Lazenne Blog

This week we are talking Italy, and more specifically the Italian northwest region of Piedmont. We've asked expat and local resident Valerie Quintanilla why Piedmont is a must for wine lovers thinking about visiting Italy.

The first time I heard about the Piedmont wine region (Piemonte in Italian) was during a business dinner with an Italian colleague in the United States. I had a trip to Italy planned with wine as my focus. I gushed about visiting the Valpolicella to experience Amarone and of course Tuscany — because back then I thought wine travel in Italy was not complete without a trip to Tuscany.

As she shook her head a disapproving click-click came from her mouth. “No, no. If you want Italian wine, you go to Piemonte,” she said.

I had never heard of the region. My eyes widened as she described a rural wine mecca in the hills of Northern Italy, surrounded by the Alps and steeped in wine making traditions. I knew I had to go there.

There are striking wines, and then there are striking vineyards which have become landmarks in their own right thanks to their innovative design.

For those avid wine travellers who are planning to taste their way through the vineyards of Europe this year, here are a few Lazenne favourites which have to be seen to be believed. Can you squeeze them into your itinerary?

Lazenne is proud to have partnered with the iconic Fauchon in Paris, which now carries the 12 bottle Wine Check luggage in their downstairs wine cellar (La Cave).

From that super-fizzy and super-fun Prosecco enjoyed over the weekend with friends to the super-rich and super-value Nero d’Avola from Sicily snapped up for less than a tenner last week, for many of us most Italian wines fall under the category of ‘super’.