Community Tasting Note

• Robmcl920 Likes this wine:

  June 10, 2021 - The '16 Rupestris is a dense, classic Barolo that is fairly closed today and in need of cellaring. On the nose, I found an intense aroma of dried red roses, followed in intensity by cool menthol, tar, then sweet red raspberry and cherry fruit. On the palate, the wine showed good textural depth, sweetness, and finesse in the tannin, along with plenty of energy from sharp acidity, but didn't show much in terms of flavor complexity. I found largely pure red raspberry and cherry fruit with a good sweetness, with some fresh herbs and roses. The tannins are finely textured but very intense and will need a lot of time to soften. What really sticks out at this point on the palate is the density, the intense tannins, and the intense acidity.
  
  I largely tasted through the '16s about a year ago and haven't tasted many since, so it's not directly apples to apples, but the '16 Rupestris is one of the more closed off and hard to read wines of the vintage that I've tasted. There is no doubting the intensity and energy of the wine. I'm sure the ultimate potential level of the wine is high, but it's hard to peg where this sits in the vintage pecking order at this stage. Certainly, I wouldn't recommend opening a bottle now for enjoyment.

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5 Comments

• connorpksmith commented:

  6/15/21, 9:17 PM - Thanks for the detailed tasting note Rob! Have you tried the '15 vintage? I'm wondering how the '16 compares to some of the more recent Cappellano Pie Rupestris vintages.

• Robmcl920 commented:

  6/16/21, 1:40 PM - Hey Connor - yes, I tasted the '15 twice last year. Funny these wines were $120 a year ago and widely available so I didn't think twice of opening multiple bottles...
  
  I thought the '15 was very impressive last year. I found it to have a darker flavor profile with some black fruit whereas the '16 has red fruit, and sort of a dried profile a bit with the floral aromatics. The '15 also has some spice that I didn't find in the '16. Texturally, I found the '15 to be pretty concentrated for that vintage and while tannic, the tannins are a bit more buried than I thought they were in '16 (in my first showing, I thought the tannins were very buried....in the second showing, I thought they showed more. Shows the difficulty of drawing conclusions from young wine!). The '15 was definitely drinking better a year ago than I found the '16 to be now.
  
  It's hard to say at this stage of life, but I think the '15 may be the better vintage for this wine or at least the quality is much closer than it is for most producers. Conterno is also in that camp. The '15 Francia and '15 Arione have completely different flavor profiles than they normally do, but I think those wines are as good or better than the '16s.

• connorpksmith commented:

  6/17/21, 11:51 AM - Thanks for the details Rob! I've been on the hunt for the '15s, but they're slim pickings at this point.

• Robmcl920 commented:

  6/17/21, 12:03 PM - Yeah I'm a bit shocked by the price increase and disappearance of Cappellano from the market over the past year. At the going price of the 2016 or 2015, there are better wines to be bought IMO. In 2016 I'd prefer the Vajra BDV or Ravera and both Gavarini Chiniera / Casa Mate from Elio Grasso over the Rupestris if they were all available at the same price, and those wines are <$100.

• connorpksmith commented:

  6/17/21, 4:17 PM - I completely agree! The Vajra BDV has been my favorite of the '16 vintage so far. The Grasso crus and Cogno Ravera were also great but took they way longer to open up. I see the Cappellano's as a long-term hold in the cellar. They're just so hard to find at a decent price these days.

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