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Q1 Wine Club - Aged Barbaresco
The Apt
Tasted February 1, 2020 by MC2 Wines with 206 views
Introduction
We've done Barolo in the past but always ignored Barbaresco. After trying some great ones at a tasting last year it seemed like we needed to expand our horizons a bit more and this was a fun one to try. I will say it was less of a ubiquitous love for me than some of our themes, but all of the wines were quite good and I think the pricing in Barbaresco has still remained fairly reasonable.
Same penny voting system as always - 5 pennies per person which can be be voted as five in one wine or one in five wines or anything in between. All wines served single blind for those you brought and double blind for the others.
Flight 1 - Pre-Tasting Bubbles (1 note)
White - Sparkling
2016 Jérôme Prévost Champagne La Closerie Extra Brut Les Beguines
Bubbles to start the tasting which is never a bad thing. I quite enjoyed these. Seems like they fit very well with that popular style these days where there's a nice crispness to them which creates this great sensation of fresh and a bit of the nutty side and perhaps a touch of white fruits and just a background hint of mineral. Very young, but drinks well and a nice way to start the day.
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Comment
Flight 2 - The Main Event (13 notes)
Red
1989 Francesco Rinaldi e Figli Barbaresco
Wine #1: Very solid wine to start. This was well aged and prob just perfectly in that drinking window which is always a nice place to hit. Good balance between the red fruits and a bit more earthy tones. I'd say a very enjoyable wine. I'm not sure so enjoyable I'd want to go seek it out again, but a wine that I'd be pleased to have served in the future. I did end up giving it a penny although if I'm honest this one was less clearly above some of the others and those last pennies were a real question mark for me. (6 pennies)
Red
1974 Produttori del Barbaresco Barbaresco Riserva Pora
Wine #2: Picked out by a friend when we were traveling in Piedmont. We'd had the bottles sent to us and opened and decanted for prob 3 hours before the first sip. Here again you get the age and it is much more secondary/tertiary. When I strained I could also get a background of cranberry and a touch of spice. Not a bad wine although some felt it was too over the hill and/or potentially corked. I didn't get that, but I did get that it was drinking older than some of the wines around it. (5 pennies)
Red
1998 Sottimano Barbaresco Fausoni
Wine #3: The sortof winner because it was one of ours and we never wine these events. It was one of my favorites in the group though. The thing that stood out was just how fresh and inviting the wine was while still having that more balanced approach that age can give you. Good red currants and more baking spice and just a hint of iron ore maybe. Sometimes the winners of these events are wines that I am blown away by, but I would say this is a wine that I just really enjoyed. (12 pennies)
Red
1969 Gaja Barbaresco
Wine #4: This was a wine that I considered giving a penny to as well. It's definitely well aged and I'd argue at least with this bottle we were on the downswing and so time to drink up. First notes are all leather and more savory. Some darker fruits eventually. Fun to get to try since this is old school Gaja before all of the oak and changing the way things were done as I understand it and so I appreciate a chance to see how it used to be (there was a point where they had a lot of oak treatment and I've tended to struggle with those wines for some reason) (3 pennies)
Red
2004 La Spinetta (Rivetti) Barbaresco Vürsù Vigneto Starderi
Wine #5: Clearly much younger than the first four wines and interesting to try it back to back with the Gallina from the same year. For me this was more of a brooding dark red fruit and almost a hint of a cough syrup flavor but not in that offputting way. I think this might have been a touch more interesting to me than the Gallina, but I recognize it's an odder style of wine. Would give it at least 5-10 more years to find itself. (3 pennies)
Red
2004 La Spinetta (Rivetti) Barbaresco Vürsù Vigneto Gallina
Wine #6: Much more of a classic young wine. A touch fresher than wine #5 (it's sibling from a different vineyard). Again lots of red fruits. Some almost iron ore style. Some floral. I don't know the name of the flower but it's red and looks a bit like a peony. Decent tannins. There was a sense to me that this was just skirting its window and while still quite young perhaps with the right amount of decant could be drinking well now (or otherwise in just the next few years). (7 pennies)
Red
1990 Produttori del Barbaresco Barbaresco Riserva Montestefano
Wine #7: Definitely a higher aged wine with a bit of the barnyard and counterpoints in more of the green and leafy still. Aka, this is all mostly tertiary at this point. It's a bit of a shock to the system (1 penny)
Red
1980 Azienda Bricco Asili (Ceretto) Barbaresco Bricco Asili
Wine #8: When the box from Italy originally arrived with wines it looked like this one might have had a touch of seepage. Which makes sense given the cork was a bit more shrunken than I would have expected it to be. Had hoped though that that did not really impact the wine. Given the life in the other '89 that we had during the tasting I suspect unfortunately that it did. This was all musty library and balsamic oil and leather. Again very tertiary. Appreciate more by some than others, but I think heading downhill although could easily have just been this particular bottle. (2 pennies)
Red
1970 Giacomo Borgogno & Figli Barbaresco Riserva
Wine #9: Another one of my favorites of the tasting and the wine that ended up winning the whole event. This definitely has age but also some of that freshness. Lots of dried fruit and potpourri coming through. It had been opened and decanted and clearly drank well from there. (8 pennies)
Red
1982 De Forville Barbaresco Rabajà
Wine #10: This wine was drinking in a decent spot. The piece that stood out the most was how almost clear the wine was. It was tea-colored, but there was a real almost sea-through style to the wine. A number of others seem to be battling sediment issues but not this wine. On the heels though of one of my favorites my takeaway was a totally reasonable wine, but nothing that jumped out at me. (2 pennies)
Red
1967 Produttori del Barbaresco Barbaresco
Wine #11: Another wine that was drinking totally fine to me. This one actually still had some fruit left and then a kindof sour note which kept the wine in a decent balance. It was a solid wine without jumping out (funny because that's also how I think of the producer - have never been really wowed by the wines but have never been totally disappointed either). (5 pennies)
Red
1975 Tenute Cisa Asinari dei Marchesi di Grésy Barbaresco Martinenga
Wine #12: I liked this wine. My biggest issue is I think there was a bit of sediment that had been stirred up. We'd made an effort that morning to decant for it, but hadn't actually left the bottles sitting upright overnight to get everything to the bottom and I suspect with the age there was more sediment than one would imagine. That being said, I appreciated the sweet fruit profile and the balance in the wine. Enjoyable. (6 pennies)
Red
2007 La Spinetta (Rivetti) Barbaresco Vürsù Vigneto Gallina
Wine #13: Another younger wine which jumps out pretty quickly on the heels of a few of the older ones. Very smooth in texture. Lots of red fruits.
It drinks young and a hint tight and there's less available behind the fruit.
Give it more time I think. (1 penny)
It drinks young and a hint tight and there's less available behind the fruit.
Give it more time I think. (1 penny)
Flight 3 - Bonus Bottles (4 notes)
Red
1998 Roagna Barbaresco Pajè
From a half bottle. A bonus bottle after a long barbaresco tasting. This was drinking really nicely and I think could have competed quite well with the broader tasting that we had going on (although only a half bottle to have. Bit more grip and earthiness to it than some of the Roagnas (seems that might be more something that Luca does than that existed in his father's wine), but there is also this great balance to the wine. Well made.
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Red
2001 Roberto Voerzio Barolo Riserva Vecchie Viti dei Capalot e delle Brunate
Second day after pouring it at the La Festa del Barolo dinner the night before. There was still quite a bit of wine left and so it turned into a bonus bottle for this event. I was right that an extra day definitely helped. The oak intensity and more fruit forward nature had subdued. The wine in general felt more subdued overall (no major replacement on those pieces). Seemed very sold but not quite as great as I wanted given how much I've liked this producer in the past.
Red
2008 Produttori del Barbaresco Barbaresco 50º Anniversario Riserva
Bought this bottle back in November with the sole goal that it could be a bonus bottle for this event. As you might have gotten from the other notes Produttori to me is a very reliable and mid-level producer. I am never blown away by their stuff. It's always fine. It talks to me less than to others I think. This here is also a very fine bottle of wine. Prob could use some more age, but it's made to be approachable young too. Sold in their tasting room in Barbaresco to commemorate 50 years in the business. Decent.
Rosé - Sparkling
2013 Salmon Champagne Special Club Rosé de Saignée
Very similar impression to the last time I had it. It's hard not to like bubbles at the end of a day of drinking esp when the wines were mostly reds and so this was very tasty. But it's not inherently an amazing wine. More like a good wine that is fairly reasonably priced for pink bubbles and nothing bad to say. Would not kick it out of my glass nor will I proactively look for it.
Closing
I was very closely aligned with the results in this case (the winner and 2nd were wines that each got 2 pennies from me).
Here were final results:
12 pennies
Wine #3: 1998 Sottimano Barbaresco Fausoni
8 pennies:
Wine #9: 1970 Giacomo Borgogno & Figli Barbaresco Riserva
7 pennies
Wine #6: 2004 La Spinetta (Rivetti) Barbaresco Vürsù Vigneto Gallina
6 pennies
Wine #1: 1989 Francesco Rinaldi e Figli Barbaresco
Wine #12: 1975 Tenute Cisa Asinari dei Marchesi di Grésy Barbaresco Martinenga
5 pennies
Wine #2: 1974 Produttori del Barbaresco Barbaresco Riserva Pora
Wine #11: 1967 Produttori del Barbaresco Barbaresco
3 pennies
Wine #4: 1969 Gaja Barbaresco
Wine #5: 2004 La Spinetta (Rivetti) Barbaresco Vürsù Vigneto Starderi
2 pennies
Wine #8: 1980 Azienda Bricco Asili (Ceretto) Barbaresco Bricco Asili
Wine #10: 1982 De Forville Barbaresco Rabajà
1 penny
Wine #7: 1990 Produttori del Barbaresco Barbaresco Riserva Montestefano
Wine #13: 2007 La Spinetta (Rivetti) Barbaresco Vürsù Vigneto Gallina