The idea for this particular trip to Italy, and more specifically, a day of wine exploration in and around the Barolo region, started at a wine dinner we attended back in 2024 at the Vancouver International Wine Festival. With friends, we attended a dinner paired with outstanding wines from around Piedmont and my wife and I became enamoured with the idea of traveling back to Italy and exploring some of the wines in that region. We have had some wonderful wine explorations in Burgundy and Champagne, the Okanagan, and Napa and Sonoma, and were eager to have a lovely day eating and drinking in another special place.

We secured a local guide and driver, Stefania, who arranged the details for our day with a focus of showing us a couple of smaller wineries. She met us at the train station in Asti and after some getting to know each other over an espresso she drove us to our first stop in La Morra. Luckily for us, it was day one of the nebbiolo harvest for Stroppiana. Look at all those grapes!

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