April 21, 2024 - 93-94. Pop and pour. Leans tart red fruit: 40% red cherry / 60% sour cherry/sour strawberry, bergamot, black tea, rosewood. Medium bodied, extremely elegant. Clean, lightly polished, very fine tannins, very smooth. Slightly mouth puckering acidity and then modestly drying woodsy on the finish, suggesting (I think) more time to age this is warranted. Very drinkable but would be better with a cheese. My last note called out tannin as prominent, and here it was acidity. Tempted to slow-O the next one overnight and see what nature brings. 93-94
April 13, 2024 - Cherries, touch of mango, tea, earth. Fruit is extremely pretty on the nose but does not follow through on the palate, where it feels a little disjointed. For me, slightly behind the Tre Tine this year. Uncertain how it will, or will not, evolve from here on.
March 1, 2024 - (Blind verkostet) Helles Granatrot. Feinduftige Nase, rote Kirsche, getrocknete Kräuter, Leder, Teer. Im Gaumen zugänglich, bereits gut trinkbar, feines, eine Spur herbes Tannin, nicht überbordend in der Struktur, delikat, ausgewogen, mit guter aromatischer Länge und grosser Harmonie. Kein grosses Jahr, jedoch ein sehr guter Wein. Jetzt bis 2032 geniessen.
February 3, 2024 - Decanted a few hours prior. Very pretty midweight barolo with red cherry, florals, red rose, and svelte tannins. Pretty tannic in midpalate and finish. Did not need food. ZW93/95. At times a complete wine, at others more tannic without offsetting concentration. Defer to others on how long to age this one, but certainly has the structure to go many years longer. Great wine from the difficult 2014 vintage.
September 17, 2023 - Yeah baby. Lovely soft Nebb. Linear and pure. Mid weight and the better for it.
Super duper
May 5, 2023 - The '14 Brunate shows how difficult this vintage was in some vineyards. It shows both less depth and less finesse than the better vintages of this wine. The '14 is a rare miss from Rinaldi, as I've found the winery to do well in tricky vintages including 2017 & 2018.
On the nose, I found the bouquet a bit aggressive and masculine, for lack of a better word, rather than the normal elegance and sweetness of Rinaldi. I found dried red cherry fruit, a touch of menthol, some blueish floral tones characteristic of the G. Rinaldi Brunate, and tobacco, with the aromatics a bit muddled and the fruit not showing the purity and sweetness of the better vintages. On the palate, the acidity stands out prominently, with the wine light in body, with diluted light red fruits, red floral tones, and menthol. While very light in body, the very high acidity and slightly grainy mouthfeel make the wine still come across as quite intense at this stage.
It's hard to see this aging well from here, and yet it's also not that pleasant to drink right now. This is the third time I have tasted this wine, the other two times being on release in 2018 and at La Festa in 2019. It has showed similarly each time, with the wine unfortunately lacking the inner sweetness and vibrancy of most other vintages, although I think if anything it has gotten a bit worse since 2018-2019.
April 27, 2023 - Had this in flight with 08/10/11.
Showed well. Pretty. Open.
Slightly dilute on the palate reflecting the vintage. Otherwise, very enjoyable effort
April 15, 2023 - Tea leaves, powerful, dark cherry liquored. Palate is well. Structured, good fruit and chewey. Long finish
March 26, 2023 - I dint think there could be a better 2014 Barolo ... Its just that good....
December 2, 2021 - Return to Piemonte!; 11/25/2021-12/4/2021 (Castello di Sinio, Alba, other various locations): Drinking incredibly well event for the young age. It’s a producer that I continue to enjoy and I think we’ve had a mini vertical/horizontal of his wines now on this trip. There’s that lovely elegance to the wine. Darker fruit (not sure why with Brunate being more sandy but it seems it often is that way). And a bit of floral notes as well. Very good.