1989 Elio Altare Langhe Barbera Vigna Larigi

Community Tasting Notes (3) Avg Score: 95.3 points

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  12/4/2006 - DAN BAILEY wrote: 94 Points

  Decanted and drunk first half over 3 hours. Very dark colour with only a hint of bricking at the rim. Nose was delightful - lots of chocolate and blackberries (my wife thought cake!). Initially some harsh acidity swamped the palate. However, after 3 hours this settled down to leave a wonderfully lush, sensuous wine with plenty of blackberries and chocolate. Again, cannot understand why RP would have the drinking window expiring in 04 as this appeared to have many years left in it and certainly got much better after several hours in the decanter. Not as layered as the first two bottles but more sensuous.

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  3/16/2005 - DAN BAILEY wrote: 97 Points

  Simply awesome. All the plusses of my first bottle but slightly more power and balance if possible. I adored this wine as it was so much more layered, interesting, powerful, baanced and delicious than pretty much any other red I have drunk to date with only 2 exceptions (70 Montrose and 98 cuvee de capo). What a steal this wine is!

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  3/4/2005 - DAN BAILEY wrote: 95 Points

  Intriguing, powerful, complex wine that I find difficult to evaluate as I do not have a wide range of experience with barbera. Very dark, almost brooding colour with an incredibly powerful nose of cedar combined with menthol (best descriptor I can think of for it!) and a hint of brett (I typically loathe brett but this only served to strengthen the nose rather than come with the foul horse sweat package). Plenty of dark (rather than sweet) fruit on the attack and mid palate to balance out the cedar, menthol and brett made for an intriguing wine. Medium to full bodied with a nice soft finish. I found this stimulating, complex, interesting and all-in-all very enjoyable. Am surprised by Parker's assertion that the drinking window for this expired in 2004 as it appeared to be very fresh and in full stride rather than showing any signs of decline.

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