Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
high-class Chianti. This 130-year-old winery
has seven properties spread across Tus-
cany; one of the most beautiful is Poggio
Casciano Estate, just outside historic Flor-
ence. Here you can visit a beautiful Tuscan
mansion surrounded by random patches of
vineyard of every shape and size. Pink walls
hold shuttered windows and a roof clut-
tered with old terracotta tiles. Bright arch-
ways overlook an ample courtyard with a
central fountain. Inside, wide circular tun-
nels are lined with barrels and paved with
cobblestones; beautiful antique cellars lead
to a large airy room with polished parquet
floors and a collection of antique prints,
showing Bacchus in all his Bacchanalian
glory down through the centuries. It seems
even the god of wine was not immune to
the Chianti effect.
Ruffino,
Via Poggio, Cappanuccia, San
Polo, Chianti (
&
39/55/649-9703;
www.
ruffino.it).
(
Amerigo Vespucci Florence (37km/22
miles).
L
$$$
Hotel Davanzati,
Via Porta
Rossa no. 5, Florence (
&
39/55/286-666;
www.hoteldavanzati.it). $$
Hotel Vec-
chio Asilo,
Via delle Torri 4, Ulignano San
Gimignano (
&
39/57/795-0032;
www.
vecchioasilo.it).
Italy
337
Cerretto Winery
Save the Truffle
Piedmont, Italy
It must be the toughest wine tour in the
world—to rise when it is still dark and
traipse in rubber boots over foggy hills
and through freezing forests, with a bunch
of dogs sniffing at trees, looking for the
famous Piedmont white truffle. A dog
barks and the
trifolai,
or truffle hunter,
runs to the spot where the dog has
unearthed a small dirty nugget that looks
like a wrinkled potato.
Truffles are a mysterious delicacy. They
are neither mushroom nor vegetable, and
how they grow remains a complete mys-
tery. Despite extensive research, scien-
tists have failed to domesticate it; nobody
knows why it only grows in certain places
(in the case of Italy, only in the Piedmont
and Tuscany), usually in the exact same
spot year after year. What is known is that
the
tuber magnatum pico
is highly sensi-
tive to the environment, and truffle fields
have been shrinking as forests slowly dis-
appear. The high price of white truffles,
which may reach $1,600 a pound, has
spurred a huge increase in the number of
hunters, pursuing what used to be a gen-
tle countryside pastime. Rivalry has seen
jealous hunters go so far as to poison
other hunter's dogs, and there have been
calls to regulate the industry.
The Cerreto winery conducts truffle
hunts, however, not to make money but to
let wine visitors explore the fascinating art
of truffle hunting. After all, truffles are a
natural accompaniment to Barolo wine,
and Cerretto is looked upon as the master
of this wine. Cerretto is situated close to
the wine town of Alba in the northwestern
region of Piedmont; Barolo is the best-
known wine from this region, a red made
from the Nebbiolo grape. Cerretto's own-
ers Bruno and Marcello Cerretto are known
the world over as the Barolo Brothers.
The Cerretto winery is a surprising mix
of old, new, and downright funky. The
usual vaulted cellars are there, but so too
is a surprising sculpture in the winery gar-
dens, a huge glass cube that sits like a
