1997 Roberto Voerzio Barolo La Serra

Community Tasting Notes (18) Avg Score: 93.5 points

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View Juliansi's profile
  • Report Issue

  12/27/2023 - Juliansi Likes this wine: 94 Points

  Birthday boy (One of a trio!) Kelvin brought this aged and very special Barolo along to our lunch - It was one of my favourites of all 12 we had.
  Such an expressive nose, lots of luscious blackfruit. The classical black tea notes were there, such fragrance.
  
  I guessed - Nebiollo, Barolo. Perhaps 20 years. When unveiled, all of us were super impressed how young this drank.
  
  Still in a dark ruby red hue, with only a small clear rim. The nose developed to reveal some vanilla and cedar too, I simply loved the aromatics.
  
  Medium-full bodied, beautiful and lifting minerality and that classical M+ acidity. Very refined tannins and a long floral finish as well.
  
  Roberto Voerzio is the original ‘modernist’ Barolo estate.
  He is based at La Morra, and the journey all started in the 1980s with only 5 hectares. He makes tiny quantities from a number of top vineyards (La Serra, Rocche dell’Annunziata, Cerequio, Fossati Case Nere, Sarmassa), 60 percent of which have been planted at high density levels.
  In contrast, at the winery .. Roberto is relatively traditional, ageing in a combination of small and increasingly large botti since 2008 too.
  
  Roberto Voerzio went out on his own in 1986, and was inspired by the great wines of Burgundy.
  
  He has now 35 hectares of vines, which is quite a lot for Piemonte. 15 are his own and 20 are rented.
  
  All are in La Morra, save one – Sarmassa – which is in Barolo.
  
  There are 3 very distinctive features of Voerzio’s vineyards:
  1st - Planted at high density. 3200 vines per hectare is normal for the region, but he’s packing in 8-10,000 vines per hectare.
  2nd - Intense and obsessive control of yield.Nebbiolo in the Langhe is normally cropped at 4 kg per plant. He is looking for 500 g per plant (for Barolo) or 700 g/plant for his other wines.
  3rd - All his vines are hail netted, so they are quite easy to spot!
  
  Tang Room, PJ, Malaysia
  27th Dec 2023

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View Mrbuzz's profile
  • Report Issue

  9/21/2022 - Mrbuzz wrote: flawed

  Last minute addition to dinner to celebrate our 25th, splash decanted, then back in bottle. Quick smell of the cork reeked of mint...or is that tca? Hmmm...nose didn't show that in decanter. At dinner, a very disappointing wine. Dark and muddied looking...tasted like prunes, bitter chocolate, leather...nothing at all good about it. Didn't smell like tca...but after having two amazing bottles of this in the last 10yrs, I have to think it was stripped by tca. Too bad...at least our other 1997 wine saved the night for us!

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View Genghis88's profile
  • Report Issue

  10/21/2021 - Genghis88 Likes this wine: 90 Points

  @Nightingale with Peter Rae and the gang
  Blood in color.
  Salty blood, mint, powerful herbaceous nose.
  Tastes like the nose. A Little and past its prime.
  Nice juice! Thanks John Geb.

  1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View Alongfield's profile
  • Report Issue

  1/17/2021 - Alongfield Likes this wine: 95 Points

  As if it was a 2017 - it was rich full and not an ounce faded. I suspect the tannin level is slightly reduced, but a wonderful Barolo from now and probably the next 10 years.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View nihraguk's profile
  • Report Issue

  4/19/2020 - nihraguk Likes this wine: 95 Points

  Flowers on the nose, sleek, restrained palate kept taut with some acidity. Medium, saline finish. Easy to drink, subtle and measured.

  1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comment

View all 18 Community Tasting Notes

Professional reviews have copyrights and you can view them here for your personal use only as private content. To view pro reviews you must either subscribe to a pre-integrated publication or manually enter reviews below. Learn more.