The Tour
Borgese Camere e Suites offers food-and-wine cycling tours to two important wineries of Neive and a craft workshop nearby in the Langhe that produces artisanal salumi (Italian cold cuts such as salami and cured pork filets). All three are within a few kilometers of our inn.
San Giuliano Farm
The Pastura family has always worked the land, and back in 1987 the current winemaker, Giulio Pastora, decided to switch to viticulture. Today the family’s wines are enjoyed around the world, but the Pastora family still personally attends to every phase of its craft, from tending the vineyards to bottling and shipping the aged wines. With its cobblestone courtyard and a swimming pool overlooking Barbaresco-area vineyards, the cascina-style estate is a pleasant place for visitors to get to know the Pastura family’s wines.
Visitors learn about Mr. Pastura’s winemaking approach, which translates roughly as “primitive.” He strives for a purity that preserves the flavors and balance of taste by gentle treatment of the fruit.
Visitors will taste the effect of this enological philosophy in one or more of the Pastora wines that pair deftly with Langhe cuisine.
Mr. Pastura makes not only red wines from the world-famous Nebbiolo and Barbera grape varieties, but also from other Piemontese grape varieties: Moscato (Muskat), Brachetto, Arneis, Dolcetto.
Most of these grapes come from the San Giuliano vineyard, the estate cru on the hillside where the winery perches at the edge of the historic hilltop village of Neive
Mr. Pastura also gets Arneis grapes from Piobesi d’Alba, a municipality about 11 kilometers west in the Roero area. A vineyard called Marcarino contributes Barbera grapes for a Barbera Superiore wine.
Piero Busso
In the heart of the Langhe, alongside several of the most famous Neive and Barbaresco vineyards Albesani, Balluri, Gallina and San Stunet are the vineyards of the Busso family.
The Busso family is particularly careful to respect the land – no chemical herbicides in the vineyard and no industrial vinification in he cellar.
At Società Agricola Piero Busso e-cyclists will visit the vineyard as well as taste the wine. Piero Busso makes four DOCG Barbarescos, two types of Barbera d’Alba DOC, a Langhe Nebbiolo DOC, a Dolcetto d’Alba DOC, and a Langhe Bianco DOC.
First’s Filet
One of the most venerable gastronomic delights of the Langhe area is its salumi – its cold cuts made mainly from pork and also from beef.
One of the most venerable of the Langhe’s artisans of salumi is Primo Montaldo. His workshop, First’s Filet, is in the countryside a few kilometers south of Neive.
Known around the world, salumi from First’s Filet are baptized with whimsical names such as Il Dolcemente Inkazzato, l’Innamorato, and Il Trifulau.
First’s Filet flavors these handcrafted pork filets, salami, and pancette with Barolo wines, herbs, spices, truffles and even Levi grappa. Visitors get to see how he does it.
Borgese Tasting Room
Enoteca Borgese is an enoteca in the classic Italian sense of the word: a tasting room where visitor can try and buy wines from small local wineries. After their e-bike sojourn, our guests return to Enoteca Borgese, where a sommelier discusses modern and traditional enological methods and leads a more precise wine tasting. Guests taste, compare, and contrast Barbaresco wines from both producers, accompanied by specialty salumi from First’s Filet.