1961 Giacomo Conterno Barolo Riserva Vini Pregiati

Community Tasting Notes (8) Median Score: 96 points

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  11/3/2018 - misterstarre Likes this wine: 96 Points

  (Kept upright for one week before opening.) This bottle had a great fill, but the capsule was cracked and the cork a touch depressed. My buddy pushed down on it slightly and the cork literally dropped straight into the bottle. No bueno. So we adjusted our expectations and tasted, fearing the worst. Shockingly, the wine was vibrant, but totally funky and disjointed at first. Nonetheless, there was a surprising amount of acid keeping this '61 on its feet. The fruit was advanced and the finish short, with a funky cellar mold and sulfur scent wafting. We gave it a half hour to blow off.
  
  There was certainly an orange and rust hue to the wine, but the core was red, not brown. From 30-60 minutes, the wine was increasingly complex, but still disjointed, like a broken emulsification. The acid over here, the fruit over there, the aromatics (orange oil and roses with river rocks) doing their own thing. Nothing was integrated. At this stage, that funky cellar scent had become a noticeable chicken liver flavor. We were intrigued, but not in love.
  
  In hour no. 2, the fruit came back to life. Red fruit somehow integrated with the acid and achieved brightness with orange zest, tea. The "chicken liver" evolved to dried mushroom and was exciting. We drank all but a half glass of heavily sedimented dregs. I took the bottle home to see if I could not get the cork out. I poured the dregs into a glass and allowed to decant there while I crashed on the couch.
  
  At 1:30 in the morning, about 5.5 hours after opening, I woke up and poured the clarified dregs into another glass, yielding two sips of good wine. And at this stage, I expected the wine to have fallen apart. Oh how wrong I was! It was poetry. Everything had fully integrated, and what was a clunky, interesting bottle with high notes and low notes became a unified and pretty taste. Florals came out. Structure and balance brought the old red fruit, dust, orange, mushroom, and zing together. I was blessed with two gorgeous sips of a 57 year old wine that simply needed more air than I could have imagined. I guess some powerful old barolos can take and even need that much air!
  
  Eventually, I smashed the bottle with a hammer (what thick glass!) to get the cork out. The inside of the bottle was caked with curtains of solidified sediment. Wow. A fellow enthusiast suggested that the compounds in the sediment kept the wine alive despite the cork issues and allowed the wine to take 5 and a half hours of air without falling apart.
  
  I ordinarily do not decant evolved wine for more than a half an hour, if at all. Perhaps all the air it receives in the extended winemaking process makes old barolo unique. Lesson learned.

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  2/18/2015 - BaroloRob wrote: 94 Points

  Ultimate Conterno versus Giacosa battle (Troquet): Tied for wine of the flight. See event notes.

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  10/4/2014 - obmoen wrote: 96 Points

  Fantastisk flaske. Ikke mye tilføye til forrige notat men jeg smakte siste klunken fra kjøkkenbenken. 20 timer i åpen flaske og ingen forringelse.

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  3/28/2014 - JScott Likes this wine: 95 Points

  Outstanding. Had intended to treat this kindly, slow ox and all that, but circumstances made this a pop and pour. Unbelievably ready from the get go. Bright floral cherry nose. Bright, clear ruby red with substantial bricking at the edge. Cherry compote repeats on the palate, with an autumnal earthen back end. Really pretty, in every sense, but powerfully fruity still. Blind, I could've easily been convinced this was a 20 yr old Leroy.

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  11/17/2013 - obmoen wrote: 98 Points

  Min forrige flaske av denne var litt off med noe urene aromaer. Flasken ble likevel tømt og den strakk seg til 90+. Denne viste en renhet jeg aldri har opplevd i en moden nebiolo. Funklende, brilliant lys rød mot ripssaft. Mandel og røde bær på nesen, beveget seg sakte mot mørkere og mer tertsiære aromaer. Veldig sakte i forhold til standarden fra 67 og 64 som vi drakk ved siden av. Kirsebær og mineraler mot stein. Lekker i munn med et fabelaktig syrespill, saftig og stram med en tanninstruktur som utelukkende føles integrert og lekker. Ørlite hint av karamell i finish. Med luft kommer også behagelige hint av parfyme og bringbær.sublim, elegant, voldsom lang og beskjeden. Nothing jumps out. Min flotteste nebbiolo.

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