Wine Tasting in Langhe, Walk-in Tasting Rooms
/by: Amanda
Don’t like making appointments to visit your favorite wineries here is my quick list to wineries that have a walk-in tasting room.
In order to make the most out of your time wine touring around the Langhe, I do highly recommend getting in contact with the wineries beforehand to organize a tour and tasting, but lucky for us there are some wineries who do not require a call or email ahead of time.
Here is my quick list to the wineries who will accommodate to these pop-in tastings:
Wine Tasting in Barbaresco:
Neive Walk-in Tasting Rooms
Castello di Neive:
Town Neive
Day of Closure: Tuesday
Opening times: 10:30 till 6:30 pm
Located in the Castle in the town of Neive, this cellar has been producing wine since the 1800’s. If you catch them at the right time you can also visit the cellar which is a beautiful historic cellar with many artifacts dating back to the 18th century. In the tasting room they offer an array of different types of wines and have a list of choices per each wine.
Massimo Rivetti at Porta san Rocco:
Town Neive (conveniently located across the small piazza from Castello di Neive)
Day of Closure: Never
Opening times: 10:30 till 8:30 pm (nice place to have an aperitivo as well)
This location is a second location for the winery, the actual farm is located in the Neive hills and typically to visit the winery requires a reservation ahead of time. But Porta San Rocco Wine Shop is a great place to meet the family and taste their wonderful wines. They even have videos to bring you as close as possible to life in the vineyards and winery as they can. A very relaxed atmosphere and a great place to spend a lazy afternoon enjoying a glass of wine on the terrace. They also offer an E-Bike service if you would like to add some sport activity to your vacation.
Wine Tasting in Barbaresco:
Barbaresco Walk-in Tasting Rooms
Produttori del Barbaresco:
Town Barbaresco
Day of Closure: Never
Opening times: Monday through Friday 9:00 till 1:00pm then again from 2:00 till 6:00 pm on Saturday and Sunday they don’t close for lunch break so they work straight through from 10:00 am till 6:00 pm
This winery is very important as the last working cooperative in the Langhe. Started in the late 1800’s it was Domizio Cavazza who was working as a professor at the time in the Enology school in Alba. It was his idea in the beginning to call the wine after the town of Barbaresco, actually as story goes he wanted to expand the Barolo region over to the Barbaresco area not to have any confusion with the two geographic zones. This didn’t happen, but he did manage to help the farmers out in the area of Barbaresco with experiments and new technologies in wine making that had helped to put Barbaresco on the map.
When he founded this cooperative there were the initial 3 rules:
1) One Grape Nebbiolo, that’s it!
2) The farmers who plan to work with the cooperative must not have their own winery or sell their Nebbiolo grapes to anyone else.
3) Quality comes first, the better the grapes, the higher the quality, the more the farmers get paid.
Wine Tasting in Barolo & Barbaresco:
Alba Walk-in Tasting Rooms
Ceretto:
Town Alba Fraction San Cassiano
Day of Closure: Never
Opening times: 10:00 till 5:00 pm
The Ceretto winery is a great visit, one of the few wineries in this area that understood how to take art, architecture, and wine and put them together in such a wonderful way. The tasting room at their Alba location has a wonderful room like a plastic bubble that was designed to look like a grape and if you see some photos on their website it does look just like that. The wonderful thing is from there you get a wonderful view of the rolling hills in the Langhe and also get a glimpse of some of their vineyards. The tasting options that they have are a good range and on the spot you can choose which type of tasting you would like to participate in. The staff is very friendly and knowledgable.
And if after you are hungry you can try and score a spot at Ceretto’s 3 Michelin starred restaurant Piazza Duomo, the only one of 3 stars in Piedmont.
Wine Tasting in Barolo:
Serralunga d’Alba Walk-in Tasting Rooms
Fontanafredda:
Town Serralunga d’Alba
Day of Closure: Never
Opening times: 9:30 till 6:30 pm
This is a winery with a whole lot of history, in order to actually have a winery tour you must make a reservation ahead of time, but for just a tasting room visit you can walk in at anytime in between the hours listed above. Fontanafredda is the largest working winery in the Barolo area and from this they have two wonderful restaurants on site. You can grab a quick bite at the Osteria or if you would like something absolutely magnificent you can make a reservation to enjoy a meal at their Michelin starred restaurant Guido.
Wine Tasting in Barolo:
Barolo Walk-in Tasting Rooms
Borgogno:
Town Barolo
Day of Closure: Never
Opening times: 10:00 till 1:00 pm then again at 3:00 pm until 7:00 pm
If you fancy a stroll around the Barolo village you can certainly take a pit stop at the Borgogno tasting room. Be warned because here in the village of Barolo the locations tend to be much smaller and thus this tasting room attracts a lot of attention and will most likely be jam packed. If you stop by there on a Thursday in the late spring/summer they will open up the terrace on the top of the building tower where you can go to enjoy a glass or bottle of wine and enjoy the vineyard view.
Damilano:
Town Barolo
Day of Closure: Never
Opening times: 10:30 until 6:30 pm
Please note that they also have a winery down the street but the tasting room shop is located in the center of Barolo where it is more convent to walk around and explore the small village. The friendly staff at this tasting room are very knowledgeable and will be able to help you find the perfect tasting package to help you get to know and understand the wonderful Nebbiolo grape.