1952 Giacomo Borgogno & Figli Barolo Riserva

Community Tasting Notes (28) Avg Score: 91.0 points

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  4/17/2022 - WST Likes this wine:

  When treated with care (careful decant on decanting stand, lots of air), this is gorgeous. The nose is all tertiary; iodine, soy sauce, mushrooms. The palate still has some sweet dark red fruits. A sexy septuagenarian.

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  2/19/2022 - Max S. Likes this wine: 90 Points

  Opened the bottle with a normal corkscrew, top 2/3 broke and pulled out. Used an ah so on the last 1/3, but it was pushing the remainder into the bottle. Ended up coming in at an angle with the corkscrew and pulling the remaining 1/3 out slowly. Success!
  
  Poured about 2.5-3 full glasses into a decanter before starting to see sediment. Ultimately got another half glass or so with a bit of sediment before whipping out some coffee filters (should've gotten cheese cloth ahead of time) - drank that towards the end of the night. As noted the sediment was ultra fine. It looked like whispy clouds snaking towards the mouth of the bottle.
  
  Wine was in the decanter for about 5 minutes before pouring, we all tried it right then. It was nice, but a little muted and maybe acid heavy, so ended up sipping over an hour or so. Probably about 20-30 minutes in it was showing some beautiful cherry - definitely stood out as I was expecting much more tertiary flavors. I can't believe this was a red cap, or original release that hadn't been topped up. Really nice balance and acidity. Incredibly smooth. About an hour in it started to show something like baking spice. The color was a limpid red, reminded me of a dull strawberry.
  
  I'd say not in its prime, but still drinking very well and worth every last penny plus some for the experience. 10/10 would do again (for any special occasion I could justify it).

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  4/15/2021 - cadamson wrote:

  Unlike the handful of these I have had over the years, this one was not in great shape. Not bad, drinkable, but no energy, little fruit. Too bad.

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  2/5/2021 - Jd6725 Likes this wine: 94 Points

  Wow did this need every minute of the 3-4 hours in decanter. It was an interesting marriage of the 1958 Riserva and the 1964 Riserva that I opened this past summer. Lighter bodied and garnet hue like the 58. But every bit and more of tannins and structure from the 64 which was also much more dark and brooding and more body. This was probably the most intellectual wine of the three. The fact that it was a speciale may have played a part. It finally softened towards the end and was drinkable without food. Although it lost a bit of its signing oomph that showed along the way. Very fun.

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  1/25/2020 - phgnan wrote: 92 Points

  Not in his prime but still in the drinking window. Still elegant with excellent complexity despite almost 70 years. Good experience.

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