It probably goes without saying that in the warmer months, with extended daylight, I would likely get more out of touring wine-growing areas than I could in November. In any instance, driving around vineyards and pretty villages and stopping by for tastings and tours should span more than one day in order to attain the full appreciation of this beautiful region. I could only devote one day to Piedmont Vineyard areas in late fall of 2025 on a wide-ranging Northern Italy trip with the base in Milan. I'm happy that I made the effort.

I first thought of starting in Barolo and making my way towards Milan through Barbaresco and Monferrato, but that was certainly too ambitious for a single day. I always in the past preferred the “queen wine” of Barbaresco Nebbiolo to its more exalted Barolo cousin, so in the end I limited myself to only Barbaresco and Monferrato, with only three major stops = and many minor ones at different picturesque spots as I drove through the hills. Of course, as I was driving, I had to carefully spit the wine during tastings instead of swallowing. I positively hate having to spit a good product, so just to be on the safe side, I only planned two tastings for the entire day.

The first was in Enoteca Regionale del Barbaresco, where for €15 I got to taste 6 different wines from two local producers. You cannot hurry that process if you want proper enjoyment. That contributed to the minimal walking around the village of Barbaresco, which is actually more visually appealing from the approach road than once you enter its core. I went to Neive afterwards and spent an hour or so exploring it, fighting the impulse to go for additional tasting opportunities. Neive is awfully pretty, regardless of the wine-growing context.

Half day now done, I proceeded to the Monferrato of Infernot. The most picturesque location of the day was an impromptu stop in the middle of the vineyards on the approach to Cella Monte and Rosignano Monferrato.

I wanted to tour the infernots and timed my arrival at Cella Monte for the opening hours of Ecomuseo della Pietra da Cantoni (having previously confirmed the availability via email from their website). However, my first item on the agenda was a tour and a tasting at a local winery called Cinque Quinti, which has a full-fledged visitor center directly in the village. I was able to see their infernot and the old concrete fermentation chambers, no longer in use, as well as other areas of wine processing and storage (the vineyards themselves have always been outside of the village, with the harvest transported to the processing center at the same spot where the visitor center is now). Afterwards, I was given a thorough and unhurried tasting of Cinque Quinti wines, accompanied by an excellent plate of meats and cheeses (€25 for the whole package). As I rather confidently put on an air of a connoisseur when it comes to wines, I managed to engage the hostess to the degree that she offered me two additional wines to taste, of a more complex variety than what was in the standard tasting flight. With that, I lost my opportunity to get to the Ecomuseo in time for more infernot tours, and only managed to explore Cella Monte after the fall of darkness. You lose some, but you also win some, I suppose.

Overall, my intraday visit amounted to a pointed exploration of two of the six components of the WH property. Given that the opening hours of most establishments remain in the roughly 10 am-5 pm bracket throughout the year, I suspect that even in the longer summer days, it would be hard to cover more than two parts of the Vineyards of Piedmont in the space of a single day. Maybe, if I started with Monferrato and proceeded to Barbaresco afterwards, I could have managed to get to Castello di Grinzane Cavour with an hour to spare before its closing time at 6 pm.

While technically all components of the property are within day-trip distance from Milan, they are all between an hour and a half and two hours away by car.