Spending three days in Alba. Looking for suggestions on getting the best out of my trip. From what I am reading, I should expect to see two wineries a day. Should I hire guide? Looking for any suggestions, I am not looking to reinvent the wheel 
Hi Jon
A key question is whether youâll have a car. If so, then both Barbaresco and Barolo collections of villages are in easy range. If not then Barbaresco is certainly doable by taxi (for the energetic it would be walkable).
No guide needed, and if youâre uncomfortable emailing wineries, then the tourist office started a free booking service about 5 years ago (though, fairly IMO, there is a penalty charge for no shows). Itâs http://www.langheroero.it and they also have contact details for most (but not all) wineries listed, including reasonably accurate guides to when the wish to take visitors, if there is a charge, and if English is spoken (though this changes a little faster than the website, as children grow up and become involved, invariably being fluent in English if not always confident of the fact).
How many wineries in a day depends on your focus. Absolute top end Iâd put at 5 wineries, 3 in the morning (starting say 9am), leaving a good 2 hours clear for your lunch (and that of the winery staff) from ~ 1pm to 3pm. A typical winery visit takes ~ 90 mins, but some can break the 2 hour mark.
For me, trying to squeeze 5 in a day, would feel like âpower tastingâ and youâll also be a little bored after the 3rd tour of a barrel room. However if the wine is the sole focus, such a schedule is achievable if you ensure the wineries are close to each other (at least morning are in a block and so are the afternoon)
As some variety to the winetasting, I would encourage you to consider fitting a walk in. There are endless trails through the vineyards (Yay! for shared ownership). Some hills, sometimes quite steep, but never so long they become a slog. Stunning views, easy to navigate and cheap thrills of navigating by vineyard! If the restaurant food wasnât so good/appealing, weâd be jumping at the chance to picnic amongst the vines. Easy enough to navigate without a map, but the tourist office do a very good one for âŹ6 that youâll want to keep anyway.
As alluded to above, use google maps to ensure you have a logistically easy route. If smart, you could park up at the lunchtime restaurant and walk to the 2-3 morning wineries, allowing the designated driver to taste freely, knowing theyâll have lunch to work the alcohol out of their system.
Of course weâve all got our favourite wineries, but what Iâd recommend is choosing a nice mix of some well-known wineries you really like already, mixed in with a couple of relative unknowns. Such places can often be very rewarding visits, for good well priced wines, but also very friendly / hospitable.
One final thought. Do give some thought to how many bottles you want to / can take back. Whilst the Swiss, Germans and Austrians turn up in their cars and think nothing of buying a couple of cases, us poor air travellers have to consider hold baggage allowances. Piemontese are very polite and have never pressured us to buy, or sighed at a one or two bottle purchase, but many of us feel it is good etiquette to buy a bottle or two if we enjoy the wines (weâd love to buy more). For this reason, along with spousal harmony, we often keep the winery visits down to max 5-6 for any one holiday, often less if not in an area of major wine interest to us.
Lots of good info above. A car is key so hopefully you have one. I think 3-4 wineries is probably the max per day unless you are doing nothing else but tasting. You can also taste a good amount of variety at local enotecas who will pour a number of wines by the glass. As far as shipping wines home, there is a mailbox, Etc. located in one of the towns that shipped two cases of wine back to NJ for me. It wasnât cheap but it wasnât out of control. I think the shipping added around $7 to the cost of each bottle which was worth it given the savings on the wine itself and then I didnât have to lug it through the airport.
Thanks for the thoughtful response,
We will be renting a car. Planning on Driving from MXP on a Tuesday and leaving Alba in on a Friday. My Italian is non-existent and worried that may be a barrier to getting the most from the area.
Was planning on investing on Vin Garde Wine Case for the trip. Figured I could sacrifice one of the bag allowance to get a case back.
Jon,
I was just there and my lack of Italian was not an impediment, but obviously the trio would have been better if I spoke Italian. All the employees at the wineries we visited spoke English. We had no problems setting up tasting appointments via email.
Ian has a lot of good info. I would limit tastings to 3-4 per day for a variety of reasons - tastings can run form 30 min to 2 hours depending on the winery, as Ian noted youâll want to take a 2-2.5 hr lunch and the wineries will be closed then too, and even with spitting more than 3-4 tastings of mostly Nebbiolo, barbers & dolcetto can exhaust your palate.
Lots of wonderful wineries and restaurants. Youâll have a blast.
Hi Jon
A lot will depend on arrival departure times, but this sounds like 2 full days (wed/thu) and potentially a little time on Tue/Fri.
As such Iâd look to latch onto a single village for Wed and another one for Thu, though driving post lunch gives you the opportunity to bring another into play.
For Barbaresco itâs mainly a choice of Barbarsco, Neive or Treiso. Iâve not been to Neive so will defer to others. For me Treiso wins hands down for food, but Barbaresco better for wineries.
For Barolo, there are more choices. Barolo itself has plenty of prestigious wineries, but I find it increasingly touristy (but maybe this is perfect for speaking English). La Morra and Monforte a little less touristed, the former with good concentration of wineries (also taking in the road down to Annunziata), the latter I prefer the feel and have had some great meals there, though La Morra is no slouch either. Verduno smaller, but very much more charming for it. Serralunga bigger and with good producers, ditto Castiglione Falletto though the food options are relatively thin here. Iâm missing any experience of Novello and other peripheral Barolo villages.
Assuming no recent changes, markets in Alba as follows (which might make a nice morning activity):
Tuesday P.zza Sen. Osvaldo Cagnasso
Wednesday Borgo Moretta
Thursday P.zza Sen. Osvaldo Cagnasso
Friday C.so Europa
do a search for âMercato Albaâ or check the langheroero site to double check.
Certainly plenty of good food shops to find truffle products etc. in Alba and itâs pleasing enough to stroll around the historic centre (and there are a number of decent wine shops).
Literally just back from the Piemonte - just flew home yesterday. As always with regard to Italy, Ian has provided very accurate and useful information.
Just to add a few thoughts - I would recommend three scheduled visits a day maximum, particularly if you intend to go to different towns. Most of these wineries are smaller family operations, proud to show you their operations and their wines. You donât want to rush the visit because youâve got to be somewhere else. If you donât want to take your time strolling around the towns and want to taste more wine, there are winery tasting rooms in Barolo, La Morra and Barbaresco where you can just stop in, as well as regional enotecas, as noted previously. If you finish your visits early, you (or someone from your hotel) can call to see if you can schedule a same day visit somewhere else. We were joined on at least one visit where that had been done.
Getting from town to town is very easy, particularly if you donât mind driving down some narrow winding roads. We went back and forth between towns repeatedly. Because of those roads, know your limits and spill or spit. Also, not all of the wineries are on main roads or have obvious signs. If you have access to Google maps while you are there, use that. GPS is not very reliable (as several locals told us). Iâve found that to be the case in other parts of Italy as well. Thatâs another reason for limiting your scheduled visits - you may get lost getting from place to place.
Ian had a very wise suggestion of picking an area each day. The only thing I can add to that is checking in advance when things close during the week. For example, some tasting rooms and restaurants are closed in Barolo on Wednesday. Had I known that, I probably would have planned scheduled visits there for another day. (Thatâs not to suggest everything was closed, just that options were more limited.)
Not speaking Italian will not be an issue, but learning and using a few basic phrases is not difficult and will be appreciated. (Seriously, how tough is it to say Grazie? Iâm always amazed by Americans in Italy who try to use Spanish phrases like por favor thinking they are the same in Italian, apparently unaware that they come off looking like idiots.) English has become the default language. We were on tours and in restaurants with people from Finland, the Netherlands, Germany, France and Japan and everyone was speaking English.
We brought out an empty WineCheck that we filled (but that was our only checked bag and we donât have to pay to check luggage). Rich notes correctly that you can have wine shipped home but check the price; I didnât see anything as inexpensive as he quotes. If you can handle it through the airport, checking it as luggage is probably cheaper.
Youâll have a great time. It has been quite a while since we were last there, but I expect our next visit will be in the next few years.
Just curious to insight on travel plans.
Our plan is to rent a car a MXP and drive to Alba. After three days in Alba, plan is to drop car back at MXP and catch a train to Bellagio. Four days in Bellagio and then train to Milan for remainder of trip.
We took train from MXP to Como. Was easy.
If you want to cut down on drive time and schedule works out, you could do what we did - rent car in Allesandria for drive to Piedmont (about an hour drive) and train MXP-Allesandria.
Hi Jon
Is there any way to re-organise the trip to MXP-Bellagio-Milano-Alba-MXP
The reasoning is:
- Jet lag and the general weariness from travelling is often best remedied in fresh air, walking around in daylight and avoiding the bright lights of the city. Hopping straight into a car in a foreign country can also be stressful when so tired / disorientated. Bellagio would be a great place to overcome jet lag.
- Having the winery visits at the start, means youâll be carrying those heavy (and precious!) bottles around with you on those train journeys. Much easier to finish with the car, when youâll be completely over jetlag, and will have been able to observe traffic / traffic signs whilst on foot.
You should be able to pick up the car in Milano and drop off at MXP for little or no surcharge, though FWIW we quite like pickup and dropoff at the same place as we then know where we need to navigate back to!
regards
Ian
I just did this same route last week, with slightly different timing. Rental at MXP, 3+ days in Piemonte (should have been four but initial flight was canceled), 2 days in Bellagio then back to MXP. The rental worked just fine for us; I donât like schlepping wine on trains so the car made everything easy.
Two things you really need to consider, though. As Ian points out, driving can be tough after flying overnight. I sleep adequately on a plane and arrive fairly fresh, but YMMV. Also, in Bellagio the car sat in the hotel lot for two days. We walked or took the ferry everywhere, even though I have trouble walking. There really is no need to drive and the roads can get frustrating. If you do consider a rental, you need to take into account the cost of the rental knowing it wonât be used.
Sorta stuck with the dates. I am flying lie flat from JFK to MXP. Hopefully I will be somewhat rested.
Those are really strangely designed business class seats. Be prepared.
Just saw this thread now. The topic is recurring, so youâll probably find these earlier discussions helpful:
Any reccommendations for rental car companies?? We are planning Turin for a couple of days and renting a car for 3 days to tour wine country before moving on to Milan.
Hi Mont
Are you looking for a rental in walking distance of where you are staying? Weâve only done 2 hires from Torino IIRC, both from the airport, the last from Sicily by car (yes, clearly a national outfit) was fine. Depending on where you are staying it might be useful to choose somewhere relatively easy to escape the city, as driving in Torino can be very difficult, especially with the added complication of trams and a large ZTL zone.
Is it possible to re-jig the order, as airport â Langhe â Torino with car, then allows you to get the very fast train direct into Milano from Torino. Not to worry if all is booked.
Regards
Ian
AutoEurope is a site that books through multiple companies. Iâve had good luck with them in Italy and Germany over 20 years. In addition to Hertz and Avis, youâll find Europcar, which is National/Alamoâs brand over there. Itâs a major outfit and reliable.
Iâve never had a problem in Italy, save for one time when the no-name company I had located on the web didnât have a car when I arrived at Milan/Malpensa. Luckily, Hertz was across the aisle and they had cars. The only problem was that their computer was down so they couldnât quote me a price. The man behind the counter, who had lived in Buffalo for a number of years, assured me it wouldnât be over a certain price and not to worry. âYou just have to trust,â he said. Very Italian! In any event, I wrote the cap price onto the contract documents, and when the charges came through they were well below the figure he had cited. So I ended up a happy customer.
Every other rental there has been smooth, including one from central Torino. (I had arrived by train and stayed the night.) I had no problem getting out of town and heading down to the Langhe, though it was at lunch hour, when traffic drives down.
I rented through Kemwel at Turin airport last year and drove to Alba for a few days then returned back there. Pricing was very competitive. I think I found Kemwel via an Expedia search and had no prior experience with the company.
Europcar has the most convenient pickup and drop off locations for me so I booked with them. Any ideas if any wineries are open on Saturday for visitors??
Hi Mont
The langheroero.it site has a listing for days (and times) wineries are available for appointments. Not always accurate, but should narrow the list down.
Regards
Ian