Barololand

There must be powerful reasons - well beyond its intoxicating effect - why wine has such an impact on mankind. Barolo has certainly the status of a great wine, but the aura by which it is surrounded cannot be explained only by the pleasure given by its deep red colour, by its taste and aroma.

While visiting the interesting Wine Museum at Castello di Barolo, near Alba, in Piedmont, I came across an evocative theory: wine is made by powerful elements of Nature: the Sun, the Moon, the Soil, the Seasons.
Human beings with their enormous wealth of knowledge, labour and patience bring this process to fulfilment through Time.
All the magic lies in the strong connection of Natural Elements with Time and Human beings.

Driving through the finely groomed hills of the Langa, I realized the positive interaction of Humans with Nature: a vineyard follows another, the lines intertwined in a marvelous pattern of vibrant colours in the warm light of Fall.
The king of Italian wines is produced in a handful of villages of a limited area around Barolo.
Like nebbiolo, made from the same grapes, barolo draws its unique characteristics from the quality of the soil and the techniques hailing from France, introduced in the mid-19th century. It is a full-bodied and firmly-structured wine and for this reason it can last for years.
The friends I met there last Sunday told me of a curious family tradition: the parents of each newborn child store bottles produced in the grape harvest of the same year.
A precious present for their adult age and a lasting way to wish them well.