Following our visit to the Cascina St. Andrea, we soldiered on back down to Chieri to visit this…read moreestablishment. You will need to follow the map, because if you are coming from where we were, you will only see the sign pointing to the vineyard in your mirror after you have gone past it; a delightful bit of latino logic. So there you will find this vineyard, which has an immaculately fitted out sales area/cum museum above the cellars. A very friendly young lady (Enrica - the daughter of the proprietor) took us on a guided tour to show us around the vast collection of wine jugs, just a tiny part of which is depicted above. There was in fact one from Royal Doulton there which looked desperately bland by comparison with the vividly coloured local vessels. The tour continued to demonstrate the bottling, corking and capsuling machines and down to the depths where the juice is fermenting. A delightful taste of their brew followed. But they do not only sell their own Freisa di Chieri wine, they also sell the Freisa d'Asti from Angelo Turco's Cascina S. Andrea http://www.qype.co.uk/place/248634-Cascina-S-Andrea-Castelnuovo-Don-Bosco . Then again, not a surprise and hardly really a competitive situation, since Enrica is engaged to be married to aforesaid Angelo! In fact, upon our arrival, the young lady's dog yelped wildly with enthusiasm upon sniffing La Contessa's feet and apparently picking up a whiff of Cascina S.Andrea. The big question locally is whether, upon marrying, Enrica will move up into the hills to the Cascina S. Andrea, or whether Angelo will move down to bustling Chieri. Watch this space! And if you're passing the Borgarella then do pop in. It would be rude not to.

This palazzo is really unbelievable, it has everything you need, meat, fish, pasta, cheese of all…read morekinds. Restaurants of all kinds. It is kind of crazy on a Saturday!

You can calculate metric while trying to speak Italian? Come home with 2 pounds of everything and…read moreyou'l be glad of it. My best advice: 1) take a couple of laps around the pool and 2) shop at the stall with the longest line of grannies.

This is no longer a restaurant but this is solely a fromagerie which means cheese shop. We went by…read moreto order cheese fondue. Not too long after we were able to pick it up and also use their fondue pot to be returned the day after. Very friendly staff.

Castelnuovo don Bosco is a small place south of Turin on the way to Asti. We nipped up here to see…read morethe proprietor's son, Angelo Turco. He was the best man of our local friend's son and they attended agricultural college together. This is one helluva remote place to find and involves negotiating miles of unmarked and untarred roads, going up and up until you get to the lovely scruffy old farm at the top. To get up there, a tractor is perfect and a Fiat Panda does the job, but leave the Lambo at home. The smell of farm, cowshit and grapes is lovely and the views are delightful (see pix). Angelo cultivates various grapes from Chardonnay and Merlot through to the local reds Nebbiolo and Freisa. I asked him whether they did in fact cultivate Sangiovese grapes in Piedmont (Sangiovese mostly grows in Tuscany and goes into - yes - Chianto Classico!). He grinned and disappeared for a couple of minutes, returning with a bunch of Sangiovese. Jeez! Have you ever eaten grapes fresh off the vine? It was a first timer for me and I rather fancy it won't be the last. To come back to the mission in hand. We had gone to get supplies and wanted some of his Freisa d'Asti. Freisa is a beautifully dark purple coloured grape. In Italy, they have bubbly reds, ranging from the well-known 'spumante', down through the less-lively 'frizzante' to the very, very slightly bubbly 'vivace'. I suppose bubbly red may not appeal to all, but this is delightfully light, has less bubbles than mineral water and prosecco and is just effervescent enough to tickle the palate. It is pleasantly light while being full of taste and is an ideal 'summer session wine', suited to the requirements of discerning and cultured pissheads like myself. But having said that, true connoisseurs have always appreciated Freisa d'Asti and among them was the first king of Italy, Victor Emmanuel II, who always insisted that the wine be served at the royal table. Mission accomplished, we went on to meet Mama, the cats and dogs and the herd of some 16 Piedmontese cattle. They are a very light colour, something like Swiss cattle and are said to be delectably tasty. I must admit that upon viewing the charming little 2-week old calf, I had slight pangs of conscience about my predilection for veal. So let's see what the future holds for good old Angelo - a lovely guy. Inquisitive? Learn more here:http://www.qype.co.uk/place/248594-La-Borgarella-Chieri