| At the invitation of our friend Alessandro, we attended the annual Barolo dinner in the town of La Morra.
The evening began with an aperitif on the terrace overlooking the vineyards.
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| The dinner celebrates the Barolo wine of the "parish", with each of the producers providing a few of their bottles. The guests pay for the meal and the wine is "on tap"!
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| The dinner is held in one of the top restaurants of the region - Belvedere, with long tables set out to accomodate as much of the town's population as possible!
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| The menu. 8 courses (of course), plus coffee.
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| Roast pepper stuffed with tuna.
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| Carne cruda (a local version of steak tartare), rabbit terrine. A porcini mushroom tartlet with cheese sauce.
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| Vegetable risotto. Traditional agnolotti - meat filled pasta.
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| Beef fillet with mushrooms. Hazelnut ice-cream with chocolate sauce. Oh, and there was a cheese course as well.
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| Meanwhile, the wine was flowing. We were sitting opposite the proprietor of the Renato Ratti wine. Fortunately he was able to give us useful tips on which wines were the best ones - his, for example!
After a very short while it became impossible to pick out the subtle differences between the wines - bearing in mind they were all 2004 vintage Barolo. The different wines were brought round in quick succession. The dedicated managed to taste over 40 different ones. We stalled at meagre 31 different wines!!!
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| Obviously, if you're going to try 31 wines, you need to discard some. But we found it heart-rending to see literally litre after litre of expensive Barolo wine being thrown away! For the Italians it is completely necessary.
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| Wending our way home, a little worse for wear. Fortunately, we stayed within walking distance rather than trying to get back to Turin at 1am!
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