Food and Wine Evening: Alma’s Historic Wines and Valley Flavors

📅 Friday, June 12, 2026
📍 Drago Nero Restaurant – Dronero

An evening dedicated to discovering the local wine and gastronomic traditions, blending history, culture, and authentic flavors.

At 7:00 PM, Prof. Carlo Arnulfo will lead a tasting of the “Bianco di Alma” and “Rosso di Alma” wines, produced from historic vines and vinified by Mauro Vini using techniques inspired by the Giolittian era. A unique opportunity to learn about the recovery of ancient local varieties and delve into the history of Piedmontese viticulture.

Following this, at 8:00 PM, there will be a dinner featuring a menu based on typical products from the Valley, designed to enhance the pairing with the wines being tasted.

💶 Participation fee: €35.00 per person

📞 Reservations required by Wednesday, June 10 at the Drago Nero Restaurant in Dronero.

An unmissable event for food and wine enthusiasts, discovering the excellence of the region and its most authentic traditions.

On the eve of the centenary of the death of the illustrious statesman Giovanni Giolitti, Mauro Vini of Dronero, a century-old winery that has always been committed to promoting the territory and its products, presents the ancient wines of the middle Maira Valley vinified in the style of the Giolittian era. These are the local grape varieties “blancio” (liseiret / gouais blanc) and “rossa di Stroppo” (erroneously referred to as nebbiolo), already mentioned by Count Giuseppe di Rovasenda in his “Universal Essay on Ampelography” of 1877. It is interesting to note that while blancio was widespread throughout Europe in the Middle Ages, rossa di Stroppo is a native variety found exclusively in the valley (perhaps a spontaneous cross of “blancio”?). This is confirmed by researchers from the University of Agriculture in Turin who currently oversee and maintain the ampelographic collection at Grinzane Cavour, heir to that of Count Di Rovasenda.

The century-old vineyards of Dronero and Villar San Costanzo (from which the now celebrated “Drônè” also derives) still contain these and other varieties. During an inspection conducted by the aforementioned researchers in July 2025, an unprecedented grape variety was discovered, whose existence was unknown, unfamiliar even to scholars, present in only a single specimen! In addition to others considered rare but already present in the collection. Naturally, in autumn, careful pruning and propagation through grafting were carried out to multiply this cultivar and produce new rootstock plants in order to preserve it from extinction.

The wines presented by Professor Carlo Arnulfo, former professor of viticulture and oenology at the oenological school of Alba (and teacher of Giuseppe Mauro), contain sediment precisely because they are produced according to the techniques used in the valley until the 1980s: bottled in March to allow refermentation in the bottle and the resulting effervescence, according to the tastes of the time, which favored wine that “mussa,” that is, foams. This is about rediscovering tastes and sensations that had been lost over time.

The dinner is prepared by chef Ezio Vorgnano, whose family has owned the historic Drago Nero restaurant since the early 1900s, and the ingredients are produced exclusively in the Maira Valley.

The Giolittian supply chain is guaranteed!