Esperienza Baladin

On our second night here, our host decided to take us out to this bar nearby, in order to show us how locals roll. I immediately assumed it would be a wine tavern, set in medieval ruins, loud with conversation, with Eros Ramazotti and Laura Pausini coming from the speakers. Well, that was one wrong assumption (except for the music standards. Not Eros, neither Laura, but their 2011 versions – interpreted by a live band with a significant number of fans singing to the top of their lungs).

Open Baladin turned out to be the kind of place that is not so simple to categorize. After a first glance, you’d say it was the only place in the surroundings where people could get together for a few drinks, music and general fun, but then again that was a busy night. The bar area had shelves up to the ceiling covered with different bottles, with artsy labels, and from distance you’d think those were all kinds of alcohol, representing several different brands. I was somewhat confused before taking a seat, since the atmosphere gave me the idea of the coolest place to hang out, but not exactly what I was looking for when we left home hungry and thirsty for some local preciousness. The feeling didn’t last long, though.

With a look at their extensive and colorful menu, we spotted countless bottles of beer, each of them with a flavor description, trendy bottles and creative names. All I could think was: where do they go find these beauties and why isn’t the provenance specified? I also felt like ordering one of each, even though they weren’t exactly cheap. Looking absolutely clueless, I raised some sympathy from Daniele, our winemaker friend, who came to my rescue to explain that Baladin was also a brewery, and all the varieties sold there were produced by them. He would order two of his favorites for us to taste, then, accompanied by his favorite dish on the menu.

In a few minutes, we were introduced to Wayan and Shangri la, two of the Birre Baladin, with flavors that I had never felt in a beer. They weren’t stupidly cold, as we Brazilians tend to appreciate, but that didn’t matter at all. Both were produced by the champenoise method, Wayan having this mix of orange and spices that made it as aromatic as pleasant to drink, whereas Shangri la was strong and structured. After the first sips, arrived the stinco di maiale, which after that night conquered my everlasting love. Believing that all stincos would be heavenly, I’ve been ordering it in every trattoria/osteria I may find myself in, to realize, time after time, that the one they serve at Baladin is unique and special. The meat is tender to the point of making the knife unnecessary, the sauce and the marinade use one of their beers as a base (very likely the Shangri la or one of its kind), and the end result keeps bringing us back.

But enough with describing this first evening there. A few others came, many others will certainly come, and what I really want to talk about is the bigger picture, meaning: our encounter with Teo Musso, the man behind Open Baladin and more, so much more…

Our first study trip, around Piemonte, took us to Piozzo, a tiny village near Bra where it all began. Teo was born there, in a family that produced wine (as seems to be the case of everyone I meet), and as a teenager he decided to rebel against the establishment, diving in the beer world – which was quite inexistent in this area 25 years ago…

His first move was to open a place in Piozzo where he could unite his three biggest passions: wine, food and music. The pairing with food has always been present in his philosophy, and in the beginning he imported beers from all over Europe, since Italy had no culture of the drink by then. By travelling after interesting labels, as well as reading Belgian brewery textbooks, he developed a considerable knowledge on beer production, enough to stop producers in Belgium from selling to him, suspecting he would soon become a competitor.

About the music part, Teo had worked with bands as an agent and dreamt of becoming a musician, but instead of studying music he got an informal education on making beer. One way or the other, he was bound to turning into a rockstar…

The decision of building a production plant came along, and by then he had already gained a loyal and passionate public, people who would go to Piozzo in order to taste the 250 labels he had on the menu. Well, upon the beginning of Baladin production, half of those followers just vanished. Teo’s theory is that people were fearful of the concept of artisanal beer, unknown and unfashionable by that time. On top of that, the beer produced by him had no identity, no label, nothing that could capture the consumer’s eye.

By the year of 1997, people in Italy started to become familiar with the principles of Slow Food. Ten years had gone by since the ethanol scandal that leaded the world to dread drinking a glass of Barbera, and by overcoming the trauma, wine connoisseurs were spreading throughout the country. Teo saw in that a potential public, one concerned with tasting, appreciating and communicating a good product, and from there he departed to develop Baladin’s bottles and labels. He came up with the first two beers, Issac and Super. The first, named after his son, could be paired with white meats and fresh cheeses, while Super was brown and strong, suiting potent flavors. Teo personally took both to no less than 500 restaurants around Italy. By ’99, he had 100 restaurants as clients, but he came to find that only two of them displayed the beer on their menu. The other 98 bought Baladin beer only for staff consumption after service hours, simply because the idea of pairing beer and food in fine dining tables was unthinkable!

In 2005, having formed a distribution society, he faced the fact that insisting in the pairing concept was utopia, although dutch brewery Carlsberg had just awarded him a prize for doing so. His move was then taking up distribution of a beer made by another small producer, as in willingly sponsoring competition. May seem odd, but if you think about it, it’s a hell of an idea: when trying to make a concept become popular, it does help to show that there are more people out there who think and work in a similar way to yours.

Teo visited Michelin starred restaurants, designed an appropriate glass to his style of beer and eventually, the idea turned into a movement, becoming popular and copied all over. There are currently over 1200 artisanal brewers in Italy, and in attention to that widespread, Teo thought of making something new, just for a change: taking into consideration his farmer background, his winemaking father and his sense of paternity over the beer movement, he noticed that beer was invading the wine world and decided to shift the attention back to Italy’s most traditional beverage. That was when he came up with the concept of open Baladin, a place where the recipes are displayed on the menu, where beers are tasted in a wine fashion, with attention to nose, mouth, aftertaste, and so on.

His latest homage, still in the barrels (literally) waiting to be released in the market, is the aging of beers in traditional Italian wine casks. The Baladin beer has been sitting in containers that used to shelter Barolo, Brunello de Montalcino and other such jewels. We had the chance of tasting the end result, and were amazed by the difference operated by the aging. Considering that all the aged beer was exactly the same, the flavors detected after a while in the barrels were absolutely particular, noticeably differentiating one from the other. Worth noting that the project is taking place in Teo’s parents’ Cantina, where the whole ambiance refers to the old times when that used to be the family’s cellar.

Nowadays, Piozzo’s main square is taken over by Baladin, with cantina Baladin on one side (a peculiarly decorated pub, with often gigs and a place I can’t wait to see in operation) and casa Baladin on the other. At casa Baladin, Teo has this amazing space, with a professional kitchen, dining area, and gorgeous rooms in case you feel like spending the night. That’s where he briefly told us his history, charming everyone in the room and filing my notes with more elements than I can fit in this post. Believe me, there’s much more than this. Suffice to say that in case you’re interested in an in loco Baladin experience, you can find it in Piozzo and Cinzano, as well as in Rome, and soon to open in New York, as the beer garden on the rooftop of Eataly’s building.