Vinous Piedmont Icons Dinner @ Legacy Records
Legacy Records, NYC
Tasted October 17, 2023 by Robmcl920 with 257 views
Introduction
As always, Vinous did a great job putting together a fun and educatonal tasting. The tasting here was 3 wines each from 5 producers, with two bonus wines generously provided by Roagna. A few themes that stood out to me:
1. The 2004s were the consistently great vintage of the night. Every single '04 was on fire, drinking well now but with plenty of room to age. In particular, Giacosa killed it in '04.
2. Generational change and a style shift towards cleaner / purer, more fruit-forward, and more exotic (notes like blood orange / citrus appearing) expression of Nebbiolo was very apparent in the tasting. It was clearest with Roagna, where it was hard to believe that the '06 Pira came from the same producer that made the 2000 Crichet Paje. The change was also clear at Rinaldi, where the '04 was classic while the '10, made by Marta, was very exotic.
3. I've yet to find a '96 Barolo that really lived up to the hype of the vintage, and that theme continued tonight, with the '96 Ca Morissio showing quite rustic and the '96 Roagna Pira very odd.
Flight 1 - Giuseppe Rinaldi (2 notes)
The '99 Brunate was also poured, but was heat damaged / oxidized.
The nose was intensely perfumed, exotic, and sweet, with dark red, blue, and purple-toned, hard-candy like fruits, balsamic, raw meat, leather, and exotic floral tones. On the palate, the Brunate is an intense wine, with high acidity and a lot of tannin, but the tannins are so finely grained that they melt into the wine. Again, the exotic profile of the fruit and the sweetness of the fruit stands out, with citrus fruit and a spectrum of red, purple, and blue fruit tones sweeping across the palate alongside balsamic and sweet spices. The wine is very primary and should have a long runway for aging ahead of it, but as it's always been in my experience, it is so expressive and enjoyable now. This seems like a wine that has never and presumably will never shut down.
On the nose, I found dark red plum fruit, sweet spices, balsamic, and roasted meats. On the palate, the '04 is medium in body with fine grained tannins that are now largely resolved. This is a perfectly balanced wine that is entering its prime drinking window. The wine shows the sweetness and finesse I associate with Rinaldi, but tasted next to the '10, the '04 is austere and old school in comparison. The fruit tones here are maybe a bit more classic Nebbiolo, with dark red fruit, whereas in the '10 Brunate, I found exotic citrus, purple, and blue fruit tones.
Flight 2 - Giacomo Conterno (3 notes)
The '07 Francia was better than I expected, while the '99 was flawed and the '02 possibly also a bit flawed.
The nose was intensely perfumed with hard-candy like, dark red to black fruits, roasted meats, dark floral tones, tar, and top notes of exotic, citrus like fruits. On the palate, the wine was a bit more savory, with dark fruit, balsamic, earth, sweet spices, and orange peel. It is a concentrated, high acidity, beast of a wine, but so drinkable right now with the tannins very well integrated. This should go on for decades - one of the few '07s that I'd be comfortable aging further - but is also so good right now.
On the nose, I found dark red to black fruits, a bit oxidative and lacking freshness, with black tea, dark floral, and balsamic tones. On the palate, the wine was highly concentrated / full in body, but lacks the explosiveness and freshness I've seen before.
Flight 3 - Giuseppe Mascarello (3 notes)
The '04 and '07 Monprivato are stunning, with the '07 a rich wine and the '04 as delicate and finessed as Nebbiolo comes.
The '07 Monprivato can likely age well for a decade or more, but I see no reason to wait. While the '07 Francia may still be on the ascent, the Monprivato seems to me to be at about peak.
Initially, the wine showed pretty intense VA / nail polish remover on the aromatics, marring whatever else was there. This note faded, but didn't completely disappear, with air, and I wonder if it would have disappeared with more time. As the VA faded, I found an intense nose of dark red to black fruit, balsamic, spices, licorice, and roasted meats, clearly an old-school Barolo. On the palate, the wine always showed a bit cleaner to me than on the nose. The texture was decidedly rustic in comparison to the '04 and '07 Monprivato, full-bodied with a slightly grainy texture as there remains a lot of tannin that needs more time to integrate.
Based on how the '96 shows on the palate, I think the wine could benefit from another decade or two in the cellar for the tannins to fully integrate. I look forward to hopefully trying a bottle on its own, with more time in the decanter, in the future.
While this is a delicate, lighter wine than most of the wines at this tasting, there is great freshness here that suggests this should age well for a long time.
Flight 4 - Bruno Giacosa (3 notes)
The Giacosa flight was the best of the night in my view and certainly the most consistent. The '04 Asili is magical.
On the nose, I found olives, dark red, exotic floral tones, dark red fruit, blood orange, bitter chocolate, and sweet spices. The olive note I got is quite unusual for nebbiolo (outside of the Burlotto Monvigliero, where I've found black olive notes across several vintages), while the bitter chocolate note is perhaps a tell that the winemaking here is a touch more modern. On the palate, the '04 shows primary notes of super sweet, dark red fruit and candied red roses, alongside savory notes of chocolate and olive, while the wine is so perfectly balanced with medium plus acidity and concentration. There is actually quite a bit of tannin here which could benefit from time to integrate, but the tannins are very fine grained.
The '01 Rocche showed stunning aromatics with black fruit, tar, bitter chocolate, sweet spices, and dark red floral tones. On the palate, this is a beast of a wine, full bodied and highly concentrated, but the tannins are so fine grained and coupled with the sweetness of the fruit, it makes the wine very easy to drink already. But this is likely to take another 10-20 years to peak.
Flight 5 - Roagna (5 notes)
The style shift from the '96 and 2000 Roagnas to the '04-'06 is very large. I thought by far the best wine was the '06 Pira, a recent release.
On the nose, I initially found an oxidative, stewed black plum fruit expression, but this blew off with time in the glass, turning into more pure black fruit. With time in the glass, I found black plum fruit, balsamic, leather, roasted meats, and sweet spices. On the palate, the wine showed high acidity and was medium plus in body, with rustic black fruit, meat, and leather notes.
This wine was so dramatically different than the '04 Crichet Paje, but appealing in its own way.
The aromatics were frankly unattractive with oxidative dark fruit and a touch of green grass clippings. The aromatics did not show improvement with air, unlike the '00 Crichet Paje. On the palate, the '96 Pira was considerably better, showing raw meat, pure red fruit, spices, and leather, with high acidity and intense tannins.
On the nose, the '06 Pira was quite exotic and primary, showing none of the oxidative and more rustic notes of the earlier wines from Roagna. The fruit is super bright and expressive, with hard-candy like red fruits, exotic, blood orange and citrus fruits, spices, and tobacco. On the palate, the '06 Pira is pure silk, with almost no perception of tannin at all, perfectly balanced from end to end.
The '06 is very primary but is also so expressive and finessed today that I can't really imagine it improving, only changing, with more time. That said, the wine should hold for decades in the cellar.
I found a very classic, pure red-fruited expression of Nebbiolo, with super sweet red cherry fruit, sweet spices, raw meat, and mint. On the palate, the wine is medium in body with a super finessed texture, with almost no perceptible tannin. Compared to the 2000, the flavor profile here was so much purer, without any leathery, slightly oxidative notes. This was a super enjoyable wine, but I didn't find a ton of complexity.