Grimaldi.  He introduced us to his Dolcetta, Barbara D’Alba superior and, of course, their Barolo.  They make about 80,000 bottles a year and their small bottling machine can make up to 1500 bottles a day. We enjoyed them all, so loaded up the car with 42 bottles to enjoy with our friends back at home.

Simon told us we must go to La Morra as our next stop to get the best view of as much of the Barolo area as one can get in a single view. After grabbing the quintessential photos, we enjoyed another wonderful meal at the local Uve restaurant enjoying Barbaresco and Arneis wines from the region along with more piedmont specialty dishes.

NO trip to the region is complete without going to Barolo itself, another castle-topped charming hilltop village. Ironically, the town has the Museo die Cavatappi – a corkscrew museum!!! You can imagine Gary’s excitement.

A great little adventure for the summer of 2017 that started with the advice of Kate, followed by a great recommendation to go to Bruno Grimaldi, followed by another piece of local advice that lead us to La Morra and great views and a wonderful lunch and finally following our own path to Barolo.

I recommend the whole experience to anyone in the area.