Uncorked DK does Piemonte Greatest

Peter Gade
Tasted Friday, April 4, 2008 by gorm with 1,006 views

Introduction

This friday our tasting group got together to taste some of the greatest wines from Piemonte from some of the greatest vintages. The tasting were hosted by Peter Gade who did an excellent job of collecting the wines, bringing in good food from Casa D'Antino and keeping us focused. In short another great night with Uncorked DK.

All wines where served double-blind and all tasting notes written and ratings given before the wine were revealed.

Flight 1 - Flight 1 (2 Notes)

  • 1997 Paolo Scavino Barolo Cannubi 94 Points

    Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

    Dark brownish red. Dense and delicious nose of sweet tobacco, mature cherries, sage, pine needles and hints of mint and soft leather. In the mouth there is nice sweetness in good balance with acid and fine tannins. Good intensity of flavors. Seems to be approaching its peak, just needs to mellow a bit of bitterness.

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  • 1998 Luciano Sandrone Barolo Le Vigne 91 Points

    Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

    Light red with a transparent rim. Lightly sour nose of sweet cherries and strawberries. Appears a bit closed in mouth with bitter cherry-stones, dried herbs, licorice and some sweet wood. Comes across overall as a bit too polished.

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Flight 2 - Flight 2 (2 Notes)

  • 2000 Bruno Giacosa Barbaresco Riserva Asili 94 Points

    Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco

    Dark red core with lighter slightly brown rim. This jumps from the glass with a very intense nose of nailpolish remover and christmas spices. Very fresh mouth with red fruit, rhubarb, borecole. Aftertaste is long and dominated by licorice licquor like flavors. Elegant and a bit polished. Probably also a bit closed.

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  • 1999 Elio Altare Barolo Brunate 92 Points

    Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

    Dark colored with dark red brown core. Sweet nose of cherries and loads of marzipan. Appears very young with a great intensity of flavors, but also loads of tannins and a bitter aftertaste. Has the stuffing to improve, but it is a shame to drink this now. This wine divided the group as some found it quite pleasing at tis current stage and rated it 3-4 points higher.

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Flight 3 - Flight 3 (2 Notes)

  • 1985 Giacomo Conterno Barolo Cascina Francia 93 Points

    Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

    Dark red-orange, slightly foggy. Mellow mature berries, sweet ripe strawberries, leather, sweet pibe tobacco, forrest floor and sweet indian curry. In the mouth it possesses good sweetness and is nicely integrated with good intensity and length. Flavors are primarily secondary. A very nice mature Barolo.

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  • 1990 Bruno Giacosa Barbaresco Riserva 92 Points

    Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco

    Dark red brown with watery rim, some sediment. Delicious nose of licorice, mushrooms, warm mature piquant berries, figs and prunes. Still possesses quite a few tannins and ends on a dusty note. Not completely integrated, but very intense. It's difficult to tell if this should be drunk or if it will improve.

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Flight 4 - Flight 4 (2 Notes)

The joker was spotted pretty quickly, but Dennis nailed that it were Bordeaux. A great 2002.

  • 2002 Château Ausone 93 Points

    France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru

    Dark red. Sweet vanilla nose with huge amounts of sweet highclass oak and some herbal notes hiding behind as well. In the mouth there is massive sweetness and some dark berries. The flavors are dark and dense with yet more vanilla, but also cinnamon, pepper. This is a massive wine, but for now it lacks finesse.

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  • 2000 Giacomo Conterno Barolo Riserva Monfortino 95 Points

    Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

    Redbrown, transparent at rim. Nose of anise seeds, some sweet berries and some warmth. In the mouth this is dominated by a somewhat rustique midpalate feeling - like chewing on an expensive cigar. Also a bit salty. Aftertaste is very long and dry. With a bit of air and time the wine mellows and deepens and becomes more herbal as well as sweeter. At the last sip this has transformed itself into a veritable piece of sweet turkish delight. Amazing development. Very impressive and not completely unapproachable.

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Flight 5 - Flight 5 - Champagne (1 Note)

  • 1996 Pol Roger Champagne Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill 92 Points

    France, Champagne

    Light yellow. Very fine somewhat subdued mousse. Loads of extremely fresh yellow and green apple juices on the nose, a bit of sourdough and gunpowder. Fresh and lively, yet light in mouth with a creamy feel. Overall slightly disappointing as it lacked some intensity and structure, but perhaps 1996 champagne is starting to close down?

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Flight 6 - Flight 6 (2 Notes)

  • 1996 Luciano Sandrone Barolo Cannubi Boschis 95 Points

    Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

    Dark red with lighter rim. Delicious nose of sweet red fruit, sprout, rubber and toffee. Great integrated almost seamless mouthfeel with some nice notes of salty nuts in addition to the sweet red fruit. Very nice aftertaste. Sandrones Cannubi Boschis is among my favorite Barolos and this 96 seems to be in a sweet spot right now.

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  • 1997 Gaja Langhe Nebbiolo Sperss 96 Points

    Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Langhe DOC

    Dark red with lighter rim. Very sweet and seducing nose with loads of perfect pitch black cherries. In the mouth this is immensely concentrated and seems perfectly integrated. In addition to the dark cherry-beauties there is some exotic warm spicyness. While this not as complex as some of the other Barolos you must stand in awe of the qualily and stuffing of this fruit. Wonderful stuff.

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Flight 7 - Flight 7 (2 Notes)

  • 1989 Giacomo Conterno Barolo Cascina Francia 90 Points

    Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

    Dark and dense red, a bit foggy. Nose of menthol, tobacco and some herbs, appears very secondary. In this mouth this is very tight and structured with loads of acid and some tannins. A dissapointing performance.

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  • 1964 Giacomo Conterno Barolo 87 Points

    Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

    Very light red with a good deal of sediment. Sweet and intense nose, not unlike Colheita port. Body and taste is short and thin, but there is still some life left: some sweetness and a bit of tobacco. this was probably better several years ago, but it still find it a pleasure to drink. Some of the other tasters found this to be close to undrinkable, but that is not fair. In fact this seemed to improve slightly with air, so if you come across a bottle give it a try.

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Flight 8 - Flight 8 (2 Notes)

  • 1989 Bruno Giacosa Barolo Riserva Falletto di Serralunga d'Alba 90 Points

    Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

    Red brown with an orange rim, a good deal of sediment. Sweet nose of tobacco, cheese and decaying vegetables, when those notes subdues a bit light cherries, brown sugar and some sweet oak shows itself in its place. In the mouth this is very dry and dominated by a bitter taste of tobacco, tannins and too little fruit. Seems like the 89's are in a bit of a rough spot.

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  • 1982 Giacomo Conterno Barolo Riserva Monfortino 92 Points

    Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

    Dark red-brown. Nose is somewhat shy, but somewhat sweet and also shows some medicine and juniper notes. In the mouth this is tight and tannic, by far the most drying wine of the night. With air some of the underlying potential starts to reveal itself with orange peel, christmas spices, tar and black cherries to name some of the elements that just peeked through. A few found it to be exceptional, but we mostly agreed that it was shockingly young and tight. One have to ask one self if a wine appearing this young and closed at age 26 will ever truly come around?

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Flight 9 - Flight 9 (1 Note)

  • 1996 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut 95 Points

    France, Champagne

    Golden yellow. Good persistant mousse. Nose of sherry, bread and grapefruit. In the mouth has perfect mousse, a laserlike intensity and acid combined with a kaleidoscope of exotic fruits - pineapple, peach to name a few in addition to some oaky butter. While this is great today it certainly is a wine to forget for at least 5 years if you want to get your moneys worth.

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Flight 10 - Flight 10 (2 Notes)

Once again the joker was quickly spotted, but we guessed for burgundy. When we learned that it was not Northern Rhone however seemed a logical next try and we were right.

  • 2001 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie La Landonne 93 Points

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie

    Dark red. Very sweet and deep pinot-like nose with some delicious herbs, spicebox, forrest floor and wild strawberries. Good length and intensity, but a bit clipped and starts to reveal some somewhat disturbing lemon notes after a while. A great wine, but not quite up to the heights that wine can achieve in other vintages.

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  • 2001 Bruno Giacosa Barolo Riserva Le Rocche del Falletto di Serralunga d'Alba 92 Points

    Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

    Red. Extremely intense and fruity nose of strawberries and some toffee. In the mouth this appears round as the immense amount of fruit completely hides the structure. The fruit has a spicy edge to it on the backend, but other than that it is difficult to coax anything but very fresh and immensely intense red fruit out of it. In that sense this is very primary and a bit onedimensional. A bit like the 2005 Vogue Musigny VV that I reported on resently, only even more extreme. It probably has a very great life ahead of it, but I find it difficult to judge and will rate it (92-95++?) Some of the tasters felt on safer ground and rated it a good deal higher.

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Flight 11 - Flight 11 (3 Notes)

  • 1998 Giacomo Conterno Barolo Riserva Monfortino 94 Points

    Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

    Dark red with a slightly brown rim. Intense, sweet and very herbal nose. Nice, round and fat mouthfeel with good fruit, huge, but integrated structure and loads of lovely herbs. Turned more intense with air and the acid became more obvious while the fruit became more and more primary. Another great Monfortino, this one definitely one of the more approachable.

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

    Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

    Unfortunately corked. Very disappointing. After the dry and structural 1989 and the primary 2001 this would have been very interesting to taste.

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  • 1996 Bruno Giacosa Barbaresco Riserva Asili 97 Points

    Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco

    The only good thing about the 1996 Barolo Riserva Falletto being corked was that this was brought in as the replacement!
    Red-brown. Immense, almost surreal, expensive cigar tobacco on the nose, extremely sweet and intense. Add to this salt, seaweed and ocean and the nearest thin g that comes to mind is sitting at the beach in Cuba and smoking Cohibas. In the mouth this is intense, sweet, seamless and very long. Wine of the night!

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Flight 12 - Flight 12 (2 Notes)

Closing

This was truly a night with highs and lows as some wines fulfilled their promise and others didn't. It is obvious that these great wines from Piemonte are very complex and intense, but also very structural. Especially with the older vintages you have to be a structuralist to truly enjoy these as they seem to hold on to those tannins and that dryness forever. Bottomline it was a great night with some fantastic wines made in a unique style. Obviously the Italians from Piemonte believe in what they are doing! And so do we!

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