Land vocation and Langhe colours in the beautiful rooms of il Boscareto

There are resorts that know how to synthesise the characteristics of a territory in a single place. This is the case of Il Boscareto, a contemporary castle that stands on a panoramic spur in front of an amphitheatre of vineyards in Serralunga d'Alba, in the Langhe. This is not the usual ancient palace of some family of Savoy descent. The Boscareto is the five-star luxury of the Dogliani family, wine producers and in particular their daughter Valentina, managing director of the company since she was very young. The resort was to represent the values of a new generation of Piedmontese entrepreneurs, respecting the vocation of a land that offers some of the best Italian reds, Barolo and Barbaresco in chief, and the most famous white truffle. The wine-growing landscape, protected as a Unesco heritage site since 2014 (Langhe Roero and Monferrato), although repetitive among vineyards and hazelnut groves, is staggeringly beautiful, especially in autumn when all the elements come together to make it a sublime moment of colours, flavours and harvests.

When it opened in 2009, realising the potential of Italian and international wine tourism, it was unlike anything else. A contemporary building, with large windows so as not to overlook the beauty outside, 49 rooms renovated in 2023 and a very generous spa that heartens with its fluidity inside/outside, the warm pool and targeted jets, the lawn with loungers for sunbathing and enjoying the view, and the well-tended massages. It is the perfect place for a deeply rejuvenating weekend, which puts needs at the centre and sublimates them. Nothing to organise, just let yourself be carried away by the rhythm of the countryside and its restful silence. A pleasant abandonment to the essentials that Cesare Pavese translated into precise words: 'Life should be lived away from the country: you profit and enjoy it and then, when you return, like me at forty, you find everything new.

The Langhe are not lost'. Even for those not born there, the Langhe are a return. Because we live on sensations, on scents that in autumn are accompanied by the first chills and trigger mouth watering sensations. Cruda di Fassona, plin and tajarin, roast cockerel with mustard... mmmmh. The dishes of Alessandro Capalbo from Turin are philological, as you expect and as you like them and, if the weather is fine, they are served on a terrace overlooking an immense sea of hills.

Tradition yes, but also exploration. Since 2023, Boscareto has also been home to Michelangelo Mammoliti's La Rei Natura restaurant, a food sanctuary with a very engaging ritual. A travelling dinner that begins with an aperitif in a room where you choose the tasting. Mad100% Natura for example tells the evolution of Mammoliti's cuisine in 10 creations to be paired with seven glasses of wine, five of champagne or five non-alcoholic drinks. For the chef, two Michelin stars taken in one breath and a very serious attitude towards quality of life, this menu represents the most authoritative version of his cuisine. It draws on a model of rural life, marked by the seasons and its fruits, and subverts certain patterns by placing the vegetable element at the centre, while animal proteins become a side dish. And on the table, together with the dish, they bring the ingredients from which it is made, for example a collection of courgettes. Dessert again is served in another room, on the way back to the room, which, as a reminder of where we are, is in shades of a Barolo diluted to antique pink.