Did someone say, Nebbiolo?
The Ultimate Wine Geek Group Tour in Italy
June 22–28, 2026
Nebbiolo Madness is an intensive, wine-first group tour designed for serious wine lovers, sommeliers, and industry professionals who want to understand Nebbiolo beyond Barolo and Barbaresco.
This is not a casual food-and-wine vacation. It’s a deep-dive research trip into the most important Nebbiolo regions of Italy, focused on terroir, history, and comparison — tasting the wines where Nebbiolo truly tells its story.
Let’s visit the best Nebbiolo wine regions, learn about the Nebbiolo wine, and also get into the nitty gritty on Barolo vs. Barbaresco.
Tour at a Glance
- Dates: June 22–28, 2026
- Duration: 6 nights / 7 days
- Group size: Maximum 10 participants
- Winery visits: Approximately 10
- Regions visited:
Valtellina · Alto Piemonte (Gattinara, Ghemme, Lessona) · Valle d’Aosta · Langhe · Monferrato - Includes:
All accommodations, winery visits & tastings, ground transportation, and group meals - Excludes:
Flights
What This Tour Is About
Nebbiolo is one of the world’s greatest — and most difficult — grape varieties. To truly understand it, you need to see how it behaves across different climates, altitudes, soils, and cultural histories.
On this tour, we don’t just taste — we compare.
We’ll visit three of the most historically important Nebbiolo territories, discussing why some regions shaped Nebbiolo centuries before it became famous in the Langhe, and how each area expresses the grape differently.
Expect full tasting days, focused producer visits, and conversations that go well beyond surface-level wine tourism.
The Regions We Explore
Valtellina – Nebbiolo at Altitude
Often considered the birthplace of Nebbiolo, Valtellina offers one of the grape’s most extreme expressions. Steep alpine slopes, dramatic altitude, ancient terraces, and a remarkable diversity of local biotypes shape wines of precision and tension. Here, we’ll explore how elevation, exposure, and soils influence Nebbiolo’s structure and longevity.
Alto Piemonte & Valle d’Aosta – Volcanic Soils and Heroic Viticulture
Moving west, we dive into Alto Piemonte, including Gattinara, Ghemme, and Lessona, with potential touches into Valle d’Aosta. This area tells a very different Nebbiolo story — one shaped by volcanic activity, glacial soils, and heroic pergola viticulture.
We’ll also discuss the Olivetti legacy, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and how technology, social vision, and agriculture shaped the modern identity of the region.
Langhe – Where Nebbiolo Became Famous
We finish in the Langhe, where Nebbiolo reached global recognition. After experiencing Nebbiolo’s historical roots elsewhere, we’ll explore why this region became the benchmark — examining soil diversity, exposure, altitude, and the stylistic revolutions that defined Barolo and Barbaresco, both past and present.
The Experience
This is a wine-first itinerary.
Food supports the tasting. Meals keep us energized. But the focus is always on wine, learning, and comparison.
Expect:
- Producer visits centered on terroir and technique
- Comparative tastings across regions
- Long days of focused tasting and discussion
- A small, highly engaged group
- An atmosphere closer to a sommelier research trip than a holiday
If you’ve ever wanted to spend a week thinking, tasting, and talking like a sommelier on assignment — this is it.
Are you ready to join a deep dive into the world of Nebbiolo? Enquire by email.