lgsjr – Power Tasting – The Wine Tasting Experience

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 104^oF (40^oC). 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.

Staying in a Village

There are many wonderful places in the United States where wine is made and tastings are available. Most are located in small towns, often near large cities, such as Sacramento or New York. What we don’t have in the US are villages. Oh, certainly some of the towns are small and picturesque but they lack the atmosphere that only comes from centuries of families living near each other, with only a few roads (or only one), with homes nestled along the roadway. For those, we have to go to Europe or in Quebec.

We are not immune to the pleasures of Europe’s great cities, so we often take our vacations in the great cities such as Paris, Rome or London. But every few years we choose to stay somewhere where the pace is slower, there are no famous sights to see and there is no traffic on the streets. And where the grapes are growing right outside our window. In this article, we will use the tiny village of Poilhes in the Languedoc as an example, but it could as easily have been San Leonino in Italy, Nyons in France or Widdicombe in England. (Okay, there are no grapevines in England, but the feel of the place is the same.)

By the way, Poilhes is pronounced something like POU-yeh. Close enough but not exact.

There is only one road in Poilhes and we were lucky enough to rent a house along it. It was well equipped and had air conditioning, which is becoming increasingly important for any travels in Europe between May and October, the best times to be in Wine Country of course. There is a tiny church, whose bell announces the hours and serves as a sometimes unwanted alarm clock. It’s amazing how quickly we stopped hearing the ringing.

We were about 100 feet from the historic and picturesque Canal du Midi, once used for commerce and now only for pleasure boats. On the other side of the canal from our house, there was the only grocery store in Poilhes, the Épicerie du Canal, which was only open a few hours in the morning and another few in the afternoon. Upon awakening, we’d throw on some clothes and head to the Épicerie for a baguette, croissants and a pain au chocolat (chocolate croissant in this country). Let us tell you, there is no better breakfast than freshly made French bread and pastries with country butter and locally made preserves that we bought in the weekly market.

What is there to do in a village such as Poilhes? We took walks by the vineyards. We went to the village farmers’ market and to the ones in neighboring villages. We befriended one of the cats that run wild in the backyards. We picked figs off the tree that grew in our backyard. We learned all about Languedoc wines at the rather superb wine store/tasting room, the Vinauberge. We snacked under a spreading platane tree at a bistro across the street run by a transplanted English couple, who frankly couldn’t cook all that well. We dined at a fancy restaurant that was a stopping point for the pleasure craft on the canal. And of course, we tasted the wines made nearby and all around the village.

We recommend to anyone who would like to get the feel of Wine Country as well as the taste, that they plan a stay in a village like Poilhes. It’s an experience that will generate a lifetime of memories.

Talking with Winemakers

The servers in a tasting room are, de facto, the faces of the winery. They explain the background of the label, the vineyard(s) and often the owners. In Europe, there is often a distinguished history of both wines and nobles that goes back centuries; the serve seems like little more than a vassal. In the US, especially in California, ancient history often began in 1976, so the current ownership gets more attention. What you don’t hear much about is the winemakers for that winery.

From our point of view, the winemakers are the stars of the show. They are the ones who actually create what winds up in our glasses and in many cases they oversee the growth of the grapes that made the wine. For the most part, they are behind the scenes for actual tastings. But on occasion, the winemaker happens to be in the room or, in the case of smaller wineries, he or she is also the owner and the server, as well as the lead salesperson and the bookkeeper.

*Jaimee Motley, Stony Hill Vineyard; Avery Heelan, Larkmead Vineyards; and Ryan Rech, Beringer Vineyards. Photos courtesy of Wine Enthusiast.*

If you should happen to meet a winemaker, the conversation might be limited to “I like your wine” and “Thank you”. But such a meeting is a rare learning opportunity. You should really make the most of it in the few minutes you’re likely to have.

A little praise goes a long way. The winemakers don’t often have direct customer feedback, so if you can say more than the fact that you liked their wine, their ears will perk up. For example, if you can truthfully say, “We opened your 2018 Pinot Noir last week and it’s drinking real well, with heavy raspberry flavors” the person who made it will be rightly appreciative. That will open the door for a more in-depth conversation.
If you’re just discovering their wines, discuss what you’re tasting at that moment. A simple question such as, “How do you think this Merlot will change with age” will indicate that you’re interested in learning and might lead to a sale. You should get a fairly detailed answer.
Modern winemakers love sustainability. Climate change and water shortages are threats to their profession, so they are all becoming ecologists. If you ask what they are doing to sustain their vines and deal with changed weather conditions, you’re likely to get a brief lecture on the subject.
Ask for recommendations. Especially in the US, winemakers may be responsible for a wide range of red and white wines. They are all their babies, and it would be a little rude to ask which of their wines they prefer. But asking which wines are the best values or the best years for a certain grape indicate that you want to buy some. And it lets them speak to the specifics of what they have created, not the generalities.
It shouldn’t have to be said, but be polite. If you don’t care for the Sauvignon Blanc, you’d better keep it to yourself. And there’s no reason for you, an amateur, to be giving your opinion on any winemaking issues you may have to a trained professional.

Lyon

Lyon is the third largest city in France, behind Paris and Marseilles. It is infused with history, food and an unmistakable joie de vivre. From a wine tasting perspective, it is ideally situated. Drive a half an hour north and you’re in Beaujolais. Go the other direction and you’re in the Northern Rhône; two totally different wine tasting experiences. But with all those opportunities to visit wineries and vineyards, save time for Lyon itself.

The city is located at the confluence of the Rhône and Saône rivers, and it has been there since before the Romans conquered Gaul. It has gone through wars, revolutions and invasions and somehow come out with a smile on its face. A particularly interesting museum is the World War II Centre d’Histoire de la Résistance et de la Déportation which is a must. There is still a bit of history to be seen in the streets of Vieux Lyon. There is a cathedral, of course, and the small streets still have housefronts that were built in the Renaissance. There are hidden passageways called traboules to wander in and discover.

*The Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière. Photo courtesy of thisislyon.fr.*

One sight not to be missed is the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière, across the Saône and overlooking the city. It is an architectural wonder in itself in a Romanesque-Gothic style. However, unlike the cathedral that really is Gothic architecture, this church was built in the 19^th century. It is probably the most recognizable building in Lyon and the views of the city from the Basilica are worth the trip.

But if you ask us, the reason to visit Lyon is the food. The city is widely recognized as the culinary capital of France, although residents of Paris and the Côte d’Azur would argue the point. We won’t get involved in that argument, but we can say we have had some very memorable meals in Lyon. The restaurants there can be categorized in two ways: the highest of haute cuisine and the jolliest of bistro food.

The cuisine of Lyon today is dominated by the heritage of one man, Paul Bocuse (1926-2018). Regarded as the greatest French chef of the last quarter of the 20^th century, he inspired what came to be known as nouvelle cuisine, with an emphasis on lighter food, with vibrant flavors derived from the freshest ingredients. The temple of French gastronomy in Lyon is Monsieur Paul’s namesake restaurant just out of town in Collonges. A meal there is a lifetime experience. He also opened four restaurants in Lyon that feature the top of classic French dishes; we especially remember the onion soup at one of them.

*A traditional Lyon bouchon. Photo courtesy of Discover Lyon Magazine.*

At the other extreme are the bouchons, small bistros that feature traditional lyonnais dishes. These include quenelles de brochet, airy puffs of chopped pike served in a rich sauce Nantua; salade lyonnaise, salad served with big chunks of bacon and a poached egg; and saucisson en brioche, sausage baked into brioche bread. Of course there are wines lists, but the thing to do is to order a pot of wine (pronounced poe). They hold 250 milliliters, enough for two glasses and they cost very little, typically around 10 euros. So you order a pot, then another and another and before you know it you’re rolling out into the streets of Lyon.

Beringer – A Revisit

Many of the reasons to visit Beringer winery in St. Helena (www.beringer.com) for a wine tasting remain the same as they have been for decades. The grounds are sculpted; many of the buildings retain a nineteenth century charm; and the wines, to our taste, are among the best that Napa Valley has to offer. And let’s not forget a visit to their gift shop that has top quality chinaware and wine related articles.

As with almost all Napa Valley wineries, there is no longer a bar where visitors can be served, standing and generally milling around. There are only seated tastings, in good weather served on the veranda of the Rhine House, built by the original Beringer brothers. Just as at many other Napa Valley wineries, we feel that the way the wines are served detracts from the overall wine tasting experience.

*Wine tasting on the veranda at Beringer. Photo courtesy of the winery.*

[We need to clarify that we are referring only to the tastings of Beringer’s top quality wines. There is, as there has long been, a simple self-guided tour of the property that comes with three tastes of some of their more commercial wines. These may be best known, but are not comparable to the Private Reserve and single-vineyard wines one is served at the more expensive tastings.]

Visitors to the Rhine House are seated outdoors, which is a bit of a shame, because the interior of the building is so attractive, with burnished wood and fittings all about. Yes, we could wander in there after our tasting, but it’s not quite the same as doing so with a glass in hand.

The servers at Beringer are quite knowledgeable but in some case they can be rather chatty. We appreciate being given background on the wines we are being served, the geology of the vineyard, the method of production, and so on. A brief conversation about where we are from and why we chose to taste at that winery is fine. But we want to be served and left alone to enjoy the wine, the views and the afternoon sunshine through the trees. We don’t want to know where the server is from, how she came to work there and what she does in her spare time. We are there to taste wine, not to make a new, temporary friend. Alas, we found our server at Beringer – as at many other fine wineries – to be too talkative. It is more of a distraction than anything else and it definitely distracts from the wine tasting experience.

Of course, the wines are the attraction and they didn’t let us down. Our most recent tasting included a Private Reserve Chardonnay, a single vineyard Merlot, two single vineyard Cabernet Sauvignons and the famous Private Reserve Cabernet. When we expressed a liking for the Merlot, our server brought another one from their library collection, unbidden. That sort of thing also used to happen when we stood at the bar inside, but these circumstances made the little extra feel more personal.

All in all, a visit to Beringer is still one of the premier experiences available in Napa Valley. It’s just not the same as it was.

Marchesi Di Grésy

The people of the Piemonte in northern Italy say that “Barolo is the king and Barbaresco is the queen”. If that’s so, then the Barbaresco wines produced at the Marchesi Di Grésy have a fair claim to being the king of the queens. We suppose a little background is necessary to substantiate that claim.

For starters, the full name of the winery is Tenute Cisa Asinari dei Marchesi Di Grésy. (That’s “Cisa Asinari Estates of the Marquises of Grésy” if Google Translate is to be believed.) The plural of Marquis is earned, because the French family, escaping the Revolution, have been making wine in this region since 1797. However, it is only in relatively recent years that the wines made from the Nebbiolo grape in this region became recognized as something special. Marchesi Di Grésy only started making wine under its own label in 1973 and it was only in 1980 that Barbaresco was granted DOCG status.

*A portion of the Martinenga vineyard, behind the Marchesi Di Grésy winery in Barbaresco.*

Marchesi Di Grésy makes wines other than Barbaresco. The Chardonnays and Barberas are quite nice, but that’s not the reason to visit. Right behind the winery is a steep hill, rounded in the form of an amphitheater. That’s where the Nebbiolo is planted, in a vineyard known as Martinenga. It faces south (a requirement for Barbaresco) and the soil and drainage are prefect for the Nebbiolo grape.

All of this explained in far more detail by a tour guide, who we found to be quite knowledgeable. The tour is offered in English, making it easier for Americans. As usual, visitors are shown the barrel room and pressing facilities, which for the most part are no different than other tours around Wine Country. One interesting note is the use of large casks of Slovenian oak for aging in addition to French barrels, 20% of which are new every year. (Other wineries use only aged, neutral oak barrels.) The wines are aged a year in the casks and two years in the barrels.

Of course, after the tour comes the tasting. This is where a visit to Marchesi Di Grésy excels. Experienced wine tasters are used to being told about the top wines but being served the lesser ones. Not so at this winery. The tasting begins with two Chardonnays and a Langhe Nebbiolo. The latter wine comes from the outer regions of the Martinenga vineyard that aren’t directly southern facing and thus can’t be called Barbaresco.

Then it’s on to the wines that can use that designation. [A little Italian wine naming convention is needed here. A single vineyard wine in Italy is called M.G.A., for Menzione Geografica Aggiuntiva (Additional Geographical Mention).] Since all the Barbarescos come from the vineyard just outside, they are all MGAs. You get to taste two harvests of their basic Barbaresco. (Some basic!) But within the vineyard there are certain parcels that produce exceptional wines, Camp Gros and Gaiun. Most wine tastings we have had in wineries around the world don’t open their top riservas. But at Marchesi Di Grésy, visitors really do get to sample the full range of the wines from a top producer.

We found the tour and tasting at Marchesi Di Grésy to be one of the most rewarding Wine Country experiences we have had. All that, and the Marchese even came in to say hello.

Roberto Sarotto, a Wine Bar in Alba, Italy

This is the latest in an irregular series of articles introducing readers to some of the great wine bars of the world. Some of them are in frequently visited cities, like Paris or London. Others are in wine making regions, such as the wine bar featured in this month’s edition.

Roberto Sarotto is a wine maker in the town of Alba, which is at the center of the Piemonte in northwest Italy. The region is the source of some of Italy’s finest wines. Signore Sarotto produces just about all of them: several Barolos and Barbarescos, Dolcetto and Barbera among the reds; Arneis, Gavi di Gavi and Chardonnay among the whites. There’s even a choice of rosatos (Italian for rosés), sparklers, Grappas and other wines.

But Roberto Sarotto is not satisfied to be only a winemaker. He has also opened a wine bar at a prominent corner of the Piazza Michele Ferraro, the primary square in Alba. In good weather people gather to taste his wines under the umbrellas outside. Of course, it does rain in Alba and these years the summer heat can be oppressive, so there are tables inside where the air conditioning accommodates tasters.

Almost all the wines on the extensive list are available for purchase by the glass or the bottle. The exception is the wines designated as “Bottiglie Museo”, which we Americans would call library wines rather than museum bottles. The prices range from a low of €7.50 for a glass of Mosto d’Uva, which is essentially non-alcoholic grape juice to a high of €36.00 for a well-aged reserve Barolo. There are plenty of wines by the glass to choose from that are €10.00 or less. Barolos and Barbarescos are on the list in the twenties and thirties of euros per glass.

*A typical aperitivo plate at Roberto Sarotto.*

But a tasting at Roberto Sarotto is more than wine. In the land of the aperitivo, no bar will serve you wine without a little something to munch. In most cases it’s olives or potato chips. At Roberto Sarotto, they serve you a repast. As illustrated here, you will receive an assortment of bites that may include pizza rustica, local cheeses and salamis, a ham sandwich and breadsticks. The actual selection varies from day to day but it is always ample. It certainly could be a lunch or an appetizer before dinner.

*A display of (some of) the wines available to try.*

There are positives to having such a wide selection from a single winemaker. Visitors can sit and have a vertical of an individual wine or a horizontal across multiple subregions of the Piemonte. However, despite all the different wines, they are all from the same winemaker; they only serve their wines, as in a tasting room not a wine bar. There is a stylistic similarity among them. If you have only one day in Alba, we recommend a visit to Roberto Sarotto. If you have a little more time, taste there but also try other wine bars for greater variety of styles.

This is a little gem of a wine bar, nestled in a major sector of Wine Country. And if you ask nicely when it’s not too busy, you can even get a tour of the cellar below the bar.