Wine Workshop: White Label Giacosa and White Truffles

Lots of firsts coming back this month. This was our first wine workshop since pre-pandemic and great to get back together with David who was the initial person who turned us onto Giacosa white labels a few years ago.

• 1985 Bruno Giacosa Barbaresco Gallina di Neive

  Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco

  First wine of the tasting and also one of my most favorites of the evening. It's all there is to love with Giacosa wines. Very elegant and refined, red fruits, some pepper, a long finish. There's a hint of menthol but in a nice way that adds some complexity to the wine. Just wonderful. Saved my last sip for the very end of the night and it was good from beginning to end.

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• 1993 Bruno Giacosa Barbaresco Gallina di Neive

  Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco

  Somewhere between the 85 and the 95. It is a bit more muted than the 85 and a bit more secondary in style. Some tea leaf. Very fine tannins. A pretty wine though in the way it's put together.

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• 1995 Bruno Giacosa Barbaresco Gallina di Neive

  Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco

  Would not have expected the youngest wine in the flight to drink like it was the oldest. This has a certain almost menthol quality to it. More secondary in nature than the other two. Still a lovely wine, but prob my least favorite of the 3.

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• 1999 Bruno Giacosa Barbaresco Asili

  Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco

  Very young but it's pretty and floral and red fruits and maybe a bit of rose and some potpourri and just lovely. Perhaps warmer vintage has ticked down the acid a touch, but still quite strong. Very enjoyable. Generally less preferred to the Rabaja that was served next to it which surprised me a bit although maybe reacting to vintages.

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• 1996 Bruno Giacosa Barbaresco Rabajà

  Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco

  Darker and more of the darker stone fruits like plum and maybe some fig and all of that. It's got a certain power and intensity to it which is good. Very fine tannins. Very young.

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• 1987 Bruno Giacosa Barolo Villero di Castiglione Falletto

  Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

  For a few of the bottles in this flight I got a very different flavor than what I think of for barolo - annise. This was one of those. It's nice but if I was going to split hairs there's something not quite 'there' to it which is more apparently drinking next to the '88 which was just lovely.

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• 1988 Bruno Giacosa Barolo Villero di Castiglione Falletto

  Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

  One of my favorites of the tasting. Very fresh and pretty and a bit of potpourri and more rose hips and just a hinting that there might be fruit there. In a lovely place and one of the ones that I kept to go back to and was drinking well from beginning to end.

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• 1990 Bruno Giacosa Barolo Villero di Castiglione Falletto Flawed

  Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

  This wine was super strange. Took a sip right as it was put out and it was lovely and beautiful red cheery and a bit of a quicker finish but came across as elegant. And then completely went downhill and rather quickly. Probably a flawed bottle.

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• 1993 Bruno Giacosa Barolo Villero di Castiglione Falletto

  Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

  Take this with a grain of salt because I'm not sure anyone else was getting this but this wine was all annise to me and almost maybe licorice. Dark and brooding and not so much in the fruit or floral character. Very different. Not off - it was a tasty bottle. Just unique compared to some of the others.

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• 1979 Bruno Giacosa Barbaresco Santo Stefano

  Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco

  You can see that it's in the same family as it's young siblings, but this one is not quite as complex as the other two (79 not the greatest of years). It's still darker and black fruits and some spice and a bit herbal. Enjoyable.

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• 1986 Bruno Giacosa Barbaresco Santo Stefano

  Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco

  Surprised myself with how much I liked this flight. Just lovely. Peppery, dark fruits, drinking incredibly well and yet oh so young still. Lots of life ahead.

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• 1996 Bruno Giacosa Barbaresco Santo Stefano

  Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco

  Also really delicious. Dark and darker. This is black fruits. Almost a blackberry compote. But done in a Giacosa style so there's a nice balancing acid and it's not overripe or anything. Very tasty. Also young although expect that more from the '96 than the '86.

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• 1982 Bruno Giacosa Barolo Falletto di Serralunga d'Alba

  Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

  This bottle was probably slightly off. Less of the fruit and rose and tar and more of a smokey/gamey (other's adjectives)... to me it was mostly just sour in that way that a food which has slightly turned bad is sour (e.g. not a not fully ripe item). So gives a sense of funk.

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• 1998 Bruno Giacosa Barolo Falletto di Serralunga d'Alba

  Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

  First impression is very big, lots of alcohol, kindof intense but then it stays in the glass and settles down and becomes a lot more interesting and refined and that nice elegance that I appreciate in these wines.

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• 1999 Bruno Giacosa Barolo Le Rocche del Falletto di Serralunga d'Alba

  Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

  Warm year so more fruit and less acid. To me this was not quite as complex or interesting as the '05 (served next to it - that one was much too young but there was a bright future ahead I thought). Interesting because some others I think found this more approachable and perhaps it was. Splitting hairs of course because all Giacosa is generally great.

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• 2005 Bruno Giacosa Barolo Le Rocche del Falletto di Serralunga d'Alba

  Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

  A polarizing wine for sure. For some who's palates are maybe a bit more attuned there was too much heat here and it was too big compared to the other wines. I didn't find that so much. It's fresh and there's good acid. Some drying tannin that is harsher than the older wines. Darker fruits. It's drinking well if on the young side. I'd be waiting on this if we owned any.

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• 1982 Bruno Giacosa Barolo Rocche di Castiglione Falletto

  Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

  This was a funny wine for me. You could tell there was age and I appreciated the depth that that added, but then I also got higher alc here than on a lot of the other wines. Good structure. But a wine that I kindof wish had been poured earlier in the night so I could have sat with it and contemplated a bit more. It wasn't quite as singing as say the Gallina that we started with.

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• 1996 Bruno Giacosa Barolo Riserva Falletto di Serralunga d'Alba

  Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

  Mystery wine that was sitting in a decanter all through dinner and ended up being poured prob after 5 or 6 hours. I suspected David might throw in a red label to show the difference and so it was. Very elegant wine that has many decades left. Cranberry. Higher tannins (very fine) and grippy which maybe adds to the structure. Drinking very well.

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Lots of wines to love in this group including the 85 Gallina, 86/96 Santo Stefano, 96 Red label... I'm sure I'm forgetting. Fun to be back and to reconnect with some of the wine folks we haven't seen in a few years. Locanda Verde back room really big and worked well although the food maybe a touch carb heavy for me. Did appreciate the plethora of truffles though!