Castello di Grinzane Cavour

The Castello di Grinzane Cavour stands on a low hill surrounded by the Barolo vineyards of the Langhe, a medieval castle that is both a landmark of the wine country and part of the UNESCO World Heritage cultural landscape of the Vineyards of Piedmont. Dating largely from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the castle owes its name to Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, the statesman who became a chief architect of Italian unification and who served as mayor of Grinzane and managed the surrounding estates in the nineteenth century, experimenting with viticulture that helped lay the foundations of modern Barolo. Today the castle houses an ethnographic museum spread through its halls, displaying period furnishings, agricultural tools, a reconstructed peasant kitchen and a section devoted to the history of wine and the truffle, along with rooms recalling Cavour himself. In the cellars is the Enoteca Regionale Piemontese Cavour, a regional wine showcase where visitors can taste and buy the great wines of the Langhe and Roero, and the castle is also known for its prestigious annual white truffle auction held each autumn and for a renowned restaurant. A visit to the museum takes around an hour to an hour and a half, and the terraces and tower give sweeping views over the rolling Barolo hills, which are at their most spectacular in autumn when the vines turn gold and red during the grape harvest and truffle season. The site is busiest at weekends and during harvest events; weekday visits are quieter. Best reached by car about fifteen minutes south of Alba, the castle makes a natural focal point for a tour of the Langhe wine region.