1947 Enrico Serafino Barolo
Community Tasting Note
forceberry wrote:
Wednesday, May 31, 2017 - The oldest Barolo - and also dry red wine, while we're at it - that I've tasted to this date. The bottle reads "Export - Barolo Classico".
Cloudy, opaque dark brown color - looks more like cold coffee than red wine. Vague, concentrated and very old nose with aromas of sweet peanut butter, oxidative syrupy sweetness, some chocolate cereal character and a hint of wet paper. Full-bodied, rather acid-driven and pretty tannic on the palate, the wine is remarkably stern and tightly-knit for a 70-years old senior. However, the taste department is quite unforgiving; there are flavors of dried cherries, wizened dark fruit character, a little bit of prune, a hint of roasted spices, a touch of plum compote and that syrupy tawny sweetness brought by age and oxidation. The wine finishes on an old and oxidative note with long and complex but pretty tired flavors of roasted savory spices, some robust nuttiness, a little bit of peppery spice, a hint of sour cherries, a touch of sharp, acrid smokiness and a nuance of aldehydic green almonds.
What is remarkable is that this wine wasn't completely dead, dull and thoroughly oxidized - unlike so many younger (yet still very old) Baroli I've had. All the same, the wine was still obviously very old and long past its prime. The midpalate still retaiined some semblance of fruit, but the flavors were at this point very vague, quite steadily on that raisiny "old wine" territory, with some sharp oxidation creeping along the edges. Not the most memorable Barolo I've had and past the "pleasant" mark, now hanging somewhere between "drinkable" and "too old". Yet I was still surprised how this wine was still quite drinkable and even somewhat recognizable as Nebbiolo at 70 years of age. Nothing extraordinary, but definitely an experience to taste a wine this old and truly a testament to the longevity of Nebbiolo.
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