Community Tasting Note

• Robmcl920 Likes this wine:

  January 14, 2024 - 2010 Barolo Tasting; 1/14/2024-1/15/2024: The ‘10 Rupestris is a mind blowing young wine. In a horizontal of 8 top wines from 2010, the Rupestris was my #2 behind the Monfortino. Like the Monfortino, it perfectly blended a core of sweet, primary fruit with intriguing savory characteristics.
  
  When initially opened, the wine almost seemed a bit suspect, with an intense note of leather coming out of the bottle. The wines were opened at 1:00 in the afternoon and then double decanted, and we tasted through the lineup around 5:00 and drank over dinner. With more air, the Rupestris showed much more primary fruit. The nose was intensely perfumed, with sweet red cherry fruit, leather, iron /blood, and red florals, with a hard candy like sweetness to the red fruit. The combination of that sweet red fruit with the savory leather and blood notes made the wine really intriguing.
  
  On the palate, the Rupestris was medium in body and super finessed, with silky tannins that are well on their way to integrating. Again, there is this mix of super sweet fruit and almost rustic, but in a good way, notes of blood and leather. And while the flavor profile leans a bit rustic in a way, the texture of the wine is world class. Compared to the Monfortino, the Rupestris shows less density of fruit, leaning a bit more savory which probably means it will lose its fruit faster than the Monfortino. It is also simply a less dense wine, which makes it a bit more approachable now but also probably will give the Monfortino an edge in decades.

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6 Comments

• David Paris (dbp) commented:

  1/15/24, 9:22 AM - Thank you for your wonderful write up! I have many of most of these wines from 2010 but haven't yet opened a single one of them, so it's awesome to read your notes, and surprised to hear that you think they're approachable already. I've opened some of my lower tier 2010s and also have been a bit surprised on their drinkability, so perhaps it is indeed time to crack into the top stuff. I certainly need to at least open a 2010 Bartolo Mascarello because I'm going to paint my cellar and color match the walls to that wine. ;-) I also appreciated how you chose to not score the Cappellano, but also very clearly delineated where it landed in the lineup. For me, scores are super helpful for this, but you've been kind to Teobaldo's request while still assisting the community here. Thanks!

• Robmcl920 commented:

  1/15/24, 9:27 AM - You're welcome! At least over the past few years, I have found the good 2010s to be quite open, where you know they will likely improve, but it's a great experience opening a bottle now, too. I tasted several of these wines also in 2020, and at the time I think the story was similar, with the Vietti Rocche & Conterno Francia being the two wines that were the tightest in my opinion.

• connorpksmith commented:

  1/17/24, 6:21 PM - Thanks for sharing the detailed note Rob! How did the 2010 compare to some of the other vintages you’ve tried over the years? Cappellano seems to be on a roll in some of their more recent vintages and I wonder how the older vintages compare.

• Robmcl920 commented:

  1/17/24, 6:57 PM - Hey Connor - I haven’t had much Cappellano older than this. I’ve had the ‘08 a year ago which I really liked, and I’ve had ‘11 and ‘13-‘18. The ‘10 is by far the best vintage I have tasted. I would say that for most Barolo producers, their 10 is better than any recent vintage I’ve tasted. But my sense is Cappellano may have outperformed even more than others. I’ve generally found their wines very very good, but not among the top 2-3 wines of a vintage. Whereas I’d say this bottle of ‘10 Rupestris was the best ‘10 I’ve had other than the Monfortino and G. Rinaldi Brunate.

• connorpksmith commented:

  1/18/24, 7:58 AM - Thanks for sharing Rob! Let me know if you're ever planning a trip to DC soon so we can open up a couple bottles together. I might through together a Vajra BDV tasting in early March if you'd want to join!

• Robmcl920 commented:

  1/18/24, 8:00 AM - Will do! Let me know. I'm pretty open in March as of now.

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