Breaking News: Truffle Report
Tales from the Truffle Trade – Chapter 3
Truffle Dinners November 13 to 17, 2018
Reserve Now
Aldo Vacca, Dir. Produttori del Barbaresco, and Oliveto truffle advisor
I called Aldo Vacca our old friend in Barbaresco this morning to get a read on the season. It’s been warm and dry up until a couple of weeks ago, and the truffles had been few, expensive and not first quality. It has since become cold and wet, and the truffles have improved with prices coming down. A late season, not good for the October Truffle Fairs, but on November 13-17th, we’ll be in great shape.
Over the past 20 years, we’ve had a fair number of challenges—
A year of floods: slightly water-logged truffles.
Very wet years: limited truffle harvest because it’s difficult for dogs to smell.
Warm, dry years: fewer, less fragrant truffles.
The call came, we were to drive half an hour south to a supermarket parking lot below Bettolle. As we started out, a black blanket of clouds rapidly replaced the blue sky, and an extraordinary downpour followed.
Next to the shopping carts, protected from the deluge by the market’s overhang, was our hunter. He had big beautiful truffles, 60 to 80 grams—lots of them. He could have sold them for twice the price, thousands more, in Alba. But that was a 6-hour drive away. He had just gotten married and didn’t want to spend the next two days delaying the honeymoon. It was perhaps our greatest truffle triumph, except for that described in Chapter #4 of Tales of the Truffle Trade, next week.
Menu will also be posted next week.
Incase you missed them: Truffle Tales #1 & Truffle Tales #2
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