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Sunday, September 18, 2011

Alba - Giorno 5

We should have been at Slow Cheese today but we're feeling a bit cheesed off so we've decide to stay home today. On our early morning walk for coffee and brioche, we ponder a serious question - are there truly Irish pubs everywhere?


Vincafé

Vincafé is one of the winebars that our host Mario has recommended and as we're walking past it on the way back from seeing the Bersaglieri, it seems a good opportunity to pause and enjoy a wine or two.

There's a constantly changing selection of 50 to 100 wines by the glass - the menu of which is written on a chalkboard on the rear wall. What makes you do a double take are the prices that range from €2 to €6 (that's for a Barolo!) a glass - when was the last time a glass of wine was that cheap (and actually drinkable) in Australia?



Saturday, September 17, 2011

Alba - Giorno 4

It's Saturday which means it's market day. Now, when Mario told us that the Saturday market was big and basically took over the town, he wasn't exaggerating. In fact, as soon as we walked out our door, there it was. I think you know I might just have squealed a little.



Cena - La Piola



Slow Cheese 2011 - Day 2

Today it's all about the taste workshops and we will be attending three.

The notes of which can be found in their respective posts:

LCH07 - Roquefort - The King of Cheeses
LCH10 - On the Verge of Extinction: Alpine Beaufort
LCH12 - Giarolo's Bounty

Taste Workshop LCH10

On the Verge of Extinction: Alpine Beaufort
4pm Sala Liceo Scientificio

The pearl of the Savoy Alps, Beaufort is a large, hard, raw cow's milk cheese with a distinctive concave rind, now mostly produced in cooperative dairies in the lowlands. Hervé Mons, an affineur from Saint-Haon-le-Châtel and a Meilleur Ouvrier de France, will lead a tasting of cheeses from one of the last mountain producers of Beaufort, the Perret family of La Tueda. The cheeses are aged for months in caves in an old railway tunnel. You'll taste a winter Beaufort (aged for 16 months), a summer Beaufort (14 months) and an Alpine Beaufort (14 months), paired with red and white wines from Savoy, a region whose wines are undeservedly little-known.

Ready for the next class