Wednesday proved to be a nice relaxing day after the two previous tasting days. We slept in a bit and then just hung around the apartment.

For the first time since we arrived, it was overcast and a little bit chilly this morning, and actually all day. Sue decided to do a little bit of laundry, while I downloaded pictures and worked on the blog.

In the afternoon, we opened a bottle of the Deltetto Arneis that we had purchased at the winery. It tasted just as good here as it did there – whew!

While we needed the day of rest, we are looking forward to this evening. We are going to dinner at Ristorante Marc Lanteri Al Castello Grinzane. The restaurant is located a short distance from Alba in the town of Grinzane Cavour and is fabulous.

We were actually there when we visited in 2019 to celebrate friend David’s 70th birthday and it was memorable. It was the first place we wrote down during our Piedmont planning for this trip.

Our driver didn’t arrive at 7:00 pm as planned and when he wasn’t there at 7:10 pm, we started to worry. We had to make some quick calls to Valerie to straighten things out. Seems the driver was given bad info from his company on where to pick us up. He did get over to the train station where we were waiting and we were off. We assured him all was fine and it wasn’t his fault they gave him the wrong pickup spot.

Once we got going, Guido said he’d get us there quickly and he did. As it turned out, we were less than fifteen minutes late. Since the restaurant was in the loop, they knew we were delayed and it didn’t cause a problem at all.

When we arrived, night was falling, but the views were still beautiful. We climbed the stairs to the second floor and entered the restaurant. We were greeted warmly and reassured that the delay didn’t cause any problems. We were seated and the meal began.

We started with glasses of Spumante and then some pre-appetizers. Each one hit a different set of taste buds to prepare us for the dinner ahead.

Next came an amuse bouche from the chef. It was a “fish and chips” take-off, complete with parchment newspaper wrap. The fun part was the battered fish was actually local mushrooms. It was different, playful and delicious.

We then ordered a glass of white wine to pair with our seared scallop appetizer. The sommelier chose an Italian Riesling which not only tasted good but paired up perfectly with the scallops.

For our main dishes, Sue went with the roast pigeon, while I had the roast lamb. Both were cooked perfectly and we paired them with a bottle of 2015 Domilano Cannubi Barolo.

For dessert Sue had Zabaione infused with Moscato and served with corn meal cookies, while I had baked peaches topped with cocoa and amaretto served with a peach sorbet. Sue’s was paired with a glass of moscato, while I had a glass of Pedro Ximenez Montilla-Moriles.

This was one meal that we had planned out ahead and we were so happy that we made it happen. Everything about the evening was perfect .

We even had a chance to chat with the chef and his wife, who graciously took a somewhat blurry picture with us – but it was still special. It will be a great memory, since they are moving on from the castello to a new venture. We wish them all the best and promise to visit their new place when we return in the future.

Our driver had arrived (in fact it was he who took the picture) so it was time to head back to Alba. We squared up the paperwork, bid him goodnight and then headed back to the apartment. What a great evening!

Tomorrow we hook back up with Luca for two wine tastings and lunch in Nieve.