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Trediberri Dinner at Portale
New York, NY
Tasted May 17, 2023 by Robmcl920 with 127 views
Introduction
This was a very fun wine dinner. I thought the wines showed well across the board, with perhaps the exception of the 2018 which I found tighter than expected. The '19s were really vibrant and surprisingly open. I had not been to Portale before, but I thought the food was excellent, especially the duck ragu.
Trediberri is making excellent wines and Nicola and Stefania are super passionate, very fun people to be around. The full lineup is well made. The dolcetto from Dogliani was vibrant with beautiful fruit and is easy to drink, exactly as a Dolcetto should be in my view. The Barbera was fresh and medium in body, with a lot of energy and not the overwhelming richness that I can sometimes find in Barbera, a grape I am not a huge fan of. The inclusion of stems here may be one of the reasons for its freshness and lower alcohol. The 2017 & 2019 Barolos are very good wines, with the '19 Rocche in particular standing out. From my visit last month to the winery, I can say that the 2020s are also gorgeous wines and I'm quite excited to taste them again when they are released, as they seemed to have a lot of early appeal. Finally, one of the surprises of the night for me was the 2021 Langhe Nebbiolo, which I had tasted earlier this year and found fine, but not that exciting - last night, the '21 Langhe showed very well especially with a few hours of air.
Flight 1 (5 notes)
Red
2019 Trediberri Barolo Rocche dell'Annunziata
94 points
The '19 Rocche is a very beautiful young Barolo that tonight was showing surprisingly well already, but has all the balance for long-term aging. This is definitely the best released wine I have had from Trediberri, although the 2020s tasted at the winery a few weeks ago are likely to be stiff competition, at least in terms of early appeal.
The nose was beautifully perfumed with dark red cherry fruit, sweet red floral tones, menthol, and licorice, with a beautiful sweetness to the fruit immediately apparent in the aromatics. Interestingly, next to the '19 Berri, the Rocche seemed more fruit-forward in this tasting, whereas generally I expect a more 'entry-level' wine to be heavier on fruit early on. On the palate, the Rocche is rich and medium plus in body, but also quite elegant for a young Barolo, with fine grained tannins. The acidity is medium plus and the fruit is sweet and perfectly ripe, making this quite drinkable already. Red to dark red cherry fruits, red florals, mint, licorice, and spices flowed across the palate. The wine has the textural finesse, acidity, and density of fruit to suggest it will age very nicely.
The nose was beautifully perfumed with dark red cherry fruit, sweet red floral tones, menthol, and licorice, with a beautiful sweetness to the fruit immediately apparent in the aromatics. Interestingly, next to the '19 Berri, the Rocche seemed more fruit-forward in this tasting, whereas generally I expect a more 'entry-level' wine to be heavier on fruit early on. On the palate, the Rocche is rich and medium plus in body, but also quite elegant for a young Barolo, with fine grained tannins. The acidity is medium plus and the fruit is sweet and perfectly ripe, making this quite drinkable already. Red to dark red cherry fruits, red florals, mint, licorice, and spices flowed across the palate. The wine has the textural finesse, acidity, and density of fruit to suggest it will age very nicely.
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Comment
Red
2021 Trediberri Langhe Nebbiolo
90 points
Brief impression from a Trediberri dinner: Tasting the '21 Langhe Nebbiolo again, I think I misjudged it and underrated it when tasting it for the first time in January. The '21 Langhe was served early on in the dinner, but I kept my glass over the next few hours, and with air the wine became much more expressive and showed a beautiful purity of sweet dark red fruit and floral tones. It's a very finessed, drinkable wine with well integrated tannins, consistent with my last tasting, but the wine showed more depth and expressiveness this time around.
This is a very nice Langhe Nebbiolo that texturally is ready to drink already (as opposed to the '22 where I found the tannins in need of a bit more time) but I'd recommend opening the bottle in advance and perhaps even decanting it because it really seemed to benefit from air exposure.
This is a very nice Langhe Nebbiolo that texturally is ready to drink already (as opposed to the '22 where I found the tannins in need of a bit more time) but I'd recommend opening the bottle in advance and perhaps even decanting it because it really seemed to benefit from air exposure.
Red
2019 Trediberri Barolo Berri
92 points
The '19 Berri is a promising young wine and was very interesting to taste alongside the '19 Rocche. Compared to the Rocche, I found the Berri to show a bit less fruit and more floral and herbal notes. The tannins also seem to need a bit more time to integrate on the Berri. Based on this single impression of the wines, I would actually be more inclined to pop a bottle of the Rocche in the early going while leaving the Berri at least a few years in the cellar before revisiting.
On the nose, I found sweet red floral tones, herbal tones such as mint, citrus peel, and pure red berry fruits poking out but remaining in the background. On the palate, the Berri is medium in body, lighter than the Rocche, and perhaps because it has a bit less density, I found the tannins a bit more noticeable on this wine, although I think they will integrate nicely if given some time to age. On the palate, I found red strawberry fruits, citrus peel, red floral tones, and mint, with the flavor profile here being a bit more fruit dominant than the aromatics. The flavor profile here is lighter than the Rocche, as here I found more red strawberry fruits vs. dark red cherries on the Rocche.
While the '19 Rocche was surprisingly open last night, the '19 Berri was vibrant but showed a bit more like I expect 2019s to show. This is a vintage that needs time.
On the nose, I found sweet red floral tones, herbal tones such as mint, citrus peel, and pure red berry fruits poking out but remaining in the background. On the palate, the Berri is medium in body, lighter than the Rocche, and perhaps because it has a bit less density, I found the tannins a bit more noticeable on this wine, although I think they will integrate nicely if given some time to age. On the palate, I found red strawberry fruits, citrus peel, red floral tones, and mint, with the flavor profile here being a bit more fruit dominant than the aromatics. The flavor profile here is lighter than the Rocche, as here I found more red strawberry fruits vs. dark red cherries on the Rocche.
While the '19 Rocche was surprisingly open last night, the '19 Berri was vibrant but showed a bit more like I expect 2019s to show. This is a vintage that needs time.
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Comment
Red
2017 Trediberri Barolo Rocche dell'Annunziata
92 points
The '17 Rocche showed very well, but I think it will benefit nicely from medium-term aging (5-10 years, not decades) because the texture lacks a bit of finesse at this stage. The wine fits my general view of the 2017 vintage - the wines are shockingly classic in expression and vibrant for such a hot vintage, but the heat of the year comes out in the texture of the wine, where the tannins are somewhat coarse.
On the nose, I found dark red berry fruit, licorice, spices, and dark red floral tones, with the aromatics dominated by the vibrant fruit. On the palate, it is medium in body with dark red berry and dark floral tones, licorice, and spices, with medium acidity (lower than the more vibrant '19s tasted alongside it) and with tight tannins, slightly grainy at this stage. It is an intense wine, lacking a bit of finesse due to the heat of the year. I am looking forward to tasting this again with maybe 5 more years of aging, at which point I bet the fruit will still be vibrant but the tannins will have settled down a bit.
On the nose, I found dark red berry fruit, licorice, spices, and dark red floral tones, with the aromatics dominated by the vibrant fruit. On the palate, it is medium in body with dark red berry and dark floral tones, licorice, and spices, with medium acidity (lower than the more vibrant '19s tasted alongside it) and with tight tannins, slightly grainy at this stage. It is an intense wine, lacking a bit of finesse due to the heat of the year. I am looking forward to tasting this again with maybe 5 more years of aging, at which point I bet the fruit will still be vibrant but the tannins will have settled down a bit.
Red
2018 Trediberri Barolo del comune di La Morra
I have tasted the '18 Barolo a few times (although this is my first tasting note) and I have found it to be a solid wine in this very difficult vintage. Last night, I found the '18 to be quite tight and austere compared to my prior tastings. I suppose that may bode well for the long-term prospects of the wine - we'll see. I find the wine difficult to score based on last night's showing, but I could see myself scoring this in the 89-92 range depending on how it develops with age.
I found the nose on the '18 to be quite tight, but when coaxed it showed savory herbal tones, anise, orange peel, spices, and light red berry fruits. On the palate, I found a tight expression again dominated by savory spice tones like anise, then showing some light red fruits and light red floral tones. The wine is quite tannic at this stage, showing a bit rustic especially when tasted alongside the brilliant 2019s, where the tannin quality is clearly much higher.
I doubt it has much impact at this early stage, but I believe this was served from a 3L bottle.
I found the nose on the '18 to be quite tight, but when coaxed it showed savory herbal tones, anise, orange peel, spices, and light red berry fruits. On the palate, I found a tight expression again dominated by savory spice tones like anise, then showing some light red fruits and light red floral tones. The wine is quite tannic at this stage, showing a bit rustic especially when tasted alongside the brilliant 2019s, where the tannin quality is clearly much higher.
I doubt it has much impact at this early stage, but I believe this was served from a 3L bottle.