PROGRAMM: WINE AND CULTURAL TRIPS
Since 2012, I have been organising regular wine and cultural trips to Piedmont for everyone who loves culture and wine! However, the future wine trips will no longer be organised from Basel, but directly from Costigliole d’Asti with individual arrival.
Depending on the number of wine and culture enthusiasts, we will have a second B&B at Renzo Beccaris or Cascina Collavini at our disposal. The three-to-four-day stays will then include a regular driving service with one to two buses, which will be at our disposal the entire time.
The trip includes the accommodation, a daily visit to a selected producer and a cultural institution. During the entire trip, I accompany the groups as a guide, so to speak.
Wine producers
Piedmont is the second largest region in Italy after Sicily, with an area of about 25’400 km², which is about 60% of the total area of Switzerland. Of this, about 47’000 hectares are devoted to viticulture compared to about 14’700 hectares in Switzerland! About 2,400,000 hl of wine are produced annually, of which about 90% is quality wine (DOC / DOCG). Piedmont is divided into four wine-growing sub areas: L’Astigiano, Le Langhe, Il Monferrato and Piemonte Il Nord. In total, Piedmont has 58 DOC and DOCG areas.
It goes without saying that with several thousand producers, we will unfortunately never be able to cover the entire area. This makes the search and a fine selection even more important. So, the focus is not on «Parker« or «Veronelli« or those producers with the biggest marketing budgets, but on the search for innovation, the people who make the effort despite a low income and produce exceptional wines, apart from the «mainstream».
Cultural institutions
Piedmont has numerous institutions, cultural facilities, archaeological sites and, of course, not to forget, the incredibly gentle hilly landscapes. They are for good reason “UNESCO” world heritage sites.
Some highlights:
- Grinzane Cavour
- Torre di Barbaresco (Weinbau-Museum)
- Alba Sotterranea
- La Casa del Trifulau
- Festival „CHEESE“, Bra
- Alba Markt
- Saluzzo, mittelalterliche Stadt mit Führung
- CASTELLO DI SERRALUNGA D’ALBA
- Sito Archeologico „Augusta Bagiennorum“
- zahlreiche Gemeinden, wie Barolo, Neive, Barbaresco, Treiso, Alba, Asti usw.
just to name a few… Here, some impressions of our trips in the following picture gallery:
PROGRAMM VITICULTURE COURSES
Course content and order
There are four course days per year, starting at the beginning of February with the winter pruning, followed by vine care and work on the vineyard in April/May, followed by the defoliation in June/July and finally the harvesting and wine production, which lasts from the end of August to the beginning of October (depending on the grape variety).
The cost is Euro 280.00 for all course days and will of course be charged with the overnight stay.
This is how I avoid a fine for moonlighting and I can even issue a certificate «viticulture course».
Reservation Vine Courses / Season
| Vine care 1 / Winter pruning: | Reservation for the vine courses during the weekends of the week’s 05-07 | |||
| Vine care 2 / Side shoots/ threading: | Reservation for the vine courses during the weekends of weeks 18-20. | |||
| Vine care 2 / Side shoots, head pruning: | Reservation for the vine courses during the weekends of the week’s 31-33 | |||
| Harvest time: | Reservation for the vine courses during the weekends of the week’s 34, 36, 37-39 and 41-42 |
The vineyard courses take in each case place from Thursday to Monday. During this time the rooms are reserved. Unused rooms will be released early. The dates are variable due to weather conditions. If the courses fall on a public holiday (Ascension, Whitsun, etc.) they are postponed by one weekend so that the rooms remain free for guests on public holidays.
Photo gallery:
