1974 Renato Ratti Barolo Marcenasco

Community Tasting Notes (5) Avg Score: 89.5 points

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  2/12/2015 - forceberry wrote: 86 Points

  Despite the wine's cherry red color is quite dark-hued, it is also remarkably translucent and almost watery clear towards the rim. The nose shows quite powerful, funky and dirty aromas suggesting that the wine might have seen a bit too much oxygen over the years; there are intense and quite naughty aromas of animal rusticity, moist soil, root vegetables, some mushroomy notes, a little bit of rainy forest and a hint of dried salt-cured meat. On the palate the continues down the funk road with robust and also somewhat sweet flavors of cherries, dried figs, pronounced bitterness, some Mediterranean spices and a little smoky earth. The wine has full body and quite stern and grippy structure with good acidity and very ample, although somewhat resolved tannins. Overall the wine seems slightly musty and it takes a slightly volatile turn to "wild" aromas with air. The finish is very bitter and acid-driven with robust tannic grip and long, rough flavors of sour cherries, loamy soil, some toasted spices, light animal notes and a hint of old furniture.
  
  Despite the good vintage, 1974 Marcenasco failed to impress. Most likely it's more about bottle variation than how the vintage should be drinking right now, so the score is not really representative of the vintage, but only this bottle. Probably marred by some oxidation, this wine wasn't that impressive as the best vintages of the vertical. You could easily taste the power, the concentration and the tightly knit tannic structure here, but the funky and even somewhat unpleasant off notes distracted so much that the experience was actually rather modest.

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  3/13/2013 - Serge Birbrair Likes this wine:

  Remarkable last bottle. Classical aged Barolo: rose petals, leather purse, tar. Loovely with muskrats!
  http://www.facebook.com/serge.birbrair/posts/4633386117097?notif_t=like

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  1/20/2013 - Serge Birbrair Likes this wine:

  "This is the end my friends..." Won't last for much longer

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  9/8/2011 - Paul S wrote: 93 Points

  Sasi's "B" day - Old Burgs, Barolos and Others (iCook Italian): I really liked this. It was a bit overshadowed by the presence of a 1934 Charmes-Chambertin on the table, but shock and awe aside, I thought this was every bit as good as the much older wine. Opened four hours before serving, it actually came across a bit sweet on the nose at first, with some cough mixture cherry and an inexplicable whiff of caramel and butterscotch that took a bit of time to settle down. Awhile later though, these drifted away to show lots of melting red fruit scents - all raspberries and cherry syrup and a little touch of kirsch - just before a beautiful rosy note floated in along with a tiny hint of tar. Classic Piedmont, and, it got fresher and fresher with more air, opening up with really nice red cherry scents. Absolutely feminine and just beautiful. What a bouquet here. The palate every bit as good. It had pitch perfect balance, with a stream of fresh acidity running through beautifully defined flavours of red cherries, and then dried earth, spice and mineral washed with just the littlest layer of beef stock. With time, it open up even more into a beautiful mouthful of pure, fresh cherry fruit. There was still a little layer of tannins towards the back-palate, but this was drinking beautifully, exiting in a finely focused finish that had a sneaky length to it. I loved this - lush Italian pleasure with a lovely sense of Piedmontese structure and nobility. While nice now, it has more than enough in its tank to go on for another decade or more.

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  6/30/2009 - vindictive wrote:

  Very good. this bottle was nearing the end, but still quite nice - bottle, cork and fill all excellent. Opened and decanted and tnen returned to its clean bottle. initially slightly orange with maderized smell. it brightened up with time and became more attractive. By 6 hours this was soft (for old barolo) with roses, earth and spice. the air made it more charming and it was enjoyed by our group only suffering in comparison to the 1974 Prunotto Bussia Riserva and the 1990 Monfortino.

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