Summer is coming, and it’s time to start planning your summer escape in the Alps. I highly recommend a retreat from the world — digital and otherwise — with a trip to Des Martin’s Rifugio Valliera in Castelmagno.

Located high in the Valle Grana of the Cottain Alps, this under discovered Piemontese treasure offers an opportunity for visitors to enjoy all the splendor of the mountains, delicious traditional Occitane cuisine, including dishes made with the agri’s own Castelmagno d’Alpeggio DOP cheese, and Piemontese wine.

In 2007, Barolo wine producer Chiara Boschis, her brother Cesare, and her fellow group members of the Des Martin consortium turned their attention to Castelmagno to renovate buildings and revive the area’s cheese-making traditions. At the timberline in the commune are abandoned hamlets where families once lived off the land year-round. The group purchased half of Valliera, a hamlet nearly 5,000 feet above sea level at timberline. They named their consortium “Des Martin,” after the hamlet’s last inhabitants. Yet another group that shared the vision purchased the remaining Valliera property, and the hamlet’s renaissance was under way.

That same year, Des Martin hired an experienced casara (cheese maker) who began experimenting with various forms at a nearby dairy during the construction of Des Martin’s caseificio (creamery). By 2015, the Des Martin cowherd exceeded 40 head. Chiara often quips that while other women buy great cars and take exotic vacations, she buys cows.

Bovine ladies graving on tender grass and flowers in the alpeggio above Des Martin’s agriturismo and dairy in Rifugio Valliera in the commune of Castelmagno.

Chiara and the other members of the consortium dream of more groups coming to the mountains to transform the remaining hamlets. Already her fellow Barolo producer Elio Altare has rejuvenated mountain life in the hamlet of Campo Fei above Rifugio Valliera. Life begins anew above timberline.

In June 2015, Agriturismo Des Martin opened. The nine (9) apartments provide warm, homey lodgings for visitors seeking the peace and tranquility that communing with nature and the past provide. Chiara envisions the rebirth of a vibrant mountain culture through her passionate nurturing of agricultural restoration.

View from Rifugio Valliera
Rifugio Valliera, nestled at timberline in the Commune of Castelmagno.
Ripe Castelmagno d’alpeggio DOP from Des Martin in Rifugio Valliera ready for sale.
Rifugio Valleria in the commune of Castelmagno is home to Agriturismo Des Martin.

 

Chiara Boschis enjoying lunch al fresco at Rifugio Valliera in Castelmagno.

 

 

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