Blind 1989 and 1990 Barolo

a Cena - Ristorante e enoteca, Portland OR
Tasted Friday, May 16, 2014 by David Paris (dbp) with 667 views

Introduction

Shane organized this fantastic gathering of friends to enjoy a head to head of 1989 Barolo vs 1990 Barolo. a Cena was a wonderful restaurant for the occasion and treated us quite well, with fantastic food to pair with these wines. My big take away from the event was that between these two vintages, producer style was more important than the vintage, and the modernist movement was burning strong at this point... Blind it was still totally apparent which wines were in the modernist camp, and I fear these wines are already falling apart. Yeah, traditional Barolo is unapproachable in its youth, but the fruit is so beautiful once they're mature. The modern wines are fruit filled on release, but turn to soy sauce with age.

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Flight 1 - White flight (3 Notes)

  • 1993 The Eyrie Vineyards Chardonnay 85 Points

    USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Dundee Hills

    Poured blind. Beautiful golden color. Smells of sweet burnt honey and candied popcorn. More burnt flavors on the palate, this time of honeysuckle. There's also a strong notion of oxidized oak. Spice and acid dial up on the finish, but it's a little bit awkward. There's some minerality, but also a lot of odd oak notions lingering. Being this was poured before a blind Barolo dinner, I guessed this to be a slightly older Piedmont Chardonnay... ok, so it's Oregon.

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  • 2004 Champagne Fleury Champagne Cuvée Robert Fleury Extra Brut 91 Points

    France, Champagne

    Lovely sweet peanut brittle aroma with integrated minarality and a nice nuttiness. Really great aromas. More nutty notes enter the palate, which is smooth in texture with lots of tiny bubbles. Really nutty notes. Some meatiness on the finish. Perhaps a charcuterie board. Some puckering lemons, and a really strong puckering notion lingering that coats the mouth.

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  • 2010 Johan Vineyards Method Champenoise Brut Nature

    USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley

    I don't believe this is released yet, and is the first disgorgement. It's a 3/5ths blend of Chardonnay, 2/5s Pinot Noir. Lots of very large bubbles. The wine smells like apple sauce. Yeasty and pretty light on the palate. Nice and soft, but needs some more nerve and more acidic attack. Pretty light flavors. More slight yeast on the soft finish, but here things get pretty elegant. It's a light wine and requires attention, but on the finish the soft, lingering acidity is quite pretty. Really dials up and hangs with you, but it's not all enveloping. Love the finish, but the rest still needs time to come together.

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Flight 2 - Blind Barolo Flight 1 (2 Notes)

  • 1990 Fratelli Seghesio Barolo Vigneto la Villa 92 Points

    Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

    Fairly red in color with just the slightest bricking. This smells lovely right from the get go! Some dusty dirt, but quite exuberant red berry notes as well. Lovely, but really began to open and sing more and more as it was left in the glass. Very smooth palate entry, with some initial tannins, but it's fairly smooth and soft right now. Dusty as its held in the mouth, with some meaty notions. Lovely eruption of strawberry acid on thee finish. Spicy, with nice tart earthy notions. Quite a lot of lingering acidity, and this really has a sense of erupting even 10 seconds after swallowing. Quite puckering. Good stuff. A very nicely drinking 1990 that's surprisingly firmly in the balanced (modern/traditional) camp.

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  • 1989 Azienda Bricco Rocche (Ceretto) Barolo Prapò 91 Points

    Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

    Compared to the Seghesio poured along side it, this has more bricking color. Slightly oxidized aromas, showing some dusty stewed fruit; prunes and soy sauce. The palate is really dusty, with some funky dirty cellar and barrels, but plenty of tannins building. This gets grippy and then reveals tons of red apple skins. You need to hold this on the palate a while for the fruit flavors to come to the fore and move those dusty flavors aside. Feels puckering in the mouth. Lots of acidity on the finish and quite puckering. Huge tartness lingers quite lovely. What a turn around from that nose, but I really love the acid on the back end. An interesting wine.

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Flight 3 - Blind Barolo Flight 2 (2 Notes)

After reveal:

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  • 1989 Poderi Aldo Conterno Barolo Colonnello 89 Points

    Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

    Poured blind alongside the 1990 Cascina Francia from his brother, my guess on this wine was "1990 from a modern producer." Aromas were soft and dusty. Doug called it talcum powder and I agree. Some soy sauce notions and curried Indian food notes. More soy on the palate, but also lots of skittles candy. Dusty, and pretty soft and not showing too much depth. Pretty mellow. Puckering, bitter finish. Feels like this is on the downward slope and not showing too much interest.

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  • 1990 Giacomo Conterno Barolo Cascina Francia 94 Points

    Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

    Quite a bit of dust on the nose, and this was quite closed down here, which had me worried. Luckily the palate and finish were open in spades! Hugely expansive fruit as this enters the mouth. It's lovely and soft but then a huge tannic wall hits, with lots of acidity and this just builds and builds in the mouth. There's loads of structural completeness that's nearly profound, but all the while everything is in perfect balance and harmony. So despite those huge tannins, it feels graceful in the mouth. Tannic attack on the initial finish, leaving the mouth puckering with tons of lingering acid as well. Again here the structure was absolutely beautiful and with lovely balance. So soft on the lingering notes. Guess was a traditional producer from '89. Nice showing for the '90!

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Flight 4 - Blind Barolo Flight 3 (3 Notes)

I love seeing the original price tag on this from a local retailer... crazy to think what these trade for now vs this.

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  • 1990 Vietti Barolo Castiglione 89 Points

    Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

    Quiet here too, with some dusty fruit and dusty tannin aromas. Mellow and soft palate, but then gets tannic as its held on the palate. It takes a good 10-20 seconds in the mouth to begin to develop some fruit. Grippy with nice body, but a bit quiet on the complexity. The finish shows some prunes, dust, and overall is quite mellow and shows tart red apples. Tastes like it's at its maturity.

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  • 1989 Poderi Aldo Conterno Barolo Vigna Cicala 90 Points

    Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

    More funk on this one, with some dusty meat aromas. Tons of tart candied cherry on the palate. Tannins building, but they're pretty soft. Nice on the palate, but pretty straight forward. Very nice soft fruit showing up on the puckering, tart finish. Quite lovely.

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  • 1990 Bartolo Mascarello Barolo

    Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

    Being that I had this wine two years ago and it knocked it out of the park, I'm going to refrain from scoring this as something just wasn't quite right here. The aromas were fairly nice, but showing some stewed fruit and more Indian food aromas. Floral and pretty, including strawberry notes too. A good nose. On the palate, this certainly needed aeration to get anything out of it. It's soft texturally but pretty darn mellow, showing tartness of red apple skins and some soy notes. It feels over the hill. Quite grippy on the finish, which is acidicly tart. Very puckering notions linger, with more red apple flavors and not much else. I wonder if this bottle saw some heat somewhere along the way? It tasted a little muted compared to what I'd expect from this wine. Drinking around 89 points.

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Flight 5 - Blind Barolo Flight 4 (3 Notes)

  • 1990 Marengo Marenda Barolo Cerequio 86 Points

    Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

    Very fruit forward nose, with nice notes of strawberry and chalk. Very soft and mellow on the palate, and softly fruited. Quite mellow showing some graphite, but has a quite modern bend to things. Tannic as all get out on the gritty finish, but really not much left here. Seemed flat.

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  • 1989 Guasti Clemente Barolo Riserva 89 Points

    Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

    This was a polarizing wine. Lots of people just found this completely over blown and modern, whereas somehow for me it was the best of this last flight of three wines. Yes, plenty of fruit on the nose, but I found it fairly lovely when coupled wit some gravel dust. Yes very large and fruit filled finish, but to be it felt balanced and not too new worldly. Soft and fruity finish as well. Ok, so maybe not the most typical Barolo, but I could still find it as Barolo.

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  • 1989 Michele Chiarlo Barolo Cerequio 87 Points

    Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

    This smells of a fruit extracted bomb. Apple skins. Loads of extracted fruit on the palate. Fruity though very puckering. Pretty boring and straightforward. Too much in the modern camp at this time.

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Flight 6 - Unblind Piedmont desert (2 Notes)

Closing

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