Winery Wednesday

IMG_9873In the outskirts of Serralunga you will find Ettore Germano. Sergio, the winemaker, just finished building a new tasting room, and it is beautiful! One of the main reasons I visit Ettore Germano is for his riesling, Herzu! It might sound strange to visit a winery in Barolo to drink Riseling, but Herzu is truly one of my favorite wines!

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The new tasting room has a beautiful view of the Langhe, although we didn’t really get to see anything because of the rain. But I am sure the view hasn’t changed much from the last time I tasted with Sergio so I can assure you it’s beautiful. There’s nothing like drinking good wine with a gorgeous view!

Ettore Germano makes quite a few wines; 14 different ones, including 2 sparkling. There are many interesting wines in the lineup, including Binel (Riesling/Chardonnay), Balaú (merlot) and Barolo Prapò (a fairly unknown cru).

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Check out their website for more informtion. And if you go, say hi to Sergio!

Michel Lafarge

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It’s not as easy to get visits with winemakers in Beaune as it is in Barolo, but I was lucky enough to get us in at Michel Lafarge. Personally I do not have a lot of experience with the wines, but I follow the family and winery on social media and know a little about them through there. We were greeted by Frédéric Lafarge, who along with his father now runs the winery. The first thing he did was take us into the vineyards, which has to be one of my favorite things to do when I visit a winery.

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yes While in the vineyard he explained the idea of the Clos, as he has his own Clos “Clos du Château des Ducs”. For those who do not know, it just means that it’s a “monopoly” vineyard that is fenced in. He also tried to show us some mildew, as it is a problem in certain years, but luckily for him and his wines he could not find any.

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Inside the winery in the cellar we tasted quite a few wines, both from barrel and bottle. What I find interesting about wine tasting in Bourgogne is that you stand up the whole time. In Barolo, you almost always sit down, at least for part of the tasting. In honesty I don’t remember all the wines we tasted, as I forgot to write it down and was unable to take pictures because we tasted directly from the barrel, but the wines were very good! And I hope to come back and visit again!