May 27, 2018 - Giacosa weekend - lunch at Masseria (Masseria, DC): Expressive surprisingly youthful nose displaying dry red fruit, dry cherry, cherry liqueur, fruit cake, still showing ink, anise, tar, tobacco, strong iron, rose, leather and earth. Incredibly youthful palate, layers upon layers of decadent dry red fruit, rich, bright acidity, strong iron mineral, still coarse tannins and a long decadent red fruit and iron driven finish with tobacco and leather at the end. The last bottle from 2015 also came from Paul. This seems more youthful but also a bit coarser.
November 23, 2015 - Some red fruit and dark floral notes showed little complexity. Perhaps not the most representative bottle.
July 16, 2015 - Monumental Barolo dinner - Monfortino, Giacosa, Taurasi and La Romanee (Fleet Street Kitchen - Baltimore, MD): Pop and pour, delicate dry red fruits, red cherries, strawberry, caramel, tree bark and earth. Warm, soft and round palate, delicate sweet red fruit driven palate impression, bright acidity and fully resolved tannins. It gains weight with air, strawberry, raspberry and cherry, a hint of iron, cappuccino, cedar, leather and earth. The palate remains warm and round, sweeter red fruits, good acidity and lovely long red fruit driven finish. Compare to the Rionda, this is a lot softer and mature. Really enjoyable wine that you can savor all night. Paul informs that it is the smallest production of the 78 Giacosa red labels.
December 20, 2011 - Off bottle. A shame
July 3, 2008 - Beautiful red with some browning at the edges. Incredible, almost brooding nose of goudron, earth, dried roses and cherries. Over time secondary notes of mocha and chocolate emerged. just great aromatic complexity. in the mouth, the acidity and tannins were very well balanced, and it had quite a long finish. I found it to be a little more 'masculine' than most giacosas I have had. It showed no signs of fading even after 3 hours, so while i'm not sure there is much benefit to further cellaring, as its already amazingly complex, I don't think there's any rush to drink remaining bottles.
November 1, 2007 - Stunning freshness and stuffing; tasted as if it were a 10-year-old wine. would love to revisit in 30yrs
October 23, 2007 - Once a Month begins with Nebbiolo; 10/20/2007-10/22/2008 (NYC): Well this was a welcome surprise on the table which was quickly decanted and set aside for consumption later. By the time we got to it it had probably gotten 1.5 hours of air and of course that was not enough. The nose was very complex with layers of gamy, meaty tones and fried panchetta sweetness that added to the smoky, sottobosco character of the wine.The entry is cool, layered and almost silky with it's somewhat resolved structure perfectly integrated in the medium bodied fruit. Excellent, sapid and savory with ephemeral notes of lilac, ash, tobacco, and coffee caressing the elegant fruit. This is like a pair of tight,red, leather shorts on Uma Thurman. 2007-2020