Community Tasting Note

• forceberry wrote: 85 points

  November 15, 2022 - 14% alcohol.
  
  Medium-deep and noticeably old nutty brown color. The nose feels old, tertiary and slightly aldehydic with sweet aromas of syrupy richness and raisiny dark fruits, some aldehydic notes of nutty rancio and sorrel, a little bit of vanilla custard, light arrack tones, a hint of dried dates and a touch of tar. The wine feels rich, quite concentrated and surprisingly substantial on the palate with a full body and bold, tertiary flavors of prunes and dried dates, some oxidative notes of meat stew and soy sauce, light nutty notes of rancio, a little bit of balsamic VA, a hint of vanilla custard and a touch of wizened black cherries. Even though the fruit department is going downhill, the wine still retains remarkable sense of structure, thanks to its high acidity and quite formidable and grippy yet not rough or aggressive tannins. The finish is rich, ripe and quite old with a somewhat tired aftertaste of raisiny dark fruit and dried dates, some aldehydic notes of sorrel, a little bit of balsamic richness, light oxidative nuances of soy sauce and rancio, a hint of wizened black cherries and a touch of pine tar.
  
  It's obvious this wine is already past its peak - especially if one takes into account how incredibly impressive this wine was some five years ago, when I last tasted it. However, one can still obviously taste the exceptional quality of the 1964 vintage, because the wine still retains such impressive sense of weight, power and structure that are almost unheard-of in other Barolos of that age. Even if the nose feels quite old, tired and aldehydic, the wine is much more enjoyable on the palate, showing mainly just very tertiary fruit framed with an impressive structure - and relatively little of those oxidative, aldehydic tones that tend to distract from and not add to pleasure. Although the wine didn't live to the expectations set by the bottle we had tasted earlier, this was still relatively drinkable for what it was. It's hard to assess whether we had a compromised bottle this time or if the wine is already on a decline, but as the wine doesn't really benefit from any additional aging, any remaining bottles are best drunk sooner rather than later. This is a formidable wine that should be enjoyed while it is still alive and it might be its days are getting numbered.

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3 Comments

• thesternowl commented:

  2/22/23, 8:54 AM - Thanks for sharing the note. I have a bottle that I was planning to open sooner than later. Curious if you gave this any time to open up or you just popped and poured.

• forceberry commented:

  3/1/23, 4:05 AM - Lucky you! This wine was double-decanted a few hours prior to tasting it.

• thesternowl commented:

  3/1/23, 6:23 AM - Helpful feedback. Thank you!

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