Barolo and Barbaresco wine tours, with your own driver
Barolo, Barbaresco and the Roero: we do the driving and book the cellars.
We start at your hotel
We collect you in Alba, Barolo, La Morra or wherever you are staying, and bring you back.
Cellars chosen for you
Appointments arranged with the Barolo and Barbaresco estates we have worked with for years.
Half day or full day
Two or three wineries, lunch at a hillside restaurant and time to simply stand and look.
Nobody has to drive home
A licensed private driver is at the wheel, so you can taste everything, riserva included.
Three denominations, eleven villages, one day
Barolo is made in eleven villages spread over a handful of hills: Barolo and La Morra to the west, where Tortonian soils give perfumed wines that open earlier; Serralunga d'Alba, Monforte and Castiglione Falletto to the east, on Helvetian soils that give harder young wines and very long lives. They are twenty minutes apart by car, yet in the glass they feel like two different regions. That is why a well-built day lines up two sides of the valley rather than two wineries picked at random.
Across the Tanaro begins Barbaresco, just three villages (Barbaresco, Neive, Treiso) making wines that arrive sooner. On the opposite bank lies the Roero, sandy and steep, where you drink Arneis and a Nebbiolo nobody expects. In autumn all of this turns orange and the fog climbs out of the valley floor around ten in the morning: if you can choose, choose October.
What a day actually looks like
The rhythm that works is simple: two cellars in the morning, lunch up in the hills, one more late in the day with the light low. We make the appointments, usually three or four weeks ahead because the sought-after estates close their diaries early; you tell us what you like to drink and how much you want to walk in the vineyards.
Tastings are paid at the winery, at the estate's own rates: in the Langhe that is 20 to 50 euro per person, more for verticals. What you pay us is the vehicle and driver for the day, settled on arrival. Any bottles you buy travel in the car with you, not in your hand luggage.
Where people arrive from
The Langhe are an hour and a half from Turin, two and a half from Milan and a little more from Genoa. Many of our guests stay in Alba or in one of the farmhouses among the vines and call us for the day; others come out and back from the city, and then the return transfer and the day among the cellars become a single trip.
If you are staying in the Langhe
We come to the exact address, including the farmhouses at the end of the gravel roads where coaches cannot go. Alba, Barolo, La Morra, Monforte, Barbaresco, Neive, Serralunga and the villages around them are all within easy reach.
If you are coming from Turin or Milan
We start at the airport, the station or your hotel. Turin is about seventy kilometres away, Milan a little over a hundred and fifty: an early start, an unhurried day and back in the evening. People flying in usually book the airport transfer first and add the day among the cellars the following morning.
The train does not reach the hills
Alba does have a station: from Turin there are direct trains in about an hour and twenty minutes, from Milan you change at Asti. But Barolo, La Morra and Monforte have no station at all, buses between the villages are rare and on Sundays there are none. That is why almost everybody ends up in the car with us.
One thing we are not
We are licensed private-hire drivers, not tour guides or sommeliers. We carry you and your bottles, keep the relationships with the estates and know the roads; the wine is explained by the people who make it, in the cellar, which is the reason you came all this way.
Frequently asked
How does a day among the wineries work?
We collect you where you are staying, drive all day and bring you back. The cellar visits are arranged with the Barolo and Barbaresco estates we have worked with for years: tell us what you like to drink and how many you want to see (two in the morning and one in the afternoon is the rhythm that works best) and we take care of the rest. We are licensed private-hire drivers, not tour guides: the wine is explained by the people who make it.
Are the tastings included in the price?
No, they are two separate things. You pay us for the vehicle and driver for the day; you pay the tasting directly at the winery, at the estate's own rates (in the Langhe that is usually between 20 and 50 euro per person, more for verticals and reserve flights). We book the appointments for you, but the winery bill stays yours: that way you always know what you are paying and to whom.
How far ahead should we book a day out?
As early as you can, especially between September and November. The most sought-after estates close their diaries weeks ahead and Alba is full on Truffle Fair weekends. For a day among the cellars we suggest three or four weeks; for a dinner or a transfer two days is enough.
Do you collect us at the hotel or is there a fixed meeting point?
We collect you where you are staying, anywhere in the Langhe: Alba, Barolo, La Morra, Monforte, Barbaresco, Neive, Serralunga and the villages around them. If you are coming for the day from Turin or Milan we start at the airport, the station or your city hotel and bring you back there in the evening.
Do you do several days in a row?
Yes, and it is the formula we recommend to anyone with two or three days: one day on Barolo, one on Barbaresco and the Roero, one for truffles or the castles, with the same driver throughout and your luggage moving with you if you change hotel. Send us your dates and what you would like to see and we will put the programme together.
Do you arrange days out in the Langhe among wineries and restaurants?
Yes, and it is half of what we do. We drive all day between the cellars, villages and restaurants of Barolo and Barbaresco, with the visits arranged in advance with the estates. The detail is on our wine tours page. In the evening, with the "Mangio fuori" service, you enjoy dinner without thinking about who drives home.
Tell us the day you want
Send us your dates, how many you are and what you like to drink: we build the programme and make the bookings.
