Just over two and a half hours from Monaco, the rolling vineyards of Italy’s Langhe unfold across the hills of Piedmont, home to some of the world’s most celebrated wines and one of the country’s great gastronomic regions. It’s a journey that swaps the Mediterranean for vineyard-covered hills, medieval villages and a slower pace of life.
I spent three days here in June at Scarpa Villas, a collection of beautifully restored farmhouses among the vines near Verduno, and discovered a region where exceptional food, wine and hospitality are simply part of everyday life.
The villas stand within Monvigliero, regarded by growers and critics as the finest cru in Verduno and one of the greatest sites in all of Barolo. The wider landscape of the Langhe, Roero and Monferrato has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2014, and it is easy to see why: hills of vines in every direction, threaded with villages and castles. Alba, the nearest town of any size, is 20 minutes away. It is the capital of the white truffle, and the home of Ferrero, which is why the gianduja hazelnut chocolate you taste everywhere here is the direct ancestor of Nutella.
The estate
Scarpa has been making wine here since 1900. It was founded by Antonio Scarpa, a merchant from the Venetian island of Burano who came to Piedmont for the vineyards and stayed for the woman he married. The winery bottled its first Barolo in 1940, early enough that it holds a rare privilege it still enjoys: it is one of the very few producers allowed to age and bottle Barolo and Barbaresco outside the official appellation boundaries, at its historic cellars in nearby Nizza Monferrato.
Each of the four villas is named after a Scarpa wine — Tettimorra for the Barolo, Tettineive for the Barbaresco, La Bogliona and I Bricchi for the two Barberas.
The villas
The four houses share a heated pool that looks straight down the valley, and they range from the intimate to the generous. La Bogliona, the smallest, sleeps six to nine and is lovely for a couple or a close group. Tettineive, the largest, takes up to 12 and is made for families, reunions and celebrations.
Inside, the exposed beams and warm terracotta of the old farmhouses have been beautifully restored, and the welcome is the kind of unhurried Italian hospitality that has you settled in within the hour. One evening a private chef cooked for us on the terrace as the light came off the hills; another opened with an aperitivo out in the vineyard. The estate even makes its own vermouth, from a recipe of more than 40 botanicals the family has kept secret since the 1920s and which forms the basis of the most delicious Scarpa aperitivo cocktail.
Truffles, cooking and a day at the winery
There is no shortage of ways to fill the days. I took a cooking class and finally learned to make agnolotti, the little filled pasta the Langhe is proud of, and spent a full day at the Scarpa winery in Nizza Monferrato: a tour of the old cellars, a library of rare vintages reaching back to 1962, and a tasting lunch that made a persuasive case for the estate’s slow, patient way with its wines.
One afternoon we went truffle-hunting in the nearby woods with a local trifulau and his dog Ciara, watching it dart between the trees and dig. Together, we found a remarkable number of black truffles — and then had the pleasure of having them served to us for dinner by our Private Chef Alex Moro. It is the kind of heart warming experience that stays with you.
Beyond that, the villa team will arrange almost anything: sommelier tastings, e-bikes and Vespas through the hills, a sunrise balloon flight, yoga on the lawn, or a day trip into Turin.
The castle at Grinzane Cavour
A highlight of the trip was a short drive to the Castello di Grinzane Cavour. The hilltop medieval castle was once home to Camillo Cavour, one of the architects of Italian unification, who was mayor of the village here for 17 years. Today it holds the first regional wine cellar in Piedmont, founded in 1967 and stocked with the great reds of the Langhe, alongside museums of local life and, every November, the World Alba White Truffle Auction — a charity sale that has raised more than seven million euros since 1999.
From its walls, the view over the Barolo vineyards is worth the trip on its own.
When to go
The region rewards a visit at any time of year. Come in late spring or summer, as I did, for long light and warm evenings by the pool; come in autumn for the white truffle season, when Alba’s famous truffle fair fills the town and the great reds are on everyone’s mind.
Whenever you go, the appeal is the same. This is serious wine country and genuine Italian hospitality, with views you will not want to leave, all within an easy drive of Monaco. Anyone who loves those things will simply love it here.
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All photos courtesy of Scarpa Villas and Scarpa Winery