Community Tasting Note

forceberry wrote:

Saturday, October 22, 2022 - 100% Dolcetto, fully destemmed, fermented spontaneously in open-top oak vats, aged in large oak botti. 13,5% alcohol.

Luminous, youthful and moderately translucent garnet color with a pale red rim. The rather solar nose feels ripe, rich and sweet-toned with aromas of dark berries and fresh bilberries, some cool herby tones, a little bit of leathery funk, light floral nuances of violets, a hint of juicy raspberry and a touch of strawberry. The wine feels ripe, fine-tuned and velvety in texture with a moderately full body and sweetly-fruited flavors of soft dark plums and juicy black cherries, some strawberry tones, a little bit of bretty leather, light blueberry tones and a floral hint of violets. The wine is a bit on the soft side for a Dolcetto, but it still retains good sense of firmness and balance thanks to its moderately high acidity and tannins that are quite ample but also very ripe and quite gentle. The finish is rich, juicy and gently grippy with a long and sunny aftertaste of black cherries and succulent dark plums, some strawberry notes, light leathery notes of brett, a little bit of perfumed floral character and a hint of fresh blueberry.

A very ripe and quite gentle vintage of Dolcetto that manages to retain enough balance and firmness not to appear too soft and flabby. True to the Rinaldi style, the overall feel is wonderfully fine-tuned and perfumed, yet having that hallmark subtle bretty funk lingering in the background. This is a quite successful effort for a 2018 Dolcetto and I did enjoy the wine quite a bit, but I still think both the Mascarellos succeeded better in this challenging, hot and sunny vintage. Furthermore, as we tasted the wonderfully serious 2016 vintage of Rinaldi's Dolcetto after this, it became quite obvious how ripe and soft this wine really was compared to the normal Rinaldi style. All in all, while a fine wine that can still age and improve for a good number of years more, this still isn't really a textbook example of Rinaldi Dolcetto. At 28€, this isn't particularly affordable for a Dolcetto, but it still manages to deliver for the price.

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