The Wolf Post offers a professional service with free access, without subscription.
For this reason, a donation would also be a sign of appreciation for our work.
Barolo is the history of Italian red wine. An ancient and noble history that starts with Nebbiolo grapes, excellence of Piedmont.
Carlo Tancredi Falletti of Barolo married Juliette Colbert, both of whom were well-known in the region during the period of the Risorgimento. At the time, the production of Barolo was already underway but that marriage marked the definitive step towards the search for quality that has allowed Barolo to become one of the best known and most appreciated wines in the world. Juliette invited the Royal House of Savoy and, the European courts to taste the wine. This, at least, is what the legend has it that it was also thanks to this “noble” word of mouth that wine soon became famous as the “Wine of the Kings”.
The Piedmontese climate and the soil contributed to the creation of the “myth of Barolo”, a wine definitively consecrated by the Marquise Juliette who turned to the French oudar oudar, the oenologist of Count Camillo Benso di Cavour.
A story that Barolo wine route divulges through numerous initiatives, which are part of the enotourism itinerary.
A wealth of knowledge and flavors, described in this interview by Mario Ferrero, the Association’s Communications Manager.
©Strada del Barolo-Mario Ferrero
Since your Association was born, which goals have you achieved and which are still to be achieved?
From 2006 to today, the Strada del Barolo and great wines of Langa has seen its membership grow, which today has over one hundred members including wineries, accommodation facilities, restaurants, food producers, museums, castles and municipalities. Over the years, the Association has organized many activities, aimed at wine tourists, contributing considerably to the increase in tourist flows in the Barolo area: some of these have been offered every year for a long time, such as the Wine Tasting Experience®, Io, Barolo and the Tour dei Cru, and have become stable formats recognized by the public, who return to the area every year to participate in these activities.
©Strada del Barolo- Mario Ferrero
In the future, the association intends to expand the network of collaboration with the municipalities of the territory to propose new activities with the aim of promoting the food and wine excellences of the reference area, further increasing the tourist flows in its territory of competence and, in particular , in the associated structures.
©Strada del Barolo- Mario Ferrero
Through which services/activities do you promote the dissemination of the Strada del Barolo?
The main activities of the Strada del Barolo are the tasting events in the area aimed at wine lovers: the most important is Io, Barolo, an itinerant tasting with about thirty wine producers who present different crus and vintages of Nebbiolo and Barolo in a tasting ” widespread “along the narrow streets and squares of the medieval concentric of Roddi, the gateway to the Langa del Barolo. Other activities of this type are also organized outside the territory of the Strada del Barolo, such as Il Barolo di Snoda in Turin: two tasting evenings organized in the Snodo spaces, within the OGR-Officine Grandi Riparazioni in Turin. There are also educational and informative activities, such as the Wine Tasting Experience®, an original tasting formula that has become, over the years, an unmissable event for hundreds of wine-lovers visiting the Langhe who, following the example of the French Ecole Du Vin, allow you to compare labels from different producers in a single appointment, led by local experts.
©Strada del Barolo- Mario Ferrero
Strada del Barolo also has a dual-language website that has an average of 10,000 unique visitors per month, with related social profiles, and a database of about 15,000 Italian and foreign wine lovers who, every month, received a newsletter with the planned initiatives.
©Strada del Barolo-Mario Ferrero
What are the peculiar characteristics of the territory and its wines?
The peculiarities of the Langa hills are the harmonious geometries of the vineyards: the farmers, with infinite patience and great meticulousness, have been able to shape the sides and steep slopes of these hills, transforming them into land suitable for viticulture, beautiful to look at and fundamental for a increasingly rooted and effective agricultural economy. The ancient villages perched on the tops of the bricchi, each with its own tower, castle, walls, which still remind us of the ancient feudal past of these lands.
©Strada del Barolo-Mario Ferrero
The soils of the Barolo areas were formed during the Miocene, from 15 to 7 million years ago, in an area where before there was an ancient sea gulf, in the Serravallian (or Elveziana) and Tortonian Age and are mainly composed of clayey-calcareous sedimentary marls, interspersed with layers of more or less important gray-blue marks, called Marne di Sant’Agata, which give rise to elegant, fragrant wines, with a slightly faster maturation, and of sand or gray-brown and yellowish sandstones, the so-called Arenarie di Diano, which give rise to wines that are more alcoholic, more robust and more long-lived.
Can you briefly describe the route and which territories of cultural and wine tourism interest it crosses?
The Strada del Barolo and great Langa wines was born in 2006 with the aim of enhancing, promoting and animating the area where the precious Langa wines are born and where the centuries-old traditions, culture and typical food and wine productions that have made this territory are rooted. unique in the world: there are almost a hundred members who work together to offer tourists quality and emotions.
©Strada del Barolo-Mario Ferrero
The road connects the municipalities of Alba, Barolo, Castiglione Falletto, Cherasco, Diano d’Alba, Dogliani, Grinzane Cavour, La Morra, Monchiero, Monforte d’Alba, Montelupo Albese, Novello, Roddi, Roddino, Rodello, Serralunga d’Alba , Sinio and Verduno, in an exciting journey into the heart and spirit of the territory, where the undisputed protagonist is wine, but in the background reigns the presence of the great heritage of culture and traditions, the exuberance of nature with the enchantment of the hills and of its vineyards, all seasoned with the strong but friendly character of the people of Langa ready to welcome visitors and lovers of good wine and good food with warmth and sympathy in the cellars, restaurants, B & Bs, hotels, shops, museums.
©Strada del Barolo-Mario Ferrero
Why choose the Strada del Barolo?
Because that of the Strada del Barolo is a unique territory in the world, inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List by virtue of the “exceptional Universal Value represented by the deep-rooted culture of wine and the extraordinary landscape shaped by man’s work, according to the cultivation of vine and wine production”. It is therefore an exceptional landscape, which derives from a winemaking tradition handed down for generations: the wines produced in this area are products of excellence, recognized internationally.
©Strada del Barolo-Mario Ferrero
In addition to the charm of the landscapes and the well-deserved fame of the wines, it is the food and wine excellences that make the Langhe a unique heritage in the world: the White Truffle of Alba above all, a refined and sought-after tuber, synonymous with taste and luxury all over the world. the Tonda Gentile Hazelnut, one of the best varieties in the world, the main ingredient of many artisan desserts of local cuisine, PDO cheeses, and then fresh pasta, cured meats and sauces, which are the basis of the extraordinary Langa recipes.
