January 31, 2024 - A Taste of Serralunga Dinner-La Festa del Barolo 2024 (Locanda Verde, New York): Deepest saturation of these wines. Medium+ weight. Serious, deeply imbued flavors of tobacco and dark fruit. Soil extends from the start to finish. Wonderful feel and flow. The tannins are substantial but refined, giving this big wine early approachability. Outstanding and deeply impressive.
November 29, 2023 - The ‘15 Arione was impressive again, but it is really tight right now so it’s hard to peg the exact quality level at maturity. This is the tightest bottle I’ve yet tasted, but I’ve had this wine a few times since 2020 and consistently found it pretty closed off. This is a dark, dense, powerful wine that impresses most today for its texture, combining concentration and finesse.
On the nose, I found dark red to black cherry and plum fruit, tar, dark red floral tones, black tea, and fresh herbs. With air, I found hints of balsamic and sweet spices as well. On the palate, the wine is explosive, medium to full in body, and very tight right now with dark red cherry and plum fruit, licorice, tar, and black tea / herbal tea notes emerging on the finish. I found this wine as well as the ‘17 Arione to exhibit a very dark flavor profile with some interesting herbal notes, and those were really apparent here on the finish. The wine is most impressive for its texture, super concentrated but with almost no perception of tannin.
October 21, 2023 - Annual Pilgrimage to Piedmont - 2023 Edition; 10/20/2023-10/22/2023 (Piedmont, Italy): A top end wine from a top vintage yes but ever so young now and we had no time to decant. Was just punchy rich and ever so buttoned down too as this really needs another 10 years to hit its stride. Nothing if to fault it and the fruit had that rich young feel across of a great vintage and for sure we could see the potential. Just at this stage the wine is a mere glimpse of what can happen given time to age. 91 for now but unfair to it to open it now.
June 11, 2023 - I liked it because it told me I was a fool to open it. It was so closed and blocky and giving so little except steely acid and tannin. For the love of wine keep this corked for at least another 3 to 5 years. Don’t open it and try to decant it for 6 hours or two days. It won’t do anything. Only time can reveal this flower. Hold.
November 4, 2022 - Enomania
June 25, 2020 - The nose was initially closed but opened over time, and was dark and savory with plenty of depth, displaying aromas of dark red cherry & blue-toned fruit, licorice, pine, fresh herbs, menthol, and balsamic. On the palate, the wine is concentrated and powerful, with a rush of dark red to black toned fruit, spices, and minerality. It is a young wine full of dark fruit, yet also with plenty of savory elements adding depth and intrigue.
This is clearly a compelling wine, but more so than most 2015 Barolo it needs time. The nose was at times open and showing plenty of complexity, but at times was fully closed off - it requires some coaxing at this stage.
May 2, 2020 - Roberto's first vintage from the Arione vineyard is a knockout with a perfumed nose of dark fruit, licorice, smoke, and cardamom. Dense fruit with a sharp minerality. Silky, soft texture despite those Serralunga tannins that need near a decade's time to tame. Excellent. Drink starting 2030.
February 1, 2020 - The ‘15 Arione was, at first, in a very reductive state, requiring much coaxing to blossom in the glass. However, once it did, I realized it was worth the wait. Here I found a remarkably pretty and lifted display, with dark exotic florals and black cherry giving way to crushed stone and hints of savory herbs. On the palate, I found soft textures, offset by high-toned red fruits, black earth, minerals and inner florals, with a twang of motivating acidity giving way to drying tannin. The finish was long, as fine tannins dried the senses, and red fruits, spicy minerals, and inner florals resonated throughout. This may have landed at the lower spectrum of my previous range, yet still at the top of the range out of all wines tasted now from bottle.
February 1, 2020 - 2015 Barolo Seminar- Festa dal Barolo
This wine has mystery and layers to dissect. It has a contrasting nose that is simultaneously brooding inwardly turned, but at the same time there is a ton there. More savory than fruit driven, with nettles, balsam, tar, ferrous notes, and darker nebbiolo fruit. This is reserved, yet powerful. Primordially youthful, but still approachable, or more accurately, you can at least see behind the curtains. More deep savory and mineral driven nebbiolo character on the palate. This is hugely impressive, and a wine that I have previously failed to appreciate the incredible quality. This is towering, classically proportioned wine of incredible depth and balance. It is not a wine to cuddle up with, but wine to sit down, contemplate and explore the nuance and depth, preferably 20+ years from now. The wine of the day. Fantastic.
February 1, 2020 - "2015 Barolo…The Bigger Picture" Tasting at La Festa del Barolo (The Pool and The Grill in the Seagram Building, NYC): Opening slowly. The nose is stunning with a complex array of red fruit, black fruit, cardamom, and cloves. Powerful and expansive in the mouth. Incredible depth and complexity. Easily the wine of the tasting, though I would give a slight edge to the Arione Nebbiolo I tasted last night at the Gala dinner.