The Castle of Grinzane Cavour stands on one of the most picturesque views of the Langhe, in the homonymous village that for years has had as mayor the great statesman Camillo Benso di Cavour. Built in the first half of the eleventh century, it is famous for being the headquarters of the World Truffle Auction, an event that every year in early November attracts the most famous chefs in the world. It houses a cellar and a restaurant where you can taste typical Langhe recipes.
Castello di Grinzane Cavour History
Among the many castles that stand on top of the hills of the Langhe, it is undoubtedly one of the most famous and representative, not only for its past but also for the importance it has today at the institutional level as a cultural testimony of the ancient food and wine tradition Piedmontese. Built in the first half of the eleventh century and probably later developed around the central tower, the Castle of Grinzane was purchased in 1818 by the Marquis Michele di Cavour, father of the great statesman Camillo Benso Conte di Cavour, who lived here from 1830 to 1849. expanded the land ownership to 205 hectares, already largely cultivated with vines at the time. He was also appointed mayor of the small town in 1932 at only twenty-two years and helped to make a change to local agriculture by tracing canals, planting new vines and adopting new cultivation systems.
Once the function of noble residence has ceased, from 1971 the castle is the prestigious seat of the Piedmont Cavour Regional Enoteca, the first among the many present today in this territory, and of the Order of the Knights of the Truffle and the Wines of Alba, which every year at the beginning of November the World Truffle Auction sets in this evocative setting, a reason to attract famous chefs from all over the world. The auction is not for profit, as the proceeds from the sale of white truffle specimens is donated to hospitals, blessings or research institutes. At the wine shop there are daily tastings guided by experts.
Truffles and wines are also the protagonists in the exhibition halls of the ethnographic museum, where some of the albesi kitchens of the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries have been recreated, an eighteenth-century distillery and a cooper's shop. Reserved for important international congresses, not only for culinary purposes, the Maschere hall is also a meeting place for the members of the AIF, the National Organization of Cheese Tasters and in a model of true cult for good food a restaurant could not be missing where to taste typical Langhe recipes: raw meat allabese with truffles, game pàté, spinach flan with fondue, stewed Dolcetto, braised in Barolo and the classic sweet of the area, the bonet, just to mention some specialties proposed by the staff of chefs directed by Mr. Greco. We must not forget that the castle deserves a visit only for the beauty of its rooms and for the service that is well suited to this aristocratic residence.
Since 1983 the castle has also hosted the Grinzane Cavour Literary Prize for Italian and foreign fiction, established by the Turin International Publishing Company to promote the dissemination of literature among young people.