July 6th - Lectures, Sparkling winery visit

After a good night sleep in 80 degrees with high humidity, we go to school bright and early.

Lecture on a new strain of Lactobacillus that can ferment L-malic acid at high pH better than E. Oeni. In the US we just add tartaric acid to adjust a lower pH. In Europe that is considered doctoring the wine/juice.

This and other lectures took place in the morning and after lunch.

After the last lecture it was back on the bus......

We arrive at Ca' del Bosco, Sparkling wine facility, in the Fraciacorta DOCG, Lombardy sub-region, Provence of Brescia

Major grape varietals in Fraciacorta:

White: Chard, Pinot Blanc

Red: Merlot, Nebbiolo

A work of Art?.......

Very High tech winery with no spared expense. All gravity fed, meaning no pumps. This turned out to be common within Italian wineries, especially the newer facilities.

Riddling Process over time. The yeast and sediments slowly collect into the neck of the bottle until disgorgment. Tirage is the extra time before removing the yeast from the bottle.

Cody, Me, John

Dinner

Sweet sparkling to finish off the night....

July 5th - Travel to Piacenza, Italy , cheese factory, lectures

Up at 7am and ready to embark on a 8 hrs bus ride to Italy. This would begin our 7 day encounter with Italy...starting with Piacenza.

This statue was about a 15 min hike from our rest area we stopped at. Problem was we were only stopping for 20 min....... so I ran up the hill and back to take these pics.

Swiss-Italian border

Off the bus and into lunch at the school in Piacenza. University Cattolica S. Cuore

Welcoming lecture.

Arriving at Grana Padano for cheese factory tour. The name of the cheese produced in this region and this style is Grana Padano DOCG. The style is Parmagiano - Reggiano

milk mixing and enzyme/culture additions are first step

curd poured into forms to dry

Forms flipped to promote even drying of young curd.

aged in this room until ready to eat.

Tasting a 9 month aged vs. a 22 month aged parmagiano w/ frizzante (bubbles) local Italian wine.

My first Hostel experience at Don Zermani.......6 to a room. The women had more of a problem wi

th it then we did.

Arriving in downtown Piacenza for first time. The town was dead and only older people seemed to be walking around. We find out later that, like most Italian cities, the town comes alive at night with youth and activities.

Some pizza (i know cliche) after a loooong day.........

Back to the hostel for bed and some scotch that we picked up...