The Road Trip: Leg 10 (to Parma) [or, More Days of Wine (and Cheese and Salame and Pasta) and Roses]

Our day started early with a 10:30 appointment for wine tasting at Cantine Rainoldi. Good thing breakfast was plentiful (see prev. post for full menu). Heidi sent us off with a bottle of her son's wine, a white wine of unknown vintage and cepage.

Aldo Rainoldi is a third generation wine maker, and is doing lovely things with Chiavennasca (i.e. Nebbiolo). We got a bit of history of the winery, a tour of the cellars, and then went through six different wines, from a Brut Rose' sparkling wine made from Nebbiolo, to some mid-level cru selections, to their flagship wine, Sfursat Fruttaio Ca'Rizzieri. Aldo described this as the connection between Piemonte and Valpollicella, being made with the Nebbiolo grape, but prepared in an Amarone style. If that description doesn't speak to you, suffice it to say that it was beautiful wine, wonderfully complex and flavorful, and I look forward to drinking the bottles we purchased over the next 10 years or so.

After the tasting and subsequent purchasing of wine, he recommended a couple more places to eat, of which one turned out to be on our way south. L'Osteria del Crotto provided an incredible lunch, after we found it, tucked away behind a church and some other stuff, and up a steep, small alleyway. They placed a great emphasis upon Slow Cooking, and using official Slow Food items, including Violino di Capra and Bitto. My tortelli with (I think) ricotta and spinach were incredibly light and flavorful and perfect. The grilled zucchini that accompanied Julianna's piece of meat were "the best ever."

I finished with a vertical tasting of alpage Bitto, paired with Rainoldi Sfursat. The plate had 1 yr., 2 yr. 4 yr. and 10 yr. Bitto. The cheeses were wonderful; I preferred the 4 yr., which was smoky and buttery and earthy and complex, while jULiana liked the 2 yr., which was a bit smoother and more herbaceous.
But the wine was off. And this was the first time that I felt confident enough in my palette and knowledge to point out that the bottle had oxidized, and while raisin aromas may be typical of Sfursat, it shouldn't smell like port. This was a bit tough to do in Italian, but I got through it, and the new bottle was significantly better. And made the parings that much more delicious.

The last stop in the Valtellina was at a wonderful cheese and wine and cooking stuff shop that Aldo had also recommended, Fratelli Ciapponi. It has been around since the late 1800's, and not only has four levels of wine cellar, each filled with old, dusty bottles of wine from around Italy and France, but has a wonderful cheese room (which has a salame hanging from the rafters and a handful of local cheeses arranged on a table), and a lot of old copper cooking antiques. We bought a couple of bottles of Ar.Pe.Pe, since we hadn't been able to get into the winery, a nice, big lump of Bitto, and a few other cheeses. The Bitto was a wonderful, 3 yr. old, alpage cheese, with a great smoky flavor and firm, smooth texture. Just lovely.

The drive to Parma was uneventful, though the bit around Lake Como was striking. We arrived late in the evening, found an uninteresting hotel room, walked around the city until getting tired and cranky, found a busy restaurant serving basic, relatively uninteresting food, but did finally have an opportunity to eat some vegetables.

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