La Morra, Oct 15, 2013

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Village of La Morra. Province of Cuneo. State of Piemonte. In the far north west corner of Italy.

So, I have been a slacker. We are in Torino and I've said nothing about La Morra in the Piemonte. Here are a few words. Piemonte means the foot of the mountain. That is seriously true. Tootling around La Morra on certain roads we can see the Matterhorn. Yes, the Matterhorn. It pokes up above the local scenery. It is craggy, pointy and snow covered. That is the mountain we are at the foot of. There are Alps to the north, south and west of us.

Our Villa Carita rooms are in a small building carved into a hillside. The building has only two guest suites in it. The grape vines begin their tremendous descent into the valley from twelve feet away from our bed.

We are in a vineyard. And not just any vineyard. We are in the "cru" of La Serra, Boiolo and Brunatte.   The  "cru" means a particular patch of grape vines. They are owned co-operatively by farmers. And several wine makers get a row or two of these various cru's. The greatest of the cru's produce superior grapes.

When a batch of grapes is harvested their juice is analyzed. Color, tannin and sugar are measured. At the end of the harvest, whichever batch of grapes had the best numbers wins a premium price for the farmer who grew them: five euros per kilo versus two euros per kilo. Some grapes consistently beat all the others. The ones in our "yard" are some of the best. I can tell you they taste great eaten off the vine.

As for these villages, they are so darn sweet. Like fairy tale places. I skip around humming "Camelot" or "funiculee, funiculah". Hill top castles, ancient bell towers.  And all those grape leaves which currently are putting on a show of autumn color.

And there are old fashioned people who care passionately about a cow, a grape, a mushroom, a cheese. The food here is distinct. The local white Fassone cows are so pampered their meat is eaten raw, like steak tartar, or cooked extremely rare. The white truffles are smelling up the forests in October so one eats a lot of those. The pasta here is made with so many yolks it is golden. Twenty yolks per pound of flour. Bad for your veins. Good for your taste buds. It gets dressed with butter, cheese and sage or with freshly picked porcini mushrooms. They take pride in knowing who made their cheese, who baked their bread, who raised their beef, what their chicken ate to lay such golden yolks. We are pampered.

Marlow and Wes
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Village of La Morra. Province of Cuneo. State of Piemonte. In the far north west corner of Italy.