Some wines with Jeff Chilcott

Officially, Jeff Chilcott works at Marchesi di Grésy. Unofficially, he is like New Zealand's wine ambassador to the Langhe. He is a guy everyone in the Piemonte wine business knows and likes.

To break the ice with a Piemontese winemaker we have just met on this trip, we needed just to mention Jeff's name, which would inevitably lead to the relating of an epic wine experience or the fishing out of a phone to show a photo of a 15 bottle lineup from a dinner with Jeffrey a couple of nights ago.

Jeff likes small family-run trattorias, full of the local people, and asked me not to post the names of the ones we ate at. They are the sort of places where the menu is set for you, and delicious, and where magnums of local wines are passed around from table to table for you to try ...

We had two great meals with Jeff and friends and these were a few of the highlight wines:

• 1997 Vietti Barbera d'Alba Vigna Vecchia Scarrone

  Italy, Piedmont, Alba, Barbera d'Alba

  Vietti proprietor Mario Cordero's son Lorenzo brought along two excellent Viettis to lunch ... One of the key things I've learned from a week of tasting in the Langhe is to fully appreciate Barbera, especially those from G Conterno and Vietti. These can be serious, age worthy wines ... The Scarrone had a gorgeous, perfumed nose of dark flowers and ripe black cherries, blackcurrants and some Asian spices. A beautiful, dark fruited Barbera on palate, approaching full maturity. However, it had no suggestion of secondary nuance. Concentrated, rich and powerful. A serious wine. Good acidity, structure and length. There's no hurry to drink this Barbera. 'From a warmer year, which Barbera likes', said Jeff.

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• 1996 Vietti Barolo Lazzarito

  Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

  A beautiful bouquet, with subtle creosote aromas. A broad, rich nose of red berries, raisins and raspberry jam, with spices and gentle florals. Also broad and rich on the palate, with lots of bright red fruit. Very precise and focused ('a high acid year' said Jeff), but with serious architecture, depth and scale. Very balanced, with spherical, suave tannins. Again, nothing secondary on the palate. I liked this Barolo very much but some around the table thought it showed too much new oak. Drinking very well now, I'd give a bottle of this wine 5+ years, looking for some evolution.

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• 2006 Tenute Cisa Asinari dei Marchesi di Grésy Barbaresco Martinenga Camp Gros

  Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco

  A lovely nose of spices, dark cherries and other dark fruit. On palate, savoury, umami flavours with blackcurrants and other dark fruits, dry earth, soy and mixed dried herbs. Powerful and driven with good structure, fruit weight and length. A beautiful match with my preserved fig dish and local cheeses. Thierry and I debated whether we preferred this wine or the 2007 Camp Gros we recently had. I preferred this wine and Thierry preferred the 2007. Years ahead of it, of course.

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• 1985 Gigi Rosso Barolo Riserva Arione Sôrì Dell'Ulivo

  Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

  Andrew's wine had been sitting in a decanter for more than two hours before we broached it. Still, the bouquet was a little musty and dusty, with fragrances of dried and preserved red fruits. It was also showing some oxidisation with porty, raisiny aspects, suggesting a ruby port with a little age. On palate, a pleasurable, mellow, savoury older Barolo. The fruit was at the red end of the spectrum, with flavours of dry underbrush, dried herbs and pipe tobacco, as well as raisins and dates, suggesting, to me anyway, a glazed old English Christmas cake. Jeff attributed the pruniness we all saw to the vintage, not the effect of evolution. Clearly a wine in a secondary phase, but nothing tertiary here. The tannins were present but now nicely rounded and resolved and there was acidity, but it was not over-prominent. Thanks Andrew!

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• 2008 Cavallotto Barolo Riserva Vignolo

  Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

  A gift from the winery. Our contribution to the dinner. Excellent potential with this wine. A little reduced on both bouquet and palate. Fresh and very intense aromas of dark cherries and blackberries, liquorice and lifted dark florals. Also a suggestion of citrus juice I sometimes see on Baroli. On palate, as well as the reduction, the wine was a little primary and closed, although it did open somewhat with time in the glass. Vibrant and crystalline red fruit flavours. Elegant, refined and well balanced. I'd give this wine 10+ years cellar time and a lot of oxygen if I did open it earlier.

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• 2003 Tenute Cisa Asinari dei Marchesi di Grésy Barbaresco Martinenga

  Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco

  Jeff very generously brought along to dinner three magnums of Marchesi from his cellar. Talking about the first, he described the super hot vintage of 2003 as 'The year we went back to school to learn about winemaking'. He said, 'Imagine you are a chef. In 2003, you can cook whatever you want but the oven is only set to high'. A sweetly fruited nose of ripe dark plums, tobacco and spices. On the palate, super-concentrated and very ripe cherries, stewed plums and a touch of crème de cassis. Also some minerality. Seemed lower acidity but relatively fresh given the vintage. This wine won't I suspect make really old bones but is a tribute to the winemaking team.

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• 1995 Tenute Cisa Asinari dei Marchesi di Grésy Barbaresco Martinenga Gaiun

  Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco

  Jeff talked about the challenging vintage of 1995 and then served us the Gaiun and Camp Gros side-by-side from magnum. Thierry, Helen and I preferred the Gaiun over the Camp Gros. Darker colour than the Camp Gros. A nose of tar, savoury nuances, dark earth and tobacco leaf. 'Smoked green pepper' Helen said, meant as a positive descriptor. On palate, I thought the Gaiun was superb. It was drinking fairly young but the tannins were nicely softened and resolved. Tarry and earthy. Quite fresh and precise with the acidity and the oak matching the fruit well. Drink or hold.

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• 1995 Tenute Cisa Asinari dei Marchesi di Grésy Barbaresco Martinenga Camp Gros

  Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco

  A brighter colour than the Gaiun. Aromas in the darker fruit end of the spectrum, more lifted and primary, with balsamic, espresso and liquorice notes. The Camp Gros gave the impression of more oak on bouquet, which surprised us as it sees less new oak than the Gaiun. In the mouth, more primary and concentrated, with more fruit weight than the Gaiun.Riper, deep, dark fruits, with soy, dark herbs, liquorice and Black Doris plum. Plush and glossy. Good freshness and acidity. Very powerful and quite long. The palate seemed to show more woodiness than the Gaiun, perhaps due to the greater ripeness of the underlying material? Years to go here too obviously.

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Mille grazie Jeff! See you soon in NZ.