Langhe Wine Route

The Langhe wine route winds through the UNESCO-listed hills of southern Piedmont, one of the greatest wine landscapes on earth. This is the heartland of Barolo and Barbaresco — two of Italy's most celebrated red wines, made from the Nebbiolo grape on these very slopes — as well as the home of Italy's finest white truffles and the hazelnut orchards from which Ferrero Rocher and Nutella were born. The 65-kilometre route from Alba to Barolo threads between hilltop medieval villages, castle towers rising from sea-like vineyards, and enoteca after enoteca where you can taste wines that sell in London and New York for many times their cellar-door price.

Alba is the undisputed capital of the Langhe and the place to begin. Its medieval towers and brick lanes are charming, but the real reason to spend time here is the food: in October the world-famous White Truffle Fair fills the streets, and year-round the town's restaurants and delicatessens are stocked with some of the finest ingredients in Italy — Barolo, Barbaresco, Dolcetto, tajarin pasta, bagna cauda, and, above all, fresh white truffles shaved with aristocratic generosity over everything. The village of La Morra, midway along the route, has a terrace viewpoint looking out over the entire Barolo zone — a view of hills, vineyards, and occasional castle towers that makes clear why this landscape was judged worthy of UNESCO inscription. The Giant Bench, a colourful art installation nearby, has become an unexpected landmark. Barolo itself at the end of the route is a small stone village whose name commands reverence across the wine world.

A VW T3 moves through the Langhe with ease and pleasure. The hills are genuine but roll gently rather than spike abruptly, and nowhere on this route do you need anything beyond second gear on even the steepest inter-village climbs. The roads are narrow and winding but not intimidatingly so, and the traffic is mostly local agricultural vehicles and wine-tourism cars that move at the same unhurried pace as your van. The great pleasure of driving these hills slowly is that you can navigate by instinct and interest — turning off the main route to follow a narrow lane between vines, discovering a remote single-estate cantina where the owner is happy to pour you a glass before dinner.

The ideal seasons for the Langhe route are October — when the autumn light on the golden vine leaves is incomparable and the white truffle season is at its height — and April to May when the landscape is vivid green and the Barolo zone is perfumed with cherry blossom from the orchards. Summer (July-August) is warm and lovely but the vine leaves are still green and the truffle-focused food culture is less prominent. The Langhe is driveable year-round and even in winter the stark, pruned vines against snow-dusted hills have a severe beauty.