Valle d’Aosta is the next study trip destination for the 12 students of the Master in Food Culture and Communications: High Quality Products at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo. It will be the first time the Master students, who this year come from Canada, the United States, India, the United Kingdom, Norway, Germany and Italy, have travelled to the northern Italian region as part of the English-language program. The trip will last from June 27 to July 1, 2016.
This will be a unique opportunity for the students to get to know a border region, poised between Italy and France, with a rich and ancient culture, the perfect subject for these young people from international backgrounds who are studying the best of Italy’s food and wine.
The students’ packed program will offer an overview of Valle d’Aosta’s gastronomy, with a particular focus on cheeses, wines, spirits, meat and cured meat and fruits and vegetables. The trip has been organized in collaboration with the region’s Agriculture and Natural Resources Department (www.regione.vda.it/agricoltura/ ).
The students will begin the study trip on Monday June 27 with a visit to the Montfleury farm, run by the Regional Agricultural Institute (www.iaraosta.it), an educational and experimental farm dedicated to dairy, fruit, vegetables and wines from native grapes. They will then move to the institute itself for a lesson on its agricultural research and a greeting from the region’s Agriculture and Natural Resources Councilor, Renzo Testolin.
The day will continue in Saint-Pierre, where, at the foot of the ancient castle that is home to the Regional Natural Sciences Museum, they will visit the Cofruits agricultural cooperative (www.cofruits.it ), a hub for apple harvesting and preservation, and Introd at the Maison Bruil, an old country house and food museum (www.tascapan.com/maison-bruil-valle-aosta).
The following day, the UNISG group will head for Nus to visit the Maison Rosset (www.maisonrosset.it), a historic farm which hosts tourists and educational tours and also produces cheese and other dairy products, meat, cured meat and eggs. The Rosset family has lived in Nus since before the 18th century and has a profound connection with the region and its agriculture.
The afternoon will continue with a visit to Elisa Dorriers’s Azienda Genuinus (www.genuinus.it) for a lesson in cooking with herbs and flowers. The farm grows berries (raspberries, blackberries, various types of currants and gooseberries) for the production of jams, fruit juices, sauces, vinegars and syrups. Walnuts are also grown, for making walnut oil, and herbs, and the farm has its own processing workshop.
On Wednesday the students will set out for the Grimondet di Pila (Gressan) alpeggio (www.visitalpeggio.it), a mountain dairy farm, to meet its manager, Sandro Bonin. The Grimondet alpeggio has existed for centuries, passing from generation to generation within the same family, until 1990, when the Bonin family took over its management. The family makes PDO Fontina, goat’s cheeses, butter and other dairy products.
The next day the students will head for Saint-Rhémy-en-Bosses to learn about the production of the local PDO ham, Vallée d’Aoste Jambon de Bosses (www.jambondebosses.it), at a local producer.
Saint-Rhémy, at the foot of the Great St Bernard Pass, is a village with an ancient history, located along the ancient Via Francigena, the pilgrim route that ran from Canterbury in England to Rome, and at one end of the Great St Bernard Tunnel, of great significance for commercial traffic. Home to a community of Augustinian monks, the prized ham produced here has a long history.
The UNISG delegation will then visit the Visitors’ Centre and aging and branding warehouse for PDO Fontina (www.fontinacoop.it and www.fontina-dop.it) in the old copper mine in Valpelline. After cheese, it’s time for wine, with a visit to the Cave des Onze Communes (www.caveonzecommunes.it) in Aymavilles.
Opened in 1990 and nestled in the shadow of one of Valle d’Aosta’s most characteristic castles, the winery collects grapes from vineyards in 11 municipalities in the centre of the valley. The Cave has 220 passionate and committed members who work around 60 hectares of vines, broken up into tiny plots, many on steep slopes that make mechanization impossible. Grown with complete respect for the environment, a minimal use of pesticides and the application of good agricultural practices, as the grapes ripen they concentrate the spirit of the region in their juice.
Annual production is around 350,000 bottles, and includes a total of 13 wines with the “Valle d’Aosta” controlled appellation, including many made with native grapes.
The last day of the trip, July 1, will include a visit to the Distillerie Saint-Roch (www.saintroch.it) in Quart. The students will have a chance to get to know and taste the valley’s most famous grappa, Sant’Orso, made from the marc of selected grapes, as well as the characteristic Génépì, a spirit made from the Alpine plant of the same name, soon to be granted an GI appellation.
For their last visit, the group will be at the Salumificio Maison Bertolin (www.bertolin.com), which makes the famous PDO Lard d’Arnad. A dynamic, family-run business, started in 1957 as a butcher, the Salumificio has enjoyed great success in the lower valley due to the high quality of its products. Their flagship is of course the flavorful cured lard, celebrated during the last weekend in August with a special festival that sees over 50,000 visitors.