Month: September 2026

Borgogno

Barolo is a wine, one of Italy’s greatest, made from Nebbiolo grapes.  Barolo is also a district in the Piemonte section of northwest Italy, known as the Langhe, where the grapes for Barolo are grown and vinified.  And Barolo is a very small village in that district, the namesake of the wine. 

As we have noted previously, this area is a premier destination for wine tasters.  Almost without exception, it is necessary to make reservations for tastings, most of which include a tour as well.  This is fair, as most wineries are small, family owned businesses and they can’t manage to have visitors just dropping by.  But there is one important exception: Borgogno (www.borgogno.com),  located right in the middle of the village of Barolo.

The Borgogno winery in the village of Barolo.

After a (reserved) tasting at Marchesi di Barolo, of which we have previously written, and a lunch at a charming bistro in the village, we were just wandering around when we came across a piazza with a large white building with a sign for Borgogno on top.  Importantly, it also had a sign out front inviting visitors to come in for a taste of their wine.  We had already known the label, because a restaurant near us has their Barbera d’Alba on its wine list and we order it often.  But we didn’t know about their Barolo.

The view from Borgogno’s rooftop tasting area.  That large building is the Castello Falletti di Barolo.

To be completely accurate, Borgogno does offer seated tastings by reservation.  What we were able to do was to walk in, order a glass from their list and enjoy it sitting on their rooftop.  From there, we had views of the village, the surrounding countryside and the Castello Falletti di Barolo, a rather imposing castle in the village itself.  This is an excellent way to spend some time on a sunny Italian afternoon!

Borgogno claims to be the oldest Barolo winemaker, as do several other wineries.  It was founded in 1761 and the building (or one much like it) in Barolo dates at least to the 1920s.  So there is a sense of history to go with a visit there. 

The prices for a glass of Borgogno Barolo are quite reasonable.  They range from as little as eight euros for a Barolo Classico, made from grapes grown in a variety of vineyards.  For only two euros more, visitors can indulge in single-vineyard Barolos.  There are also a few Riservas (we call them library wines in the US) dating back as far as 1982 that naturally cost quite a lot more.  Still, it’s unusual to find aged wines available by the glass.

There are many wine bars in and around Barolo where people can stop for a glass (or more) of the local wines.  Some of them have impressive lists.  But it is quite different to have the opportunity to compare and contrast wines from the same producer, creating your own horizontal tasting.  Add to that the chance to take in the scenery from up high, and Borgogno is definitely a place to stop if you ever go wine tasting in Barolo: the sector, the village and the wine.

Climate Change and Wine Tasting

There is little question that climate change is affecting wine making around the world.  Champagne is reporting the earliest harvests in history.  Bordeaux has allowed six new grapes (two whites and four reds) to be included in their wines because of the difficulties encountered in growing the traditional ones.  Drought plus exceptional heat waves have affected the growing season in northern California. 

Only time will tell how that will affect what we wine lovers will find in our glasses from the 2026 and later harvests.  We shouldn’t just jump to the conclusion that it will be worse.  Perhaps ingenious winemakers will create wines that are more robust and are drinkable sooner.  Of course, we also must be prepared for thinner, more acidic wines from these years.

Extreme heat forces some vineyards to harvest grapes at night.  Photo courtesy of The Independent.

But how does the change in the climate affect the pleasant avocation of visiting Wine Country and tasting wine at the wineries?  There are several answers.

  • Those who enjoy being in Wine Country for the crush will need to travel earlier in the year.  If, for example, they want to be in Champagne to watch grapes being picked, transported and crushed, they will have to be there in late July or early August, rather than September as in the past.  That means traveling in periods of peak heat.  How hot could that be?  The peak temperature in Champagne this summer was 104oF (40oC).  That’s enough to make any trip unforgettable, but not in a good way.
  • It may be more crowded.  Despite the temperature, many people do take their vacations in mid-summer.  That’s when school is out and families can travel.  This is especially true in France, where Parisians leave town for the whole month of August to travel south.  Maybe they will head north in the future, but who can tell?
  • Even September can be very hot.  Europe experienced several exceptional heat waves in 2026.  Even in September, temperatures in Bordeaux and Tuscany reached into the mid- to high 90’s (Fahrenheit).  So that period of time that used to be the best for visiting these locales has the worst of both worlds: high temperatures and grapes already picked.
  • Maybe stick to the premier American wine tasting.  Yes, California had higher than usual temperatures in many regions, but summers in the Wine Country of that state have always been hot.  Maybe heat is built into the way vineyard managers have always grown grapes.  Temperatures have moderated at summer’s end…this year.  It would be wise in future years to check weather conditions, even in the US.
  • We may have to adjust.  If climate change accelerates, we all may be drinking Norwegian Cabernet Sauvignon!  Or maybe we’ll start to learn our lessons and start being smarter about how we use energy to lower the heat.  In the meantime, growers and winemakers will continue to do the best they can.

Arles

Arles is a town in the south of France that many people know something about even if they haven’t been there.  The opera Carmen is set there and the composer, Georges Bizet, reset the music in his Arlésienne Suites.  Van Gogh lived in Arles and he painted a famous picture of a bridge, which is still there.  His famous painting Starry Night shows the sky over Arles.  (By the way, the town is pronounced Ahrl.)

Much of what makes Arles a worthwhile destination comes from the past and is still there today.  In particular, Arles boasts a lot of remains of the ancient Roman Empire.  They took the area we call southern France today, well before Julius Caesar claimed to have conquered all of Gaul.  The Romans were civic-minded builders and so erected an arena and a theater that not only still stand but are still in use.

The Arles Arena.  Photo courtesy of Reddit.

The arena, or more properly the amphitheater, was once the scene of gladiatorial combat.  We suppose the 20,000 people that the arena could hold watched wild animals killing innocent civilians.  Today, the Arles arena still seats 20,000 people who watch wild toreadors killing innocent animals.  Oh, yes, bullfighting is all the rage in current-day Arles.  (Remember the townspeople singing “To-re-a-dor-o”?  Minus the music, that’s for real.)  They also have concerts, and have even staged mock gladiatorial shows.  When nothing is going on, visitors can tour the arena, which is better preserved than the Coliseum in Rome.

Nearby is the Roman theater.  Alas, it is not as well preserved as the amphitheater but it too is still in use.  There were once fine statues surrounding the theater.  Their remains are mostly in the Arles Archaeological Museum.  The finest of all, the Venus of Arles, has been shipped to Paris and is displayed in the Louvre.

Statue of the Emperor Augustus in the Arles Archaeological Museum.  Photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.

The Archaeological Museum contains a lot of pottery and coins, but also many important artistic pieces that the Romans used to decorate Arles.  The best known of these is a 3-meter tall statue of the Emperor Augustus (well, most of him).  This one definitely adorned the theater back in the day and gives some idea, just from its sheer scale, of the past grandeur of the theater and of Arles itself.

Of course, there’s a great deal more to Arles than ancient history.  As with any French town (or village or city for that matter) there are cafés, shops and parks.  Once we saw all the ancient stuff, we stopped for a very pleasant lunch.  One little tip: Arles is in the heart of Provence.  For those who are interested in shopping for Provençal fabrics, we found that the enterprising street vendors have tablecloths and such of quite high quality and rather reasonable prices.

Arles is on the Rhône river.  That means that the vineyards of the Rhône valley aren’t very far away.  Arles can serve as a base for wine tasting forays into the countryside or a fine Place to Visit when anyone wants a break from wine tasting.

Opening and Remembering

Power Tasting is a magazine about wine tasting.  It’s our great pleasure to travel through the various corners of Wine Country, visiting vineyards and sampling the wines that are made there.  We have found over the years that where wine is made, people are friendly and live well.  There is always some rather good food to eaten and washed down with very fine wines.  But we have to return home; all we can bring back are great memories and often some bottles of pretty good wine.

As the months, and sometimes the years, go by we open those bottles and savor the aromas and tastes once again.  And we remember where we were when we bought them, what it looked like and even in some cases the person who sold it to us.  Such is the power of taste and smell to evoke mental images that we can’t even replicate by looking at travel photos.

The famous Moulin à Vent in Beaujolais.

The same can be said about wines ordered in restaurants.  It is rare that we find a wine on a list that is exactly what we tasted when we were where the wine comes from.  But when we order a Beaujolais, we can never taste a Moulin à Vent without summoning up images of the famous windmill for which the wine is named.  Or if it’s a Morgon, we always think of a fabulous meal we had at Le Restaurant Morgon.

Biondi Santi Tenuta Greppo, the home of Brunello in Montalcino, Tuscany.

We have made so many wine tasting voyages to California that we have plenty of memories from there too.  But no matter how beautiful the scenery, we were still in the United States and a lot was similar to back home.  However exotic the winery, even Chateau Montelena or Darioush can’t compete, for example, with opening a Brunello and seeing Biondi-Santi in our minds eye.  Part of the appeal of Napa Valley and Sonoma County is that we know them so well.  We have had brief introductions to many diverse sectors of Wine Country outside America.  It is precisely because we don’t know those places as well that makes remembering them so piquant. 

Photos fade.  Even the ones we take digitally are locked up in our phones.  We don’t look at them very often.  But we open wine bottles quite frequently and each one comes from somewhere far from home.  Every bottle has a story to tell if one only knows how to listen.  It tells us of histories, people, cultures and lifestyles that we have briefly taken a part of…or hope to someday.

So when we open a bottle of Champagne, for instance, we see sprightly bubbles in our glasses but also rolling vineyards, the cathedral in Reims, and sweaty laborers saying hello as they picked the harvest.  Of course wine is made of alcohol, but it has the power to intoxicate us without even taking a sip.