Community Tasting Notes 9

• albertoelli Likes this wine: 96 points

  December 27, 2022 - After 37 years pure velvet - subtle bouquet
  Perfection?

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• forceberry wrote: 92 points

  February 12, 2015 - The wine's color is translucent but quite dark cherry red with slightly maroon hue towards the rim. The nose betrays slight hints of oxidative characters like raisin and stewed fruit, yet it also shows lots of life and nicely aged notes of red cherry, dried dates, sweet floral aromatics, a little almond and a hint of strawberry jam. The wine is quite rich and full-bodied on the palate, but even though the overall flavors suggest quite a lot of sweetness, overall the wine still feels quite dry, spicy and savory. There are flavors of cherry and even cherry marmalade, powerful exotic spice character, some raisin and a hint of dried dates. The structure is really impressive due to the high acidity and very firm tannins that still show quite some grip after 30 years. The wine finishes with a really long, complex and developed aftertaste of exotic spices, dried red berries, sour cherry, syrupy molasses, some nuttiness and faint mushroomy tones. The tannins give the aftertaste good, somewhat astringent grip.
  
  The vintage 1985 hasn't stood up to the test of time as nicely as many of the other vintages tasted here, but it still drinks very nicely, eventually turning out to be a lot nicer than what the somewhat over-developed notes initially suggested. This is definitely a lot more impressive wine on the palate than what the nose led to expect. The wine shows remarkable acid and tannin structure, so even though this is a 30-year old wine, it's still more of a food wine than a smooth and silky meditation wine. Very lovely effort, but somewhat overshadowed by the two surrounding vintages in the vertical (1989 and 1983).

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• Serge Birbrair wrote:

  August 10, 2013 - this wine will outlive me. Core fully intact, plenty of fruit, remarkable old style Barolo at it's best.

  Comment

• Brix wrote: 91 points

  March 2, 2013 - Opened this as a wedding anniversary celebration. Long, well soaked cork came out without a problem. Decanted with almost zero sediment. Clear pale garnet in color, reticent nose when first poured, surprisingly tannic. After an hour or so, this started to open up - especially on the nose, revealing layer upon layer of smoky leather and roses, occasional earthy/mushroomy nuances. Just delightful. On the palate, light and lively, with sweet Asian spices, a touch of bitter olive, and plummy fruit. A bit clipped and tannic on the finish, otherwise just lovely. After three hours, this is starting to fall apart just a bit, leading me to think that this is unlikely to improve with further cellaring.

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• Serge Birbrair Likes this wine:

  February 25, 2013 - not a star but still not a 80's pointer either

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Wine Definition

• Vintage 1985
• Type Red
• Producer Renato Ratti
• Varietal Nebbiolo
• Designation n/a
• Vineyard Marcenasco
• Country Italy
• Region Piedmont
• SubRegion Langhe
• Appellation Barolo

Community Holdings

• Pending Delivery 0 (0%)
• In Cellars 16 (40%)
• Consumed 24 (60%)

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