Super cool to taste this in such close proximity to the 2011. It's pretty clear to me that this is the better wine. This has that lean, mineral drive that I tend to find in the Agrapart wines, but there's an extra dimension from the rich fruit here that actually makes this a broader, more complete wine. The fruit is predominantly yellow, and there's a really pleasant chalky hit on the finish. Delicious stuff for sure.

I think the less than ideal vintage actually helped out with this wine. Initially, this is a fairly high-toned, floral, and red-inflected Barolo, while the palate feels just a little more dilute than the aromatic nose would imply. With air, the weight seems to pick up a bit, and the tannins also start to show a little more prominently. Nonetheless, this is a wine that sits solidly in the red side of the fruit spectrum, and there's a crystalline minerality here as well. Showing very nicely now with just a modest amount of air, there's no reason not to pop one (or three) now. Of the nebbiolos we had tonight though, this would be the bottle I'm least keen on aging, as I don't think it has enough stuffing for that long haul.

I think this was the biggest surprise of the night for me. Initially, this started off a little simple, with a touch of perfume and a rich velvety black-fruited profile. Honestly, a bit simple. There's a very minute bit of funk here, but that disappeared with air, and the fruit had a little bit of a gummy candy quality to it. Knowing where this bottle came from, some of us at the table had expected this to turn natty with air. It didn't. It turned alright, but into something brilliant. The slightly candied elements disappeared and this picked up a lovely velvety texture. It showed bright acidity to balance the black fruit, and some earthy complexity started to emerge as well.

Initially just slightly volatile. Then, more and more volatile. A little astringent and thin of the palate, with some decent red fruit, but overall just not a very pleasant drinking experience. I've experienced some stunning Accomasso before, but this bottle ain't it. This wine is pretty (consistently) disastrous.

Ah, long gone are the days when it was easy to stock up on this wine in quantity. This vintage, especially, is a true gem. It is a svelte, silky edition of nebbiolo, with a maddeningly beautiful red fruit and floral perfume. It's an exuberant, joyous wine, with a vivacious generosity of fruit that makes this a dangerously easy-drinking 15% wine. Absolutely, this has the stuffing to make old bones, but it also hasn't shut down, so why not enjoy this in its youthful exuberance? Compared to the more renowned 2013 vintage of this wine, I would actually give the nod to this "off" vintage, at least for drinking now. Who knows if this will ever clamp down?

So funny to have had this recently (this was our somm's selection to throw into the mix of nebbiolo), and putting it in context with some of the bigger boys down south was educational. I think in comparison, you notice that this wine shows a little reduction on the nose, which does seem to reduce (no pun intended) with air. It's a surprisingly rich and sweet wine for the appellation, though perhaps the riper vintage helps that along. While this doesn't have the same amount of stuffing as some of its tablemates, it held its own. In fact, this could likely stand to benefit from more age as well.

At the end of the day, I thought this was probably more interesting than good. Nonetheless, it's a Ridge wine and therefore worthy of attention. The nose is slightly porty, with a lot of shriveled black fruit and a slight bit of spice. Certainly this is nowhere as sweet as a Port (in fact, the way to think of this wine is as a dry, non-fortified Port). There's a shrivelled character to the fruit here, and just a slight hint of sweetness. The acidity is low, though it amps up if you drink this with some dessert. Overall though, this is still a chewy wine (at 22 years!) where the tannins still need time to resolve. I'd absolutely love to see what this is like in 10 years; I think the stuffing for that kind of aging is in the wine, and that aging will serve to smooth out some of the more harsh elements. I should add, this has a very generous helping of American oak.