July 28, 2023 - Slow oxed for 4 hours before serving. Surprisingly open for a Monfortino. The wine showed beautifully with morello cherries, tar, rose petals, herbs and graphite. On the palate, it was substantial yet expressing weightless power. Excellent for a young Barolo if you disregard the price. 93-94
June 25, 2023 - First time trying this and came away quite unimpressed. The wine is a medium ruby garnet red with just the slightest hint of bricking st the rim. The nose is basically shut down and was giving no quarter. Very hard to coax something out of our bottle so not sure how all the other tasters got their many descriptors. After maybe an additional hour in the glass it started to open up ever so slightly with a solid brooding core of dark red fruit with some medium tannins. Finish was not particularly long. I get the joke here - these are 50 year wines that are shut down now and not ready to drink. But I think at 18 years and 2.5 hours decanted (again, plus another hour in the glass) should give you SOMETHING. I didn’t get the foundation for this to improve massively: not the tannins, fruit or acid. I’m an avid Barolo taster and was with two other highly experienced tasters who concurred that this was disappointing; and I’m not even taking into account the price. At best, I will only taste this wine again if very old, 30yrs+. Tasted alongside a Palmer 2004, no comparison.
March 11, 2022 - Oh so young...
October 20, 2021 - WOW. What beast
October 9, 2021 - Annual Pilgrimage to Piedmont - 2021 Edition; 10/8/2021-10/10/2021 (Piemonte, Italy): Just getting settled and about to start its journey into real greatness. This relative off vintage delivers at age 16 and albeit delicious and very welcoming one gets the feeling that they are only getting a small glimpse of real potential here. Soft and elegant, balanced and very much open . Very pretty and classy. 94 for now .
June 6, 2020 - Swedish national day dinner at Franzen: stil a baby, in a perfect window between maturity and youth. Totally mind blowing wine.
September 15, 2018 - An incredible birthday dinner: Meat, straw, tobacco and tar with spice and cherry. Stunning balance on the palate for such a youthful and powerful wine, this is structured but has wonderful drive and a sense of undeniable class. Outstanding potential.
June 11, 2018 - A knock out nose of raspberries, cranberries, cassis and plums brightened by a pronounced touch of jasmine, roses and lilacs and darkened by the notion of cigar box, leather and tar. The wine explodes on the palate with an almost impenetrable concoction of silky tannins meandering their way through masses of highly complex and nuanced, ripe yet fresh fruit.
Already drinkable (and a pleasurable) the wine has an almost infinite potential for development. I am not really sure but the idea of drinking it in 2060 seems totally sane and highly probable.
June 10, 2017 - (From magnum briefly decanted....which was a massive mistake...this needs a 10-hour decant if you are silly enough to open a bottle at this age). Semi-transparent dark red/black cherry colour. Nose is absolutely gorgeous....deep, concentrated smoky plump black and red plum and cherry fruit. High, heady notes of acetone, nail varnish remover, violets, dried lavender. Palate is tart and very tightly-wound anthracite coal lumps, very tannic. Tooth-coating pastille fruit but not yet ripe. Rather headachey because it is way way too young. 90 as it is today but tons of upside. Come back in 10-15 years. I tried to restrain Greg from opening this but he was a man on a mission to try it.
September 20, 2016 - Barolo Riserva Monfortino vertical 1995-2006: I loved the aromatics of this wine very much. Next to the typical Monfortino aromas of red fruit, earth, roses there is a note of fresh cut trees, cedar and pine needles. Very nice complexity. Unfortunately the quality of the tannins (a bit too rough) prevent an even higher score.