Ryan | 12 June 2009

Perched high among the rolling Lange hills lies the vineyard of Giovanni Manzone. On my recent trip to the Piemonte region of Italy, I spent a great evening in this beautiful setting having my first experience trying Barolo wine!

The host of the evening was Mauro Manzone, a 20 something who is probably one of the most internet savvy producers in all of the Piemonte region! It was great fun sharing with him the concept of gourmetKAZOO and to hear his enthusiasm for using online social media to help promote their excellent brand of wines. Since joining his father in the family business in 2005, Mauro has been doing great things for the vineyard and I'm sure they will have more success than ever in the coming years with his help.

Mauro has contagious passion for what he does. He is extremely proud of the wine they produce, and well he should! He shared with me many of the varieties they produce, including the all-star, the Barolo Riserva! This is clearly the way Barolo is mean to be enjoyed... well aged and paired with something equally strong in flavor, much like the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese we were enjoying it with.

The passion and dedication Mauro and his father Giovanni put into their wines really is really impressive. This comes through in the quality of their final product as evidenced by the collection of outstanding awards their wines have won. I certainly encourage anyone in the Piemonte region to make a trip to their vineyard to visit. Once some renovations are finished, they will really have a first class tasting room in an extremely beautiful setting, I'm already looking forward to a return visit!  

You can learn more about the outstanding barolo wine being produced by Giovanni & Mauro & even reserve a barolo tasting using gourmetKAZOO.