March 9, 2024 - Very pale colour, a bit more vibrant than the Via Nuova 2008. Light, delicate aroma - fine red cherry with dried flower, leaf. Shows some sweet spice too, perhaps from barrique. Smells less mature than Via Nuova 08 tasted at same time. Fresh palate - fine fruit still with some primary notes, alongside savoury. Super elegant, refined tannin. Could age for longer. In a nice balanced place. Very subtle and fine.
November 19, 2023 - Barolo and Truffle dinner (Flat 9): In a really good place, with no hard corners and the wood almost entirely absorbed by the fruit, leaving only some vestigial spice (which went superbly with the food). Cool, poised and dark-toned, with vibrant acidity and that je ne sais quoi that really delicious wine often has. Everyone seemed to enjoy this a lot.
May 20, 2023 - Bien d'accord avec Dionysos 1920 sur la complexité de ce vin. En plus des notes déjà décrites, j'y ai perçu de mon côte du balsamique, de la graine de céleri, de l'aneth, de la truffe et de la rose rouge. La couleur était encore bien foncée mais un peu brouillée.
La bouteille ouverte hier était mature. À ce moment où se pose la question "aurait-il été meilleur bu plus tôt"? Possiblement, mais ce début de vieillesse m'a beaucoup plût dans ce cas. Les tannins étaient fondus et l'acidité à point. Une bien belle bouteille!
Basé sur cette expérience, je serais porté à boire rapidement mes bouteilles restantes si j'en avais.
July 1, 2022 - Couleur légèrement évoluée, nez floral, sous-bois, liquoreux, fumé et épicé, alcool encore dominant mais avec une superbe complexité aromatique, bouche sur les agrumes, la fraise, tannins encore très présents mais sans agressivité, un tout grand vin, frais et puissant, déjà irrésistible aujourd’hui mais avec un tout beau potentiel dans un millésime qui se révèle probablement bien meilleur qu’annoncé au moment de sa sortie.
April 26, 2021 - Saw the recent notes, thought I’d open this instead of waiting. Maybe there’s major bottle variation, but my experience was very different. Medium bodied, cinnamon, maraschino cherry, chalk, sour patch kids, finish lasts forever. This beauty is nowhere near its shelf life, just entering its early drinking window. Loads of dead tannins at the bottom of the bottle, didn’t have the opportunity to decant/filter before drinking. Hold.
February 27, 2021 - Last bottle out of a case of six, all properly stored. Five of the six bottles were corked and poured out. Very disappointing.
February 21, 2021 - Shame.....tired and too mature. Port’ly and unclear in color. Just too old I think , shame. Perhaps sick bottle...
February 13, 2021 - I would agree with the previous note, the nose here shows older than palate. It's that sherried nose you can often find in older wines that have turned-I call them Bern's wines-and not entirely pleasing- but... the palate here is very much alive and youthful. Some nice cherry fruit and licorice. It took several hours in the decanter to get this to a point that was accessible to be talked about. It needs a bit more time, though, I don't really know if it's ever going to be anything special.
January 29, 2021 - Heavy bricking to the point that it looked more like sherry than Barolo. A fair bit of balsamic and burnt sugar on the nose. But the palate was surprisingly good: fully resolved tannins, lots of black fruit, menthol, spice, carmelized sugar, smoke. Good level of acidity. There’s some classic Barolo tar and roses, but those notes are in the background. Bought at the LCBO seven years ago and stored at 57 degrees. If you’ve got this, drink it soon.
October 16, 2020 - Case of 6 bottles - so far 2 are spoiled...