Tag: wine

Another year, another Divinum

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This marks my 6th year as a volunteer for Divinum – every year since 2018, except when it got cancelled for Covid. Still having a blast. I know a lot of the producers by sight, some by name, and I can still schlep 8 crates of glasses in one go.

This year, Jem came as well on Saturday night, and she described it as a 10/10 evening :)

Snippets:
– The Vino Argentino stand completely changed their offering from last year, and I didn’t think it stacked up as well
– Discovered that SRV Vins in Crissier imports the wines from Farina, which we visited in Valpolicella last spring.
– Met a nice Ozzie man, who wooed Katy and Jem with wines. Met a nice sommelier lady who might be a good candidate to organize wine tastings for the work wine club
– Tried some Margaux and Saint-Estèphe wines, which would cost you a kidney to buy and wouldn’t be really good to drink before another 5-10 years.
– (Re)discovered some local Swiss producers (Brantard, Ours) which make nice things.

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Three day escape to Italian wine country

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At the start of the year, I bought a QoQa experience, consisting of 3 days, 2 nights in Castiglione Faletto at Il Torre, a really nice hotel, and also including a gourmet 4 course meal and a wine tasting at a local vineyard. Getting there (and back) was a 5h journey each way, with lots of beautiful scenery and… roadworks everywhere. The highway toll system in Italy takes some getting used to, but we managed.

Once we got there, we parked the car and started on the serious business of eating and drinking. The Cantina Communale was nice, but overpriced (seriously!). Dinner that evening was gorgeous, but they killed us with food. After the pasta course, we were already both full, and there were still mains and dessert to come. We struggled through the mains but conceded defeat to pudding. Katy is now officially obsessed with braised veal cheeks in wine. Then… grappa. Oooooh, grappa. It’s a good thing that the restaurant was literally next door to the hotel, otherwise we wouldn’t have made it.

The next day, after breakfast, we walked down into Barolo. We took the goat pass that the hotel had kindly told us to avoid by car, as a shortcut. The scenery was gorgeous. The flies though…. FUEGO!! (didn’t want to keep swearing, so I’d just yell fuego randomly). We stopped at Vite Colte on the way into Barolo and had a tasting of some very nice wines, then carried on towards the old town.

Katy was not impressed with the incline getting into Barolo. Expletives were heard. We were happy to see that the corkscrew museum was open – according to their website, it shouldn’t have been. We then visited the WiMu wine museum, which was really interesting, then had coffee and ice cream before trying to locate the cab we’d pre-booked to get back up the hill to Castiglione for our wine tasting at Monchiero. The wines were nice, but the highlight of that visit was the handmade salame!!

We went back to the hotel, had a nap, and then got ready for dinner at Convino. They again killed us with food, but more gently as we shared the plate of the pasta course. But still so.much.food!!! Katy fell in love with our waitress. She must think we’re completely bonkers.

On Friday morning, we had breakfast, checked out, went to pick up a few cartons of wine from Vite Conte and headed for a quick visit to Marolo – a grappa distillery – for a quick purchase, then Alba before heading home. Sadly, we just missed the opening of the Alba white truffle festival by a day, but it is what it is. We left at 12:30 and made it back to Family Dog in time to pick up a very happy (and very tired) Byron then finally made it back home.

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Wine weekend in Verona

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The Nestlé wine club organised a 3-day wine tasting trip in Verona, in the Soave and Valpolicella region. We left early by train on Friday morning and came back late on Sunday night. It was a 3-day wine, food and sightseeing fest.

On Friday, we had lunch at Locanda ai Capitelli and visited the Pieropan vineyard. The food was excellent, the wine was OK, though the vineyard is beautiful. We had dinner at our Hotel, le Muse, and that was excellent. I have discovered the joys of risotto made with Amarone and proper eggplant parmigiana.

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Locanda ai Capitelli

Pieropan

Saturday, we visited Tenute Ugolini, where we spent a relaxing 5h visiting the vineyards (gorgeous!) and having a wine pairing meal on a shady terrace overlooking the vines. The wines were already a notch above what we tasted on the previous day but, IMHO, a bit overpriced. The final tasting was at Azienda Farina, and that was the crown jewel of the visit. Their wines were superb, and we’re paired with some of the best cheese and charcuterie I’ve had in recent memory. We got to sign our names to a cask – they do that with some visitors. That night, we had a buffet dinner at the hotel, paired with some of the wines we’d bought previously.

Tenute Ugolini

Farina

Buffet at Le Muse

Sunday was a guided visit in Verona, very pretty town, with lunch (homemade tagliatelle with truffles and mushrooms) and gelato. We had a bit of free time to explore, then headed for the train station. I managed to buy some of the cheese we’d eaten the day before, a sharp cheese matured in Amarone. We had an impromptu apero on the train with the meat, bread and cheese I’d bought because the dining car ran out of food, but that was still a really good time. At one point, we were chatting about absinthe and counterfeit money with the train controller.

Verona

Train

By happy circumstance, the train was stopping in Morges so I had an easy way home. Finally got home around midnight, where I was greeted by a very happy Byron and a very tired Katy, so we all went to bed.

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Divinum 2023

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Another Divinum completed. I volunteered 4 nights out of 6 this year, and it was still just as fun as in previous years. I’m starting to recognize many of the wine producers by face, and that’s a nice touch. Most are a really good bunch who appreciate what we’re there to do, and are always up for some wine-related banter. There are a few grumps, but it’s not too bad.

As always, the classics from Enoteca Capponi did not disappoint. The usual suspects: Gillard, Varone, Bonvin, Tulipe, Ours, Crans. We discovered some very nice Pinot Noir from Salquenen, which is going to be nice, light summer wine. I don’t usually care for Pinot, but these were a surprise. Found a new quaffing wine too.

And as always, there are advantages to being a volunteer on the last shift of closing night…

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