96 Taittinger CdC and 1997 Barolo-Barbaresco

Several good friends got together recently over a long dinner to drink some 1997 Barolo and Barbaresco. There was a good starter German that I forgot, and should be ashamed of myself for doing so, and a dead wine as well

I think all the wines I know if were double decanted earlier in the day, with the exception of the Asili which was double decanted the day before (not on purpose).


Starters:

[*]1996 Taittinger Champagne Brut Blanc de Blancs Comtes de Champagne - France, Champagne (2/27/2015)
I lack vocabulary for sparkling wine, but this was clean, yet rich, pure and terribly well balanced. A fresh beautiful BdB. Sharp and pure, with intensity without weight. It’s drinking beautifully where I suspect it will last for a long time. 95 pt. (95 pts.)

[*]1997 Bruno Giacosa Barbaresco Asili - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco (2/27/2015)
Lovely perfume, floral and supple, but with layers and still a freshness. Round in a 97 way, but not lacking depth or complexity. There is a lifted weightlessness to the nose with roses and a textural laciness that couples nicely with the richness of the vintage. Beautiful stuff drinking at peak., (94 pts.)

[]1997 Bruno Giacosa Barbaresco Rabajà - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco (2/27/2015)
Where the Aisli was lacy and impressed with elegance, this had the grace but with more power, expectedly. More menthol and depth, darker fruited and with a powerful almost meaty side, with some cooler herbal notes.Deeper and more impressive, but only slightly less finesse than the Asili. This has power and grace and all comes together nicely, in a more come at you vintage style. Beautiful and early peak. 95 pts (95 pts.)


[]1997 Giacomo Conterno Barolo Cascina Francia - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo (2/27/2015)
Deeper and more brooding than either of the Giacosa barbareschi, Larger scaled, structured Serralunga profile. Picking nits on this wine, it is a bit bigger than it can hold together for me, a little overripe and lacking a high degree of balance. Excellent density and power without it feeling heavy, but it just falls short a bit for me. Maybe it will come together in time, but as much as I would like to love this wine, the 97 CF has never moved me the several times I’v head it. A bit obvious and out in front, and while still outstanding, and with parts that impress, it just doesn’t seem to add up to a greater whole at his point (or any other time I’ve tried it). (90 pts.)


[]1997 Bartolo Mascarello Barolo - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo (2/27/2015)
Now, here is a wine that puts it all together. Lovely lifted perfumed, especially considering vintage. Roses, tar, savory as much as fruit, and with an almost saline and mineral lift. Deep and weightless. Nothing here jumps out at you, but the whole wine just exists in a place of beauty. Grace in a glass. Beautiful stuff. (95 pts.)


[]1997 Giovanni Corino Barolo Vigneto Rocche - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo (2/27/2015)
Searing wood, and dill herbal oddness. Disjointed and out of balance. There is good material underneath the manipulation. A shame. A wine I would not choose to drink, and others may like it more. I won’t numerically rate because of stylistic preferences.[/list]
Posted from CellarTracker

[*]1997 Poderi Aldo Conterno Barolo Colonnello - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo (2/27/2015)
Ripe fruit, with some drying tannins and a thinness/ astringency in spite of phenolic ripe (over) ripeness. A little dusty and herbal on the back end. I am not sure where this is going, and may come together, but for now, it si out of place a bit. I have not loved the Aldo Conterno wines form this era. 89 pts (89 pts.)

[*]1997 Massolino Barolo Riserva Vigna Rionda - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo (2/27/2015)
Huge perfume, menthol, deep Serralunga perfume, and textural profile. Large scaled, but supple, ripe but not overripe and pulling it all together quite nicely. Power and grace and a wine that will bring you to pause. Beautiful stuff drinking very well and in no fear of decline. 95 (95 pts.)

• 1997 Giacomo Conterno Barolo Riserva Monfortino - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo (2/27/2015)
  Deeper and with more of everything all in perfect balance. Deep and structured, with an almost ferrous note, it’s gracefully large scaled and poised brilliantly. Ripe but not overripe, with greater depth and precision than the other players tonight. A wine that does not try too hard, it just achieves excellence. A brilliant bottle of wine drinking at early peak. Effortless. The wine I would most like to drink over the next 2+ decades. 97 (97 pts.)

Overall a very fun evening. Several wines showed very well, and most successfully overcame the potential for over ripeness of the vintage. I think the Monfortino, Massolino, and the Giacosa Rabaja are the most likely players to have a significant upside, but all were drinking at at least an early peak and I don’t see any crime in opening any of these now. That said I’ll be holding my monfortino for a decade plus.

Thanks for reading

Tait CdC is so reliably good and ages so well. 90 still young.

Todd – 01 Selbach-Oster Zeltingen Sonnenuhr Kabinett, which showed rather well and would have benefited from a bit more of a chill. For me the Massolino was perhaps the most memorable (not saying the best), perhaps becasue I was still in a swoon over the '10 Massolino Rionda Riserva that morning at La Festa…

Excellent notes, Todd, thanks for posting.

The 96 Comtes is a gorgeous wine. The 95 is a smidgen better

Thanks for the notes of all those 97’s.

Fine notes Todd. Wish the '96 Comtes was more readily available. Unfortunate about the Corino.

Cheers.

RT

Todd,

Thanks for posting. You are perhaps a point or 2 more generous than I would have been, but you absolutely capture the profiles and relative quality of the wines. The wines definitely reflected the vintage.

I had a 97 Marcarini Brunate from mag the next night that was close to the Bartolo in style, much racier, and brighter than the vintage would suggest. I wonder why these 2 wines did not show the ripeness of other 97s?

I had another bottle if 1997 Bartolo last night, different provenance than the one brought to the dinner noted above. I have a recollection that prior bottles from this lot had a warmth, a seductiveness that was enjoyable but perhaps atypical and I was concerned about the aging curve. Not this bottle. The wine very much fit the description above, initially presented with some fine grained tannins but with time the wine evolved into a classic expression of the beauty of this approach to Barolo winemaking, not about power but about finesse and balance. Just a lovely bottle at a really fine place in its development. [I tend to concur with Maskell that Todd’s grading curve was a tad generous.]

Nice notes,Enrico.Along with the 97 Sperss,the Bartolo is drinking well now at this juncture.

Gugliemo, the notes at the outset represented an evening where 97s showed remarkably well. Agree re the Sperss, it has always outpunched its weight

My (x3) bottles of 1997 Aldo Conterno Cicala were all OTH, so I’d not hold out hope for a resurrection on the Colonnello.

VIntage produced inconsistent results for many producers. Giacosa’s barolos often not up to his normal standard. Cascina Francia has shown a lot of variability. If I recall, some doubts about G. Rinaldi in that vintage. Mid 90s was a difficult period for Aldo Conterno.

Tom and Henry, You guys are probably right re: the scores. Goes to show the value of scores (at least from me). I suspect there may be three possibilities for the heights:

#1: My meter does not go to 89 Collina Rionda or 78 Monfortino yet. That’s gonna drop everything else at least a point.

#2 The wines (or most of them) really were very pleasurable and a bit forward with in front of you impact, but as a group they lacked the focus and nuance, or as Dr Evil said, “a certain I don’t know what” of great Nebbiolo.

#3: I was so close to Tom that just being in the sphere of his aura raised everything a point of two.

Most people would go for #1 or #2 as the cause, but I’m going with #3.

Hope you all are well.

Best,

I was not aware Tom had an aura - on the East Coast, we refer to it as an odor

Thanks for the tasting notes on the 2007 wines.

I have not warmed up to Aldo Conterno. Their wines from late 90’s left me a bit cold. Similar experience with 2000 and 2001, 2004 were a bit better but lots of chewy tannins and not much finesse. I stopped buying them until the 2010 vintage came around. Purchased a few Cicala and Romirasco at a friend recommendation who tasted them at the cellars.

Sanjay,

I had Aldo’s 2006 Cicala which was a thing of finesse and beauty. I too have avoided his '90s bottlings however.