2019 Giuseppe Rinaldi Barolo Brunate
Community Tasting Note
Robmcl920 Likes this wine:
Saturday, April 15, 2023 - Visit to Giuseppe Rinaldi; 4/13/2023-4/18/2023: Brief tasting at the winery. The ‘19 Brunate was beautiful and as with the other two Barolo, one of the more accessible wines I’ve tasted in 2019, not to say it also doesn’t have the material to age well.
The nose was darker than the Tre Tine but lighter than the Bussia, with dark red to black cherry fruits, menthol, sweet spices, and a touch of balsamic. On the palate, the Brunate is super finessed with minimal perception of tannin, showing the most refined of the three wines. The fruit tones are super sweet, which I almost always find in the rinaldi wines and to me makes them so easy to crave. Alongside dark fruit and sweet spices, I found some herbal tones like mint that I found across the wines.
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Comment posted by connorpksmith:
5/13/2023 11:29:00 AM - @Robmcl920 - What are your thoughts on the early stages of the 2019 compared to the 2010 and 2016 vintages?
Comment posted by Robmcl920:
5/16/2023 10:10:00 AM - Hey Connor - I assume you mean specific to Giuseppe Rinaldi. It's hard to properly compare without having tasted a bottle of the '19 at home, but I think the '19 and '16 are pretty similar. They are both extremely finessed and have a beautiful sweetness of fruit that distinguishes these wines from most young Barolo. Perhaps the '19 is a bit less complex but even a bit more finessed / sweet / fresh, but that may be a consequence of tasting at the winery vs. at home out of a full bottle.
I think the 2010 Brunate is a different beast. In my experience it's darker, heavier on the balsamic and spice notes, and richer than the 2016/2019. It still has very finessed tannin and beautiful sweetness to the fruit, and this kind of purple / violet note I always get in these wines across decades of vintages, but I think in comparison there is less finesse but more complexity in the 2010 than in the 2016 or 2019.
I'm not sure what changes to the winemaking they've made, but it seems to me the Rinaldi Brunate continues to get more finessed over the past decade while perhaps sacrificing a bit of concentration or complexity. The flavor profile of the wines from the mid-2000s or certainly the 1990s is decidedly more rustic than what's coming out of the winery today, I think, but I'm not sure the wines have gotten better, just different.
Comment posted by theriffraph:
6/21/2023 9:34:00 AM - Thanks for sharing. I pretty much an aligned to your notes as well as your thoughts on the winemaking at Rinaldi. I was there in April for a visit and allocation pick up. Cheers