Besides wine and grapes, Piedmont also grows hazelnuts, and Piedmont is the birthplace of Nutella; the headquarters of Ferrero is still located in the town of Alba.
Besides Nutella, the company is known for brands Raffaello, Tic Tac, Kinder Chocolate, and Ferrero Rocher, in short, the main sponsors of childhood cavities and adult obesity.

We decided to go to a more decent production, without a ton of palm oil and other ingredients.

Plus, Piedmontese nuts have IGP status, while Nutella has long used nuts from around the world, mainly from Turkey.

The farm is run by four generations of one family, but the main ones are Marco and Barbara.
When Marco heard we were from Russia, he dropped all his other guests from other countries and spent almost two hours with us.
Marco himself was in the USSR in 1986, managed to check out Baku, Moscow, and St. Petersburg.

We tried various pastes and just the nut itself; it was definitely the tastiest hazelnut in my life, the flavor reminiscent of expensive Chardonnay with light oak aging.
The paste was also great, and with good ingredients.

At the end, Marco opened a bottle of wine, really wanted to celebrate the visit 🤌

Then we gave all participants a matryoshka doll each; Barbara almost cried, Marco shouted like a child, and at the door he handed us a bottle of local wine.

We plan to open the wine today, but already in Tuscany.