Lost in Plin Sight: Alba 2012

Friday, May 11
Milano-Malpensa- Verduno- Rochetta-TanaroA highly decorated veteran of the travel wars, colleague Brandon had a sweet BMW 1 series sedan waiting for us at Milano-Malpensa, a deal that cost us less than my usual balky-wimpy Fiat Punto. We'd log a lot of miles in this car...Brandon, me and our faithful, if erratic, GPS Dorothy.

With Brandon at the wheel and Dorothy and I navigating, we were in the Barolo's outpost town Verduno in under two hours. The Castello Di Verduno, where we were to be guests of importer George Tita and his stable of Piemontese winemakers, is the area's best accommodation, filled with character. Even the fact that Brandon and I had to bunk together in the double bed didn't detract from its rustic charm.

After putting our feet up for a few minutes on our balcony overlooking the main part of the Castello, we made the forty minute drive out towards Monferrato, back east in the hills towards Alessandria for a meeting at the Braida-Giacomo Bologna cantina and an interesting pre-prandrial visit to their vineyards with owner Rafaella Bologna where we saw where their famed Barbera-based wines are born. Old vines, great aspects and years and years of experience are the secrets here.

Just a few minutes from the cantina, at the Bologna family's own restaurant, is where we met winemaker and old friend Giorgio Pelissero and a couple of other friends for a leisurely (is there ever any other kind of meal in Piemonte?) dinner made even more entertaining by the busload of 40 partying German ladies and a local entertainer banging out Volare, My Way and other such nuggets while we ate the usual local Piemontese fare (say it with me now: 'Agnolotti dal Plin') and drank Bologna's excellent wines, a fine 'normale' Barbera d'Asti and their host of single-vineyard and the Super Piemontese Ai Summa. Very happy to get back to our Castello once jet lag firmly took hold, and even if we did have to share a bed, Brandon and I were too damned tired to care.

Saturday, May 12
Verduno-La Morra/Santa Maria-Cherasco-Verduno-encore La Morra

I took Brandon up to the top of La Morra first thing Saturday to give him the lay of the land. I this should be the first stop for anyone wanting to know Barolo as the lookout area next to Ristorante Belvedere affords one a view of virtually the entire Barolo appellation, from La Morra's own top vineyards clear to the front side of Serralunga and Monforte. From there, it was a short drive to Santa Maria and the Oddero's cantina at Bricco Chiesa.

We were shown around by old friend Isabella Boffa, who, with her aunt Marie-Cristina, run this venerable address. It's a regular stop for me and I've seen the vineyards and tasted most everything they've produced back to the sixties, but for Brandon, or anyone else wanting to experience Barolo, this is a great visit. They are generous with their wines: a pleasant white that will soon be built on Riesling, a sturdy Barbera and a stable of Nebbiolo-based wines including a fine family holding in Gallina in Barbaresco, a Barolo based on their holdings at the cantina and in Bricco Fiasco in Monforte, and single vineyard wines from Bussia (Soprana Mondoca and Rocche de Castiglione, Villero, a Vignarionda Riserva now only to be released ten years after the vintage, and, clearly a favorite, a good holding at the very top of Brunate). While the former group of wines (and a good Moscato) are longtime staples at Oddero, Brunate only goes back to 2004, and is really the first new wine of what Cristina and Isabella call 'the new regime' at the property. The wine is very good- a little less mineral and more fruit driven than the winery's other Baroli and, in 2008, a Brunate vintage for sure, a great success. Cristina and her 20 year old son Pietro joined us after the tasting and it was off to a simple, fun lunch at the venerable La Torre in Cherasco.

Marie-Cristina Oddero and Isabella Boffa.  

 And Pietro, the heir apparent, and Brandon, who's not.

Pietro, by the way, is studying Economics in Torino and looks to eventually be the next generation to take a role in this most family of businesses.

 After lunch we went up the hill a bit and back down to Annunziata and a cantina visit with Davide ...     . George had invited his whole crew and then some to dinner with a few of us buyers in La Morra at one of my favorite places, More e Macine. In addition to a boatload of wines, each presented by the winemaker, the lineup included a magnum or two of Champagne 'sabered' by local celeb Owner/Sommelier ..... with a butter knife, a parlor trick for which he's quite famous and the bottom part of a 3 liter bottle of 1964 Marchese di Barolo Barolo which, thanks to our inability to actually finish this thing, became something of a mascot of ours for a few days. In fact, I have this great photo of Premier Cru Mike and Brandon wandering around Verduno at 1:30 looking for some danger and carrying the damned bottle around.

 Sunday, May 13 

This, our day off, was the day to show Brandon 'the other side' of Barolo, a village-to-village drive ending, not by design, in Sinio and an impromptu visit to old friend and castle-keeper Denise Pardini.

 But before that, we circumnavigated Castiglione Falletto, Barolo, Monforte d'Alba and Serralunga, including a hair-raising drive around some of the 'roads' in Ginestra and a great little lunch at Il Centro, a sparkling wine lovers dream right at the base of Serralunga castle.

The weather had changed yesterday, going from the low thirties (C) to the low twenties and after a brief shower Saturday afternoon, a wind came up and blew out all the funk. The views from everywhere in Barolo were amazing and the quality of sunlight stunning. If you weren't a fan of Piemonte before Sunday, you stood no chance after! It was indescribably beautiful and one of those memorable days you wish you could bottle and keep...like Barolo!

On a whim, we popped in on Walnut Creek native and proprietor of the once-ruined castle she turned to a lovely inn in Sinio, a small village about 7 kilometers down the hill from Serralunga. Denise organized and led a trip I once took here with a dozen or so PRIMA customers and my late, great father-in-law Bob Poole. During that visit, she took us to see the ancient pile of rocks and shared with us her vision for a fabulous hotel and cooking school. Now, seven years later, Castello di Sinio is where I send anyone seeking first class **** accommodations near Barolo. Denise is a helluva cook (and an ex-chef) and though she doesn't usually cater to those not staying in one of the castle's 15 or so rooms, it's worth a try to get a seat in her dining room. Her food (which we had a chance to experience Thursday night) is amongst the very best in the area. And I say that having eaten just about everywhere in the region over the years. www.castellodisinio.com Worth a stay! 

Denise was kind enough to leave her Sunday afternoon paperwork, open a bottle of Prosecco and share with us the trials and tribulations she faces as an inn keeper in Piemonte, not an easy task for the most intrepid of natives much less a Walnut Creek girl just learning Italian! Sounded like the X rated version of 'Under The Tuscan Sun.'

It was, with great regret, that we took our leave to finish our journey, move our luggage into the Hotel Calissano in Alba and make the scene at Nebbiolo Prima's annual welcome bash. The Hotel Calissano is where the so-called 'buyers' stay during this event while the journalist participants stay in 'I Castelli', a few blocks away. I think the buyers have made out!

 Calissano is a modern, clean and very efficient (Ok, it doesn't have a lot of character but so what?) hotel just a few steps from everywhere we have to be during the event....I walk to the Ampelion, where we taste, to the Palazzo di Savona and Via Emmanuel Vittoria, where we hang out, and to the City Center where the seminars are held and from where the various shuttles around the area leave. There's not a lot of exercise time with which to counter the effects of over-consumption of food and wine on the trip so I value the walking. Good breakfast and a nice bar, too. Sure, you can get lots more personality (and bad plumbing) if you stay in La Morra, Barolo or one of the other villages, but I don't think you can beat Calissano for convenience if your travels are going to take you east of Barolo, like to Roero, the Barbaresco villages or the Asti zone.

Nebbiolo Prima kicks off with a party for everyone in Alba's Duomo Square with free flowing wine, antipasti and multilingual conversation as the reunion of conference vets, winemakers and those attending for the first time commences. Brandon and I get a few tasty sounding invites for dinner afterwards but all involve turning this into a late night, so we opt instead for pizza and beer just a few steps away with Leslie and ......, s Minnesota couple now living in Alba where they lead tours and 'consult.' They brought some winemaker friends from Barbaresco and Asti with whom they work and we consulted with them on some pfatty pies and great local beer. With 60-70 glasses of Nebbiolo awaiting us at 9 AM tomorrow, it was the best thing we could have done!

Nebbiolo Prima, 2012 Monday, May 14

Setting the scene: The morning tastings are held in Alba's Ampelion, part of Piemonte's wine research facilities. The clean, spacious building is set on top of a hill striped with row upon row of vines growing every kind of grape I've ever heard of in Northern Italy. We gather around nine, most taking the shuttle bus from the hotel (I walk) and take a seat at the five-person long desks lining the classroom. At the front of the room are three long white tablecloth covered tables with 4 bottles each of (today) 67 wines. This is the tasting for buyers, not journalists. It's not blind like it is for them, the idea being that we're looking for discoveries rather than any sort of in-depth analysis and I suppose it makes sense. We do taste, I believe, with prejudice when we can see the labels but most of us have been in the game long enough to know when someone we want to well is underperforming or someone who normally makes mediocre wine strikes gold.

After we condition our glasses with a control red, the wines are poured in flights of five by three (usually) stone-faced professional Italian sommeliers in full regalia. You know me. I am not happy until I can get ours to crack a smile and I wasn't successful in the least until, on the third day, he accidentally dumped a glass of Barolo into my lap. Now that was funny!

We have a few minutes to evaluate the wines, make notes on the spreadsheets were are given and contemplate how numb the tannin in the Nebbiolo is making our lips and palates. We empty out the glass into small plastic spit buckets (which are replaced when full- and they get very full- by a couple of teenaged kids that serve as helpers) and the next flight arrives. We plow through these wines for three hours or so, until, with great relief, the last wine is dumped and we can run off in search of a glass of something white before our very pleasant buffet lunch is served in the Ampelion courtyard.

It goes like this from Monday until Friday, an actually welcome change from the Monday-Thursday regimen that saw us drinking 20% more wine in one fewer day with sessions sometimes nearing 100 wines! Quite a few producers have ceased participating in Nebbiolo Prima. The investment is great (I hear at least E1000 per winery, plus wine, etc.) and, for the many so-so wineries who fail to do well in the tastings year after year, it's not a good use of resources. And, frankly, I am happy not to have them there anyway. Giorgio Pelissero said one producer told him that 'I come in 100 out of 100 every year so why should I waste my money.' Indeed. Save your money and keep making shitty wine!

This year the days played out like this: Monday, Roero 2009, Roero 2007 Riserva

 The 2009 Vintage For Roero

What a pleasant surprise the 2009 vintage has turned out to be in Roero. After two years of rather painful tastings in the category two things are apparent. The first is that a lot of pikers no longer participate in this tasting. The number of entries was down significantly and the names that remain are amongst the best in the region. That's good news. I think, as Giorgio Pelissero said at dinner the other night, "some producers were tired of bieng 25 out of 25 every year." Don't miss 'em.

The second is that the vintage has produced many really good, really succulent wines within a fairly narrow range of variation...let's say, if such a thing could be quantified, 20% against, let's say, 60% cumulatively over the past few vintages I've tasted. The best have lovely red cherry fruit, nicely balanced tannins, oak and acidity and impressive freshness. This became even more obvious when we moved on to the Barbaresco flight where freshness is definitely an issue. The wines ranged from pine-y with rhubarb and green herb to cherry compote-like fruit with voluptuous texture and bulky tannins. Most were somewhere in between. The 2009 Roeri were, as a group, not terribly serious or particularly 'baby Barolo'-like but will represent delicious drinking over the short- to mid-term and there are some I'll be pursuing. (I haven't looked back at my notes from last year but I know I sure didn't write anything like that!


Notable wines:

2009 Fabrizio Battagliano Sergentin: nicely ripened, good cherry Neb nose, balanced. **+
2009 Angelo Negri Prachioso: oaky but also very well stuffed. Easy, rich, integrated. ***(-)
2009 Cornareia: who? Serious Neb nose with a ton of character, palate presence and verve. This was like baby Barolo. ***
2009 Mateo Correggia: serious intensity covers a lot of oak, spicy, very well balanced. ***
(?)Disappointment: 2009 Malvira: secondary in the bottle? Flawed.

2008 Roero Riserva

Interesting. These wines were not nearly as 'classical' or as severe as I'd imagined after tasting a lot of 2008 Barolo which are. More weight than I'd envisioned for sure and some showed a lot of oak and surprisingly ripe tannin. usually I think of Roero Riserva as a 'why bother?' category (why not buy Barolo or Barbaresco for the same amount of money?) but there were some good wines in this flight with some particularly good examples turning up at the end of the flight. Good showing here.

Notable wines:
2008 Cascina Chicco Valmaggiore Riserva: why am I not surprise? Good vineyard, good producer, good vintage. Juicy, big but pretty. ***
2008 Taliano Michele Roche dra Bassora: this was a surprise. Vinous, big, integrated, persistent and full of delicious cherry fruit. ***
2008 Angelo Negro Sudisfa: warm, cherry fruit that turned dry and leafy but still had nice complex flavors and a big finish. ***(-)
2008 Casetta: first bottle was corked but second, though oaky, had depth and liveliness. ***-
2008 Malvira Trinita: immaculate, even elegant. Best I've ever tasted from this property. ***
2008 casino Ca'Rossa Mompissano: distinctive for its sheer chunkiness and desnity. Big boy! ***
2008 Monchiero Carbone Printi: loaded w oak but it's Shiraz-like texture and aroma has definite appeal. ***-

The 2009 Vintage For Barbaresco 

Riper, not as fresh overall as the Roero were, a definite surprise. In fact, most of the 2009 Barbaresco we tasted seemed blowzy and soft compared both with their own 2008 counterparts and the Roero from 2009. They are low in acid, soe show too much oak and alcohol and many lacked the 'freshness' Piemontese winemakers often cite as Nebbiolo's most important attribute. They do have their appeal, however. As drinks, many are lovely, with what I am now calling 'Cherries Jubilee' fruit flavors, some brown sugar and sort, pliable tannins. Are these 2009 Barbaresco zone wines going to be great keepers or 'important.' I don't think so. Will they be delicious with your roasts over the four to six years? Some. Here we're my favorites.

2009 Ca' du Rabaja Di Alutto Lorenzo Barbaresco DOCG: Is Lorenzo a madman? Undeniably. Is he a good winemaker? yep. Zingy with plenty of punch. **+
2009 Produttori del Barbaresco Barbaresco DOCG: clean, elegant and lively. ***
2009 Olek Bondonio Barbaresco DOCG: a star in the making, Bondonio's spot in Roncagliette, over Gaja's Sori Tildin, is great as is this compact, old school Normale. **+
2009 La Ca' Nova Barbaresco Montestefano: juicy and stylish with Cherries Jubilee for dessert! ***(-)
2009 Cascina Morassino Barbaresco Ovello: Severe and serious, this one broods but shows hint of a great wine under all that iron oxide and Amerena cherry. ***
2009 Podere Colla Barbaresco Roncaglie: another good serious wine that will require patience. fresh, clean and precise. **+2009 Olek Bondonio Barbaresco Roncagliette: An earthy putty streak lies underneath its great Cherries Jubilee and strawberry-rhubarb notes. Needs time. ***(-)
2009 Cascina delle Rose Barbaresco Rio Sordo: a big, intense wine with a ton of persistence. ***
2009 Marchese Di Gresy Barbareco Martinenga: another fleshy but flashy wine from this great estate. ***-
2009 La Spinona Di Berutti Pietro Barbaresco Bricco Faset: oaky and ashy but still a stylish powerhouse that stood out from the pack. ***
2009 Ca' du Rabaja Barbaresco Rabaja: Oaky for sure but impressively deep and even flashy fruit and lively acidity make this one of my favorites. ***-

Can you believe the tractor?  Ah, the romance of grape growing in Barbaresco.  

The afternoons at Nebbiolo Prima are meant to be opportunities to visit wineries throughout the region. Some put on special affairs like Wednesday's much-anticipated vertical of Montezemolo and Rivetto while others just entertain individuals.  Today's afternoon, though, featured 20 minute helicopter rides over the vineyards of, depending on the luck of the draw, either the Barbaresco and Roero villages or the Barolo zone.  Brandon and I drew the latter and had the chance to see the stark differences in topography between the great amphitheaters of Barbaresco and Neive versus the more broad expanses on the other side of the Tanaro River that lead to the concentrated vineyard zones of the Roero, all from 1500 meters.  The weather was perfect and my only regret is that it was over so fast!  I can only imagine how much it costs to operate a helicopter and cycle through the 150 or so of us (actually fewer because there were more than a few people that said 'no way' to going up in one of those tiny choppers!) but a half hour each in both zones would have been perfect for me.  I know that after Sunday's ground-level reconnoitering of the Barolo villages, it would have been cool for Brandon to see it all from above.  Still, this was a new feature at Nebbiolo Prima and, for me anyway, well worth the investment. 

This is a view of Barbaresco I took from the front seat of my chopper! 

Dinner in Alba....Enoclub


There are at least several 'group' dinners at Nebbiolo Prima where the winemakers, buyers and journalists split up to attend.  A third of us wound up at Enoclub, a great wine and food destination in Alba, in the Palazzo Savona. I wound up at a table in the far back of the cellar, a sort of claustrophobic spot that gave me the willies but thanks to the lovely company, Enzo Boglietti and his lovely wife and the owners of Le Ginestre, I made it through the rather typical Piemontese fare and odd assortment on wines.  The best part of the evening was wandering the streets of Alba in search of bubbles to no avail only to wind up with a magnum of Ca' del Bosco Franciacorta at the little wine bar right next to Enoclub with Lorenzo Alutto, owner of Ca' du Rabaja who wound up buying the bottle for us!  Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good......


Tuesday, May15

AM: 63 wines, Barbaresco 2009, Treiso, Neive
Barbaresco  2007 Riserva
Barolo 2008 Novello

An excruciating morning...the relatively mild, easy-to-drink 2009 Barbareschi from the Barbaresco village gave way to a confoundingly uneven set of wines from Treiso and Neive followed by a couple of dozen utterly perplexing 2007 Riservas from Barbaresco.

2009 Neive, Treiso, the generalities: we're dealing with a more structured, less overtly fruity set of wines here. Cherries Jubilee has given way to red currant and strawberry rhubarb-like fruit that, at least for now, often misses a mid-palate before giving way to some very young tannins. no shortage of oak here either but, at least, the density of fruit seems to be able to cover it. The wines clearly have good fruit. On the darker side of the ledger...the wines, as a group, lack backing acidity, show, sometimes, too much alcohol and are, for lack of a better word, actually rather bland. I used words like 'beef bouillon,' 'soy sauce,' 'stewed fruit' and 'balsamico' more than once. Too many times, I reckon. More flawed bottles too...fume-y chemical, sauerkraut, lactic acid and one that smelled just like a wet campfire site.

All that being said, I did find wines I liked and caution everyone, especially myself, that these are snapshots of a wine's evolution and the ultimate proof of the attributes of the 2009 vintage in Barbaresco will be when the finished wines grow up and hopefully out of this awkward stage.

2009 Ca' del Baio Barbaresco Valgrande, Treiso- I used this as the benchmark for the vintage against which to measure all the followers..jammy red fruit, toasty oak, nice intensity. ***?
2009 Ceretto Barbaresco Bricco Asili Bernadot- sweeter, obvious winemaking flavors but silky and textural. Easy to like and one of the least extreme. ***
2009 Abrigo Orlando Barbaresco Rocche Meruzzano, Treiso: lavishly oaked and packed w sweet fruit, this is the benchmark on steroids. ***
2009 Montaribaldi Barbareco Palazzina, Neive: oak, dark plummy fruit, broad and even with good intensity. ***-2009 Dante Rivetti Barbareco Bric Micca, Neive: another benchmark, good intense fruit, reasonable acidity, a bit of panache! **+
2009 Vigin Barbaresco Nonn Orlando, Cotta, Neive: lots of oak but still quite savory.
2009 Adriano Marco e Vittorio Barbaresco Basarin, Neive: ***-

Ok...there is no avoiding talking about the 2007 Barbaresco Riserva. In my many years of tasting at this event I have never encountered a more disjointed, disappointing set of wines than the 2007 Barbaresco Riserva. We spent a lot of time this evening discussing our theories (overripe ness combined with high pH and high humidity...blah,blah,blah) but the fact remains that some stellar names made some profoundly weird wines in 2007 and we wondered what the motivation was for even trying in this warm, low acid vintage. The faults were many and obvious: VA (I have a high tolerance for volatile acidity but not to this degree), too much oak (like aw-ay too much oak in some cases), muddy aromas and flavors and pushy acids and disjointed acids. The oddest thing at all is that the wines looked and tasted like they were far older than they were.

Ok...even odder was how consistent these flaws were across the board...of 16 wines in the flight, I found only three worth mentioning in a positive light. I haven't had the chance to talk with any winemakers yet who made Riserva in 2007 except Katia Rivetti at Dante Rivetti, but, of course, hers was one of the best. I did speak to several who didn't make a Riserva and it seems their restraint turned out to be the right choice.
Here are the exceptions to the disaster that was this flight:
2007 Dante Rivetti Barbaresco Riserva Bricco di Neive: visited here after the tasting an Katia was kind enough to offer excellent 1990, 1996, 1998, 2003 and 2006 Riservae. This 2007, while not quite up to those standards, was very, very good. Obvious oak but there's real substance here. Another keeper from a property that doesn't mess around. ***
2007 Roberto Sarotto Barbaresco Riserva Cura
2007 Roberto Sarotto Barbaresco Riserva Gaia Principe
I don't know this producer but he certainly got my attention....the former, a nicely balanced, fresh red with good color and a great nose was only surpassed by the same producer's Gaia-Principe, both from Neive. The end....I have nothing more to say on the subject other than I will be very surprised if these can age at all. I will not be subjecting any from this tasting on our customers without finding that I was very badly mistaken!

2008 Barolo


Much has already been written about the 2008 vintage in Barolo and it's interesting to get to the bottom of all the hype.  Its reputation is as a 'terroir' vintage, one that emphasizes character over bombast and, I think based on what we tasted today, that much is true.  But whether or not it can take its place among the most 'classic' vintages of the reason will take time to decide.  I think the modern Barolo, even in a cooler, more structured vintage like 2008, has a riper veneer of fruit coating its tannins and those more elemental characteristics that show, say, a Vignarionda verus a Margheria are perhaps lost for good.  Of course I am getting ahead of myself.  What we are tasting today are certainly some excellent wines and a refreshing (literally) change from the softer, creamier renditions of Barolo from 2007 we tasted last year.  This flight consists of wines of 8 wines from Novello.Three were worth remarking on:

2008 Elvio Cogno Barolo Ravera: red fruit, mint, orange marmalade. Yum! ***
2008 Giacomo Grimaldi Barolo Sotto Castello di Novello:  lavish and well oaked. ***
2008 Le GinestreBarolo Sotto Castello di Novello:  lower toned, soft and elegant. ***

The 2009 Domaine de la Romanee Contis

Contemplating the DRC tasting held today in SF over a refreshing glass of Ravello Bianco and a pizza at A-16.

The tasting this year was at Quince and, as usual, ably and professionally hosted by longtime Domaine importer Wilson-Daniels.

There is a ton of hype and anticipation regarding the Domaine's 2009s. Domaine director and host Aubert de Villaine compared the vintage to 1959....high praise indeed. And, as a rare bonus, it's a vintage of quantity as well as quality. Predictably, there was a lot of fawning over the wines after the tasting, and a lot of it is deserved for sure.

The Richebourg was certainly the best I've ever tasted, the Montrachet haunting with a finish I can still taste, and the R-C probably one for the ages.

Also on the sizable plus side of the ledger: the domaine's new Corton is fabulous. Made only from older vines in Clos de Roi, Renardes and, mostly, Bressandes, it's a departure wine with a great, earthy feel to it...all black truffles, violets and cardamom spice. It captures a sense of finesse I rarely experience with wines from Corton. You could call it oaky, but so what? It sure tastes good.

The Domaine is replanting the younger vines in this holding, leased from the old Prince Florent de Merode holding, to better material and the hope is that there will someday be three DRC Corton cuvees. Something for you youngsters to hope for!

La Tache is a blockbuster: plush and sexy. This will always be the DRC I would go for given my druthers, and 2009 is excellent.

And the Richebourg? Sleek, sexy and elegant in every good sense of the word. Easy to understand, it had a perfume that couldn't wait to get out of the glass. If I had tasted it blind, I might have confused its cool, liquid perfume for the R-C.

Wait....did I just write 'easy to understand' and then compare the wine to the notoriously inscrutable R-C in the same paragraph? Hmmmm.

Romanee-Conti is, in 2009, an amalgam of the best attributes of the La Tache (more textural and voluptuous) and Richebourg (underlying structure and a more feminine sensibility). Sort of like Renoir painting an Egon Schiele model. (Or is that the other way around?) It's less restrained and minerally than the 2008 but, after doing this tasting now for many vintages, it is understandable as an R-C. Raj said it might be the best R-C ever. I can't comment on that but I do know it will be the most expensive!

And Montrachet....atypical in that it wasn't as overtly voluptuous or tropical as some past vintages (2007!) nor is the acidity as obvious as was the 2008. Jordan Mackay, who sat next to me at the tasting, called it "a Montrachet from Chassagne rather than Puligny" as it showed Chardonnay's floral and orchard side and tasted of being siphoned through mineral, yet was not at all sharp or acidic. The finish was creme brûlée and lasted over a minute. Spectacular.

But the empirical taster in me found some things with which to quibble.

Yes, nature was magnanimous in 2009 but I wonder if, in the case of the Vosne 1er Cru, comprised of the Domaine's younger vines, if it might have been too much so. Compared to the really fine and focused 2008, 2009 seemed downright light and a trifle too crisp. It has great freshness and spark but is there enough there there? I loved the 2008 and maybe it was asking too much of the 2009 to match it.

And I'll insert another note here. Something was up with the pouring, either with the glassware at Quince or with the conditioning wine. My first impression of the V-R 1er, the second wine after the Corton, was of tankiness bordering on corkiness. My neighbor Allen noticed this as well, but after recoating our glasses with the wine inside (the glasses were supposedly pre-conditioned with 2007 Leflaive Meursault!) that negative impression faded. Could it have been an off bottle of Meursault to blame? I don't know, but the Vosne never dug itself out of the doghouse in my estimation. But, to be fair, by the time I tried it a third time, I had had R-C and Montrachet ahead of it.

Echezeaux was pretty...very pretty... with plenty of blood orange, ferrous and rhubarb backing it up, and it added weight with each successive pass, but still, I'd call it a good Echezeaux and not a great one.

Grands Echezeaux was, as usual, a cipher to me. Chunkier and edgier than the Echezeaux (nothing unusual there) the scorched red earth, meat blood, broad tannin and introverted nose reminded more of Nebbiolo than Pinot Noir. It's an understatement when talking about DRC, but this will require time!

Romanee St. Vivant is usually my bellwether wine for DRC but the 2009 was curiously restrained and ungenerous, even after two or three passes. The texture was spot-on but I missed the sandalwood incense nose I remember fondly from 2008 and, especially, 2007, and there was an uncharacteristic chunkiness that segued backwards towards Grands Echezeaux rather than ahead to the La Tache. To be fair, de Villaine, pointed out that the RSV had shown better two days earlier in New York, and that sort of staginess is not uncommon. Still, for me, it was puzzling showing for this, usually my second favorite, of the DRC crus.

All in all, I think DRC fans will be very happy with the 2009s. Whether or not they will prove the equal of 1959 is for another generation to judge, but I do believe that the trifecta of 2008, 2009 and, most likely, 2010 will prove to be one of the most glorious strings of vintages ever at this august address and I am honored to be around to enjoy the ride.

Dear Dr. Sachi

Dear Dr. Sachi: I know I promised you to lose 17 pounds before my next checkup and I wanted to let you know how it's going.
Pretty well, really. Here in Ireland I've been limiting myself to no more than two Jameson 12-years a day. And on the rocks just so you know I am staying well hydrated. I've cut beer consumption down to a few ha-pints daily of which no more than half are stouts. They do say that 'Guinness is good food' and I am taking them at their word. I am limiting beer consumption only to visits to pubs that serve food. Crab claws, goat cheese wontons and chips are all healthy intermezzos between meals, no? Can i help it if the chips I ordered for lunch yesterday came with Lasagna?
OK, Sachi, there is a fair bit of wine available here and I feel obliged to try some, but always in moderation. Well, I suppose you could argue that a moderate amount of a lot of wine is Immoderate but let's not split hairs here, doc.
And we always drink our wine with our dinners, which have been very healthy...Irish stew, whole pork loins and the like.
Uh,Is cheese a vegetable or a fruit? Whichever, you'll be pleased that I am getting plenty of servings.
You sound petulant! Maybe I have been letting myself go a bit here in Ireland, but I promise I'll get serious about losing this extra poundage when we get to Paris next week.
Really
Faithfully, John

From Nebbiolo To Lagrein In A Single Punto

Yes. Serralunga. Like in the 2006 vintage, 2007 was very good here. It's an area that definitely performs well in warmer vintages as it ripens later and tends to produce wines with brighter acidity. In leaner years they can be hard, austere and long term propositions but in vintages 2007, Serralunga is, literally I guess, the sweet spot of Barolo. In any tasting of this many wines, as I mentioned previously, I look for a benchmark- a wine against which to measure the attributes of them all and in 2007, it was the Rivetto brother's *** Serralunga Barolo. Here is Barolo's trademark 'tar and roses' nose with strawberry candy, crumbled red earth and cinnamon aromas in high relief. It's rare that my favorite wine in a tasting is also that benchmark but the Rivetto was pretty close. Here is my list of standouts:

2007 Rivetto 'Del commune di Serralunga d'Alba ***

2007 Bruna Grimaldi Badarina ***(-) All her wines performed very well this week

2007 Pio Cesare Ornato *** yes, oaky and unabashedly modern but even though it's no benchmark for Nebbiolo, it tastes pretty good!

2007 Paolo Manzone Meriame *** This is the best ever from this producer.

2007 Vietti Lazzarito *** Another wine destined for massive pointage!

2007 Luigi Pira Margheria ***? Reduced nose gave way to massive and sexy fruit underneath. Shows the breed of this good vineyard.

2007 Ceretto Bricco Rocche Prapo *** Impeccable balance.

2007 Germano Ettore Prapo *** This famous wine is all class!

The week's tasting ends with a decidedly mixed bag of 2005 Barolo Riservae that ranged from big, sweet and OTT to high strung and tannic. I had my share of favorites, of course, but will refrain from making any sort of blanket judgement on either the current state of 2005 or Barolo Riservae because it was impossible for me to get any sort of clear read. I did like.....

2005 Castello di Verduno Monvigliero Riserva *** No, not surprised. Verduno.

2005 Franco Molina Cascina Rocca Villero Riserva *** Falletto

2005 Cordero di Montezemolo Gorette Riserva *** from Magnum....actually this is the sun-side of Gattera (La Morra) and a winery-only deal. Massive wine and lots of fun.

2005 Rivetto Leon Riserva *** From Serralunga. What's up with Rivetto and why do their wines keep appearing in my best-of lists?

2005 Palladino San Bernardo Riserva *** From Serralunga. Nope...never heard of it either.

2005 Germano Ettore Lazzarito *** Serralunga...Another producer I have to get back into the habit of watching....great producer, great vineyard...any questions?

2005 Massolino Vigna Rionda ***+ Serralunga...why not save the best for last? Noble wine with about 1000 years of cellar life ahead of it. Another blue chip.

Good-bye all. It's time to fire up the Punto and head for Alto Adige.

In bright sunshine with the new i-pad pumping music through Punto's teeny-weeny speakers, it's off to Bolzano,about a three-hour journey. About half the trip is nondescript autostrada but when you turn north before Trento, the amazing dolomitic cliffs of the Valle Adige rise seemingly out of nowhere to create one of the most dramatic drives in Italy. It was impossible to keep my eyes on the road while doing 80 through one-lane construction zones surrounded by enormous Polish and Czech big rigs AND properly pay homage to the incredible cliffs on either side, at the top of each crag is perched the ruins of a medieval castle. Once you pass the Ferrari sparkling wine facility on the left, the trip goes to the next level. No, this ain't the River Po anymore!

I've been to Bolzano before but I remember arriving late and leaving early after a very long night at Lageder. That would not be the case this time. I was checked into the (recommended) Hotel Alpi downtown and was eating pretzels and drinking local Bolzan beer by about three in the afternoon.

A couple of observations. This is Italy but, thanks to its proximity to Austria, is, technically bilingual. Well, bilingual exclusively in German, I should say. Though every street sign, package and menu is written in both Italian and German, no one really uses Italian here. That was sort of a relief actually as I found my years of high school German actually useful (as opposed to my pitiful Italian) but, I am ashamed to say, English works better here than anywhere else I've ever been in Italy and that worked just fine for me.

Bolzano must be the base of any trip you take to this part of Northern Italy. It's a little convoluted to get into the old Centro from the spaghetti tangle of roads leading in, but it's sure worth it. The rococo architecture against the backdrop of those amazing cliffs will take your breath away and the riverside park a must-visit as it offers glimpses into the hardcore Heidi Country just a few kilometers away.

Peter rolled in from Palermo, Sicily (luggage-less of course) just in time to catch the last of the day light and scope out one of the restaurants-cum-breweries right in the center of the city for dinner. We got our Schnitzel on for the rest of the evening as we compared our respective trip notes, ordered bottle after bottle of wine and devoured everything on the menu as Bolzano heated up for its surprising night life.

Verduno

Verduno has become an interesting frontier for me. The smallest and least talked about (ok, Roddi, Novello and Grinzane deserve equal time as far as obscurity) of Barolo's zones, as time goes on, it is gradually carving out a reputation for producing Barolo's most elegant wines. It is here where Pinot Noir and Nebbiolo comes closest to crossing paths. Located a few kilometers 'behind' La Morra, it is less protected by it's hill, hence it's cooler but its best vineyards (vineyard, really, as there seems to be the sun-baked undulating curtain of Monvegliero and everything else) actually face La Morra and get plenty ripe although, once one tastes through the wines, you quickly realize that the wines here have more finesse than its neighbors'.

Three of Verduno's best producers, Castello di Verduno, Alessandria Fratelli and Burlotto invited us out to the hamlet's beautiful park for an orientation of the area and to taste through some current releases and some older wines to show that more elegant doesn't necessarily mean shorter-lived. The view from the edge of the park is stunning. You can see just about the entire Barolo and Barbaresco zone although the rolling Brunate cru obscures the town of Barolo itself. The hilltop of La Morra towers over everything while Serralunga shimmers in the far distance.
Though there are some good Verduno vineyards between the park and La Morra, the best are off to the left where the afternoon sun warms them. The best known is Monvegliero and I think all three of these producers farm it. The Verduno 2007s are pretty ripe and maybe don't have the freshness to count them as truly elegant expressions of Nebbiolo but I will let time sort that out. The Nebbiolo in the showcased 2008s, however, was very pretty- all three wines had this sort of cherry-lavender thing going on and the tannins real supple. These are fresh and elegant, reminding me of three Santenays as much as three Baroli.

Where the tasting got very interesting (of course, as a certified wine geek, I enjoyed tasting the wineries' juicy Pelavergas as much as anything) though was when we got to the older wines. The 1988 Burlotto out of a double magnum was creamy, complex and briary- only 75% of the way up the hill- while Alesandria's 1985 was remarkable for its youth (I haven't had any 1985s in a while) and polish. Of great interest was Castello di Verduno's 1989 Monvegliero. This has always been a favorite vintage and I've a lot of wines from the heart of the appellation but none that I can remember from Verduno. It didn't disappoint: all cinnamon, sandalwood and lovely earth. It was one of those wines I hated to see disappear from the glass. This is why we wait.

What I will remember most from the spring afternoon was the fifteen minutes Colorado mate Brad and I spent nearly asleep on the lawn in the warm sunshine. But, if you don't like the weather in Barolo, wait ten minutes! In fact, off to the northwest it was getting very dark and as we boarded the bus from the hotel to go to Nebbiolo Prima's Grand Finale Party, there were tales of hail in Novello. By the time we drove the 15 minutes to the town of Barolo, enormous rain drops were falling from a badly bruised skies and the scramble was on to move a party for 350 with catering and live music into the narrow bowels of Barolo castle from its patio.

Of course the rain almost immediately stopped and when I fled the crowded, hot and steamy conditions downstairs for a glass of Arneis on the patio, I got to see one of those sunsets that will keep me coming back to Barolo forever.

That would be the perfect ending of course, but this year's Nebbiolo Prima added an extra tasting session to compensate for the reduced number of wines per sitting so I've got to get up bright and early tomorrow for that.....if I don't stay up too late with the guys and close down the bar.....again.

See You At The La Morra Starbuck's

It is with the end in sight that we file into the Ampelion for Thursday's penultimate tasting of the trip: seventy-or-so Baroli from La Morra and Monforte. As I sit down and leaf through the wines to come, I am expecting a stark contrast between the two communes, juicy and luscious from La Morra and bigger, more structured wines from Monforte. The only two 2007 Barolis I've had in America so far have been from La Morra and both have been extremely delicious, punchy wines with both lovely, elegant fruit and life on the back end. The prognosis for today's tasting is very positive.
But what happens, of course, is a lot more complicated. La Morra, like apparently the rest of Barolo, is a mixed bag. Ripe, underripe, overripe.....2007, despite the press, was no slam dunk.
What most had in common, interestingly enough, were descriptors involving coffee...in fact, by the end of the La Morra portion of the tasting, I was calling today 'Starbuck's Thursday.'

There was burnt coffee, espresso, roasted, spiced coffee, fig coffee, cherry coffee, peach coffee and even something I called celery coffee (don't get any ideas Starbuck's- it's not a good combination). There was latte, chai, even the odd caramel macchiato. And, no, I wasn't particularly in need of a cup a Joe when I sat down this morning. I don't even drink the stuff.

All that coffee seems to be a feature of these wines no matter the relative ripeness. Early in the tasting, as we plowed through lesser crus and village wines, that coffee in the nose and its related coarseness on the palate was very pronounced. It was in the early going where celery coffee and the peach macchiato were created! It was as we crawled into the better sites from top-quality producers where descriptors like fig, marzipan, cherry confit and cinnamon began to supplant all that damned coffee. But, even then, the coffee merely became mocha! Having said all this- and not being a coffee drinker myself- I liked if not loved- a lot more wines today than previously. The best have that bright snap I find myself craving when the fruit gets riper and more dominant. In fact, my list of favorite La Morra wines is quite long:

2007 Mario Marengo Barolo La Morra: I actually have this one in the shop already and, today, it is the first after nine straight ho-hum wines that I could call complete. Stylish, classically La Morra and very well balanced. ***

2007 Renato Ratti Barolo Conca: no surprise here. ***

2007 Bosco Agostino Barolo La Serra: Who? Here come the figs and if you can get around some big tannins, this is a very good wine.***

2007 Cascina del Monastero Barolo Bricco Luciani: Another new one on me. Complete and balanced. ***

2007 Cordero di Montezemolo Barolo Monfalletto-Gattera: Earns a mention here even though its roasted coffee tannins seemed to detract from an otherwise stylish wine. Revisit. **+

2007 Michele Chiarlo Barolo Cerequio: This too gets a mention because it is indicative of a problem I see around Barolo where the wines are 'good' but simply lack panache. Well balanced, perfectly ripe, nice oak but........ **+

2007 Rocche Costamagna Barolo Rocche dell'Annunziata: This lover boy and the Gagliasso below make me wish I could taste more wines from this absolutely great spot down the La Morra hill. ***

2007 Mario Gagliasso Barolo Rocche dell'Annunziata: Dark, dramatic, a Turkish coffee blend where everything else is 'Bucky's ***

2007 Ceretto Barolo Bricco Rocche Brunate: Now here is the flair I've been missing. fig coffee and all the condiments too!***

2007 Vietti Barolo Brunate: Knocked down by big tannins and what I suspect will be a big price. Outsized and made to be reckoned with. **+

2007 Andrea Oberto Barolo Vigneto Brunate: The third wine so far from this ultra modern producer who is clearly in love with his French barriques, is the charm. This one has enough fruit to be delicious. ***

What a difference a few kilometers makes. Down the La Morra hill and up the other side is Monforte d'Alba. Gone are La Morra's blue clay, pebbles and sand and say hello to redder, harder stuff that makes, well, redder, harder wines! I am not sure what to make of the Monforte lineup today as there are so many important wines from this appellation not represented today. Here's Grasso's Gavarini, for example, but not Case Mate and the absence of producers like Clerico, Conterno-Fantino, Scavino and host of others makes it hard to establish in my mind how much Monforte has actually achieved in 2007. Still, the descriptors are there. I wrote used words like ferrous, blood, fennel seed, scorched earth, cinnamon, cloves, tar and bitter almond (no, not cyanide) at one time or another over the next couple of dozen wines and, with the caveat that we won't taste Serralunga until tomorrow, these might be the best-structured wines for the longer haul in Barolo. As I taste through, I get hints of 1996 with flashes of the rounder but even-keeled 1998s thrown in for good measure. But, again, some are short on style...that panache that makes them memorable. Again, if only there were some benchmarks in here, we'd know better. My stand outs included:

2007 Abbona Marziano Barolo Pressenda: Oaky for sure but here is the Monforte Barolo carved in beautiful relief. ***

2007 Elio Grasso Barolo Gavarini Chiniera: This has always been my third favorite of the Grasso wines and if it is this good, what must the Case Mate be like? *** (I don't know if they are making a Runcot in 2007-forgot to ask)

2007 Mauro Veglio Barolo Castelletto: I search each category for a benchmark wine, one that shows all the attributes- positive or negative- of the area and this is it for Monforte. Not the most stylish wine in the world but the pieces are all there. **+

2007 Prunotto Barolo Bussia: Juicy, intense, balanced- even silky- and very easy to love.

2007 Parusso Armando di Parusso Barolo Bussia: Oak contributes rather than hinders here as it's a ruddy, brooding wine with an almost too intense array of Monforte flavors. ***

2007 Podere Rocche dei Manzoni Barolo Vigna Cappella di Santo Stefano: This is a big boy that will blow your doors in if it ever grows into its outsized tannin. ***?

May 11th, The Barolo Monologues

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......