It is with renewed energy and enthusiasm that the tasters reconvene this morning in Alba's Ampelion. The wine school-research center was created solely for the development of the area and sits perched atop a hill planted to a vast assortment of wine grapes local to not only Piemonte but the rest of Northern Italy. As we settle into our seats, each with its 5 large tasting glasses and a list of wines, there is a beehive of activity around the building, not only just that centered on the four Italian sommeliers and their assistants preparing to get our wine poured.
At last, sometime after 9, our personal somm du jour pours a shrouded sample into each of our first glasses and we use it to 'charge' or 'condition' the other four, making it ready for the tasting wine to come.
Glass charging, by the way, is a custom/ritual I really enjoy. We've been unsuccessful in instituting it at PRIMA, as its purpose is not well understood in America and we run the risk of looking contrived if we don't pull it off well. Still, when a very special bottle of wine is being poured, we like to do it. What do you think?
The wines today start with a couple of dozen DOCG Barolo, mostly of mixed parentage- Grinzane-Cavour, Roddi and a variety of combinations of all the approved appellations. They are pitched either high (pomegranate, tart plum) or low (bitter chocolate, woodsy, sandalwood) and the best best have juicy, nicely balanced acidity. The next group of six come from the small commune of Verduno, an area that has been making a name for itself of late with very elegant, Burgundy-like Barolo. I am intrigued enough to spend an afternoon visiting later in the week. This lineup is also surprisingly inconsistent with its hallmark sweet, lacy fruit and juicy acidity, but tannins that are either too gritty or too dry. Wines like Alessandria Fratelli and Burlotto seem to have all the right stuff, it's just not in place yet. Only two wines in the first hour or so of tasting bear mentioning....one of my new favorite wineries, Castello di Verduno, doesn't have a horse in the race.
2007 La Strette Az Ag Barolo Novello-Barolo: Nope, don't know it either but its low pitched, chocolate-mocha, cinnamon spice nose and pretty tannins struck just the right notes. ***
2007 Burlotto Barolo Acclivi Verduno: Not even their best wine, this showed well with complex herbal-caraway notes playing off a texture that seems to be gaining in weight and complexity. Young and disjointed, this one is close to getting to together. ***
The next round of wines, maybe three dozen, all come from the commune of Barolo and well known vineyards like Costa Grimaldi, the relatively undiscovered Rue and several other lesser-known spots are featured. This is also a long haul: quality here too is all over the map with many either lean, ashy and acidic or big, brawny and clumsy. Of this long, fairly disheartening parade of wines, only 2007 Podere Einaudi's Costa Grimaldi stands out for its perfect balance of freshness and ripe fruit. Its flavors seem built up, like those of a Beef Barolo, making for a complex wine that will probably age well. *** Others that also impress are:
2007 Bartolo Mascarello Barolo Barolo-La Morra: She gets a pass for this attenuated, rather stingy wine because I know how well it will come together. ***(-)
2007 Cascina Adelaide Barolo 'Preda'- oaky for sure but it fills the mouth with really good cherry confit fruit and a back end of spice. ***
Then come eleven straight wines from the enormous Cannubi vineyard- one of Barolo's touchstone areas and the focus of great deal of consternation last year when, almost to a wine, they profoundly disappointed the group. The wines were overripe, clumsy and hollow, virtually all moving within a narrow bandwidth of prune-like fruit and searing tannins.
Alas, I come not to bury 2006 Cannubi but to praise 2007, one of the highlight moments of the week. Though there is some inconsistency even in this august group of eleven, most approach ***- hood with nicely ripe flavors, juicy acidity and well-filled but not overdone textures. Many variations of chocolate are apparent here as are descriptors like fig, meat (as in raw), scorched earth and 'nicely balanced.' As a group, they are as interesting as the 2006s were not. My favorites were:
2007 Marchesi di Barolo Cannubi: Hey, just because they are big, doesn't mean they can't make good wine. This one tastes like a cherry chocolate bar! ***
2007 Gianni Gagliardo Barolo Cannubi: This is the guy who makes that delicious Favorita! His Cannubi is dark and brooding with meat blood, briar and spice around something darker and mysterious. Bears watching. ***
2007 Burlotto Barolo Vigneto Cannubi: Didn't even know they made Cannubi but in 2007 they made a really good one! ***
2007 Poderi Einaudi Barolo Nei Cannubi: Fresh, warm and even though an empirical taster may dock for the wines pushy tannins and out of balance acidity, I have to give points for track record here too as he often makes the best wine in the commune. ***?
2007 E Pira di Chiara Boschis Barolo Cannubi: Another one that doesn't mess around....briary and tannic with a brawniness that needs only time to pull together. ***?
2007 Virna Borgogno Barolo Cannubi: Definitely the best nose of the day redolent of cinnamon, carraway, cardamom and sandalwood. Gets my vote for its sex appeal even though the rest of the wine is only average. ***
2007 Giuseppe Rinaldi Barolo Cannubi-San Lorenzo-Ravera: OK....if we taste a better wine this week, I'll be surprised. I know the American arrangements for this wine are bogus but I am willing to do what it takes to get this wine back at PRIMA. OMG. ****
The Cannubis seque into a few other Barolo area Crus like Sarmassa and Brunate-La Morra and two more highlights are:
2007 Virna Borgogno Barolo Preda Sarmassa: softer than their exotic Cannubi but very complete. What it lacks in freshness, it makes up for in lusciousness. ***
2007 Giuseppe Rinaldi Barolo Brunate-Le Coste: Another triumph for this producer. The wine is sensational. ***+
Disappointment alert: 2007 Marcarini Barolo Brunate-La Morra: What's up with this important property? They performed poorly at this event last year too.
And then, just like that, the Castiglione Fallettos start appearing in our (now very sticky and stained) glasses. This area proved harder to pin down than Barolo. Some are delicate, even brittle, while others are juicy and show great potential to develop into special wines. Not surprisingly, the best names in the appellation seem to have made the best wines. Remember what I said about Producer trumping real estate in 2007? Never is it more true than in Falletto. Watch out for overt greenness in some wines.
2007 Oddero Barolo Castiglione Falletto-La Morra: Balanced, fresh even, and, for an Oddero wine, pretty. ***
2007 Cascina Adelaide Barolo Pernanno: I am unfamiliar with this Cru but its juicy fruit and fine balance convince this tired, tipsy taster! ***
2007 Tenuta Montanello Barolo Montanello: Who? Balanced, fresh, nicely herbal. On the Burgundy side of life! ***
2007 Baroli Barolo Villero: Not been a fan of this wine of late but credit in 2007 where credit is due. Nice balance of brawn and balance. ***
2007 Cordero di Montezemolo Barolo 'Enrico VI' (Villero): Here comes the Murderer's Row of Villero 2007. Earthy, restrained and very, very deep, this also manages the 'gentle giant' role with a degree of finesse previously unseen in this lineup. ***+
2007 Oddero Barolo Villero: Again? More powerful than the Montezemolo with blood, iodine, ferrous and meat essences swirling within some great concentrated fruit. I know this one will age! ***+
2007 Cavallotto Barolo Tenuta Bricco Boschis: yeah, it's not as ripe as some and some might even call it a trifle green but you can't argue with the spot-on Barolo flavors that come pouring out: scorched earth, black tar bubbles, caraway seed.... ***
This endeth the tasting.
I am one taster among many. I grunt, groan and quibble about certain wines with my colleagues but I do my utmost not to be unduly influenced by their opinions, and there are many. After so many hundred (now literally thousands) of tasting notes on these wines over the past few vintages, I am confident I am tasting what I am tasting. But I should also note that we are not tasting blind and that when the big names get poured in your glass, you tend to give them the benefit of the doubt if they fall into your range of expectations.
Frankly, I think Oddero, Montezemolo and Rinaldi are three of the best properties in Barolo and I've made that opinion based solely on tasting a lot of their wines. I can forgive a little dry tannin in Oddero because I know how that tannin will probably evolve later in the wine's life. I am not willing to make that assumption with wines of which I am less familiar. So, take it for what it's worth. At PRIMA you will continue to be offered these blue chips (well, that is assuming I can patch things up with Rinaldi's importer) as well as whatever other wines I judge as being archetypes of Nebbiolo in any given vintage. It's an honor that you give me that trust.
And it's fun. (There, I admitted it)
After the tasting this morning, a small posse of us headed off to Barbaresco to visit the cellar and vineyards of Olek Bondonio. Olek is a former Italian national snowboard champion who returned to his family's holdings to make wine. His is a tiny operation but with Nebbiolo planted in Roncagliette, a.k.a. the upper part of what Angelo Gaja calls 'Sori Tildin,' he's got some great material to work with. Olek also showed us his Dolcetto/Barbera vineyard planted on the opposing Alba slope that affords one a magnificent view of the wavy curtain of Barbarsco that includes not only Rocagliette, Roncaglie, Sori Tildin, Sori San Lorenzo (just on the other side of the road of Tildin) and environs, you can also see Pertinace and the start of the Treiso vineyards. Though small by any measure, Bondonio is clearly a property on the rise, and the wines are super smooth and stylish. Olek, thanks to his connection at Castello di Verduno (his lovely wife is Executive Chef there), is also one of the very few non-Verduno producers making Pelaverga, the unique Gamay-Cabernet Franc-like grape native to the area. Keep an eye on things here!
The wines are good.
We buzzed back to Alba to catch the last half of an informative lecture on the geography and soil morphological differences between Barolo and Barbaresco. Coming as it did after basking in the warm sunshine of Barbaresco and tasting all those barrel samples, I have to confess that staying awake through the hypnotically monotone translation of the lecture was an impossibility.
But what happened afterwards was a total surprise. Some 30 people, including myself, had signed up to take a vineyard tour of Barbaresco with the area's foremost authority, Aldo Vacca of Produttori del Barbaresco. Vacca, thanks to his long association with the growers of the region, is a walking encyclopedia of the entire Barbaresco area. As he is, without question, the area's most important figure whose name is not Angelo Gaja, I thought the bus would be packed. Alas, only four of us turned up- two Italian journalists, Alex, a British wine consultant and myself. We ditched the bus and loaded ourselves into Aldo's little car for what turned out to be an incredible, private two-hour tour of the Barbaresco DOCG.
I've been lucky enough to have visited each of the three Barbaresco villages (Barbaresco, Tresio and Neive) any number of times but getting the perspective of the extremely knowledgeable and passionate Vacca really tied it together for me. For one thing, he noted, even though we say there are three Barbaresco villages, there is really a fourth: San Rocco Seno d’Elvio, an appendage that connects Barbaresco to Alba. The story goes that despite what would be the village's obvious connection via soil type and wine style to Barbaresco, back in the sixties when the appellation was first being drawn, the village mayor, due to some petty dispute with the mayor of Barbaresco, voted to keep his village out. Needless to say, this mayor does not have a statue of himself in San Rocco, as Nebbiolo from the Barbaresco DOCG fetches at least three times the price of San Rocco's Nebbiolo d'Alba. Only in Italy, right?
There was plenty else to see...Barbaresco, as a whole, is notable for its exposure to the cold winds and weather that rolls in from the north while the entire Barolo appellation is protected by the La Morra hill. This makes the area cooler and later ripening than its more famous brother- hence its reputation for more elegant, feminine wines. Neive, at the 'top' is the warmest and, predictably, produces the brawniest wines in the appellation, Barbaresco comes next and Treiso, the most exposed, traditionally produces the most delicate, if delicate is ever a word that can apply to Nebbiolo. It gets more complex as one adds in each individual vineyards exposure (or exposures), altitudes and soils: full-south facing vineyards like the side-by-side-by-side trio of Bernardot, Nervo and Rizzi in Treiso can create riper wines in a warm vintage than a more sheltered site like Ca'nova in Neive, so getting to know the real estate is very important.
I know that after two hours in the car with Aldo Vacca, I'll never look at my Masnaghetti map of the Barbaresco crus in the same way! And what can I say to the other 26 people who signed up for the Barbaresco tour and didn't show other than you were SOL, baby. That was the most valuable two hours I've ever spent in a car!
The Gaja Factor:
Gaja is the 400 pound gorilla in Barbaresco's living room. It would tough to argue that without him, the appellation would be just another Roero or Alba. Since taking over his father's property in the late seventies, Angelo has broken every rule, challenged every assumption and pushed the boundaries of every envelope. His vineyards in Barbaresco are immediately identifiable because he insisted on planting them vertically up the hills rather than across them, an orientation, he said, that improved exposure even at the risk of increased erosion, a big problem in the Langhe. The practice has since been outlawed.
While others created huge constituencies for the individual vineyards of Barbaresco, Gaja created fanciful names within the existing Crus he farmed so they would be considered his monopoles and unique to the Gaja brand. He became famous for his white wines as well as his red, and made Chardonnay a viable grape in Piemonte.
Rather than adhere to the appellation's directive to use only Nebbiolo in any wine labeled Barbaresco or Barolo, he simply withdrew, called his wine I.G.T., and still fetches triple digits while back-blending other grapes into his wines.
And they are still amongst the most compelling wines made anywhere in the world.
So, like him or not (and there are many in each camp and few in the middle), you have to respect Angelo Gaja and give him his due.
The Langa-In
The Langa-In is a group of like-minded small, artisan producers from throughout the Langhe who meet and taste regularly and work together to promote their products. Last year's Langa- In dinner was one of the highlights of my trip. The problem this year is that a few notable members of the group are not participating members (Scavino, Clerico, Conterno-Fantino and several other notables) of Albeisa, the consorzio behind Nebbiolo Prima, hence the event went basically unadvertised to the group. I heard about it word-of-mouth from good friend Chiara Boschis of Enrico Pira.
It turned out to be a great evening featuring a tasting by the group and a dinner following at Malvira in Roero. Since it was technically a night off, I didn't even bring my notebook, but the list of wines and wineries was impressive and I had a few highlights including the new 2010 Bricco Ciliegie Arneis (always a favorite), Chiara Boschis' 2004 Via Nuove Barolo, a great duo of wines from Conterno-Fantino, the new Gavarini from Elio Grasso and, of course, the amazing 2005 Pajana Barolo from Domenico Clerico. In fact, three of the four producers of Ginestra, my favorite vineyard in Monforte d'Alba, are represented within the group.
I should point out for Clerico fans that the indomitable Domenico is doing better in his recovery from brain surgery to remove a tumor and has finally gotten some much-needed help at the winery. Still, he has a giant unfinished construction project on his hands and, on top of that, I hear he's searching for a new importer in the United States. Clerico's modern masterpieces are amongst the most compelling wines made in the entire country of Italy and I am sincerely hoping he can find his way through his current difficulties.
The dinner at Malvira was good fun- the carne crudo 'shooters' were a highlight. One simply cannot have enough raw meat! My table included charismatic Italian journalist Carlo Macchi, a journalist from Rotterdam and a hotel colleague from Vienna as well as a table with two garrulous Japanese ladies who kept me going most of the evening.
Still, looking back at this day, it was very, very long!
And there's tomorrow to look forward to......
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