January 31, 2024 - A Taste of Serralunga Dinner-La Festa del Barolo 2024 (Locanda Verde, New York): Dark ruby. Rich but not lush deep black and some blue fruit as well. Piquant and alive in the mouth, fantastic drive and penetration. Classic, stately, full of soil and stone dust. Magnificent wine that manages to be accessible now due to its incredible material that stands up to the structure. Wow.
November 24, 2023 - Decanted and followed over a couple of hours. Very concentrated cherry with tar, leather. Quite a bit of structure that shows up on the finish. Great material, but needs some time.
October 1, 2023 - PnP. Ready to go right out of the gate with lots of beauty framed by some soft but present structure. Bright red fruit with tar and leather. Continued to develop over lunch. Naturally very young, but supremely enjoyable at this stage.
February 5, 2023 - Aromas of leather, crushed dried roses, macerated red cherries, and alcohol peek through an otherwise muted nose, signaling a reticent Barolo that is wondering who in God’s name set the alarm clock ten years too early?! Tight on the palate, with some sleep inertia reluctantly keeping the flavors from expanding. Sandalwood, plum, tobacco, leather, and bitter spice hop-scotch across the palate, skipping most of the mid-palate, and clenching up on a tart and slightly warm finish.
Oxygen is the hot cup of coffee this wine needs to rouse its spirits. Initially with a cantankerous 4-year-old “I don’t wannnnnnaaa get up for breakfast” protest, depth and complexity slowly, begrudgingly, make their appearances from under the covers. Fuzzy cedar-inflected tannins become more refined with air. Sherry-drenched cherries and unsmoked cigar make for an old-world charm, coupled with leather and river rock notes.
And just when you think it is about to give up the goods and unfold into a wave of flavor-generosity, it… doesn’t. So, that’s about as far as it gets, which is perhaps further than I had anticipated. Sure, it needs a decade or two to get to work and promote to VP of grandeur, but it’s a prodigy primed for splendor down the road. A very eligible bachelor type of wine that checks the boxes. Mom would be proud.
Hold until 2035. Or, just pony-up son and open it now with a super fat decant and enjoy it for some of its already-supercool suave James Bond posing (think Sean Connery in Dr. No, with his signature Walther PPK in one hand and a martini in the other… and Sylvia Trench in the other)…. Will he be able to stop the radio beam weapon from destroying mankind…?!
96+ points.
December 11, 2022 - Beautiful dark brooding belly in the glass. Bright minerally and floral notes initially, but one can already note the coming cigar box and ceder flavours. Red and black bon bons on the palate with an appealing tannic grip that hints towards an amazing integration of constituents. Still obviously young but set up to be a future knock out that we have come to expect.
December 4, 2022 - Just by the very nose alone unmistakle who makes this wine. Just opened, we shall see where it goes!
September 14, 2021 - Giacomo Conterno Barolo Francia 2015.
Nydelig på duft med super intensitet.
Roser, kirsebær, krydder og asfalt.
Meget bra!
Over i munn er den noe mer brutal.
Her er det mett med dybde og vekt.
Pen friskhet og flott frukt.
Rå konsentrasjon, men den er litt for ung nå.
Kjenner kantene greit - den gjør seg best med et stykke kjøtt til.
Meget lang finish med røffe tanniner.
Ørlite varme her.
Den bør helt klart ligge rolig i kjelleren noen år til. 94p
December 25, 2020 - The ‘15 Francia was once again a very impressive young wine, and this bottle was more expressive than the one I had earlier in the year. The nose was surprisingly intensely perfumed, with dark red to black fruit, sweet spices, fresh roses, tar, fresh herbs, and mint. It reminded me of the standard core of dark red fruit, tar, and roses I find in the Conterno Francia in other vintages, with an additional black fruit, sweet spice layer on top of that. On the palate, the wine was less open, but impressed for the sheer density of the wine, with very concentrated fruit that buried the tannins. I found dark fruit, tar, and dark floral tones on the palate, with sweet spices emerging and lingering on the very long finish.
At this stage, the density and some of the aromatics of the ‘15 Francia almost suggest a modern wine, but I imagine the expression will become a bit more classic with age. Either way, it’s superb and this bottle was surprisingly open aromatically.
November 14, 2020 - Casual BBQ Wines: Next to the same wine from 2008. Raspberry, roses, licorice and orange rind. Strongly intense flavours on the palate, this is super youthful (as would be expected). 15+ years no problem here.
September 23, 2020 - Amazing wine; served from a bottle opened for an hour or so, this was really singin, surprisingly so, dry, but juicy, ekstremely balance with an abundance of fruit, that just goes on. Everything to like here.
#Enomania