Eric,
Wonderful notes on a great evening. Many thanks for posting.
Cheers,
Doug
Eric and Ken and others- great tasting! Thanks for the notes and photos. I agree with you on the 2001 Bruno Giacosa Barolo Riserva as I’ve said before. It’s an insane Barolo that blows away most other wines not just Baroli. When I go pet pretty bottles in our offsite storage I usually take a look at this one. ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
That’s great, I suddenly feel like I’m not alone in the world. My wife thinks I’m incredibly strange for hanging out in my cellar–just to hang out there. I feel it’s part of the fascination, being able to look at them and–yes–pet them sometimes.
What a great idea for a tasting, and great execution. It wasn’t that long ago that I thought 2001 was still going though an awkward phase (many folks were saying it really wasn’t as great a vintage as first thought, but I think it was just a prolonged weird phase). Did you all feel that 2001 was fully out of it’s adolescent phase and could be reliably compared to 1999?
I would say not entirely. Some 01’s were still quite backward, esp. considering these were all decanted in the morning. Without further information, if I had 01’s and 99’s of a Barolo and wanted to try one tonight, I would pull the 99. Still, I would give it some serious air.
Thanks. Kind of what I thought. I’m still mostly avoiding 2001. Avoiding 99 as well, but starting to pull an occasional one.
Both Cappellano baroli from 2001 are phenomenal. I’ve tasted those on several occasions over the past 5 years. I need to check out an Elio Grasso. It’s fall, I’m getting the urge for lamb and Barolo.
Thank you for the reports of this amazing tasting. I am envious!
I now just read also Ken’s TN on CT.
I found it interesting to see that the Ca’d Morissio and the plain Monprivato came out very close.
I never had a Ca’d Morissio, but I also never came across over-the-top reviews, as it happens for the Monfortino or the Giacosa Riserva. Does anybody find it is justified to invest 2 to 3 times the price of a Monprivato to get a Ca’d Morissio?
(Incidentally, given how the Cascina Francia 1999 and 2001 were rated here, one would wonder how much better can the Monfortino be…)
Sorry it took so long to respond, work has been crazy this week. I have to agree about the Morissio and the Monprivato. However this is the first time I’ve tasted them together. Ken may have better insights on this. As for Cascina Francia, they are so unique against the other wines in the tasting and because of that they really stand out in contrast. I own both the CF and Monfortino in 2001, and I don’t regret buying the Monfortino for a second. I think the likely result will be an even higher score for the Monfortino even when the CF is starting to decline (God knows how long that will take) but I think it’s worth the wait.
Nice work guys! Dream tasting. Would love to do this on the Left Coast if there are others who are interested.
I tasted Cascina Francia and Monfortino young and was convinced it was worthwhile investing the extra cash in a few bottles of Monfortino.
On an aside, before buying any I waited for an opportunity to taste one and so missed the chance to buy the 2001 at a very reasonable price - I’m still kicking myself for that.
I haven’t yet had a chance to compare them mature.
Any other input on the Ca d’Morissio much appreciated!
I think “meaningless” might overstate your case a bit. The wines are clearly through their infancy and should be beginning to show a glimpse of their destiny.
I agree to a point. The fact is that no one at this tasting is popping these bottles open to drink right now. We’re just looking for a data point in their evolution. What’s more, I think it’s still a lot of fun to get together with some friends and start splitting hairs over these wines. Some of us didn’t even agree on a number of them–often the case with blind tasting (IMO).
Agree. The ONLY reason I’d pop one of these right now would be for a tasting like this - to get a data point in time along the course of evolution.
Oh, I just wrote in the other thread on 2004, that you seemed to have gotten a lot of pleasure from drinking these wines. Apparently I was wrong?
I only duel with riff raff
Don’t know you or your background, but I’ve been tasting these wines since the 1982’s were new releases. What we have here is people having fun, tasting great wines, and giving their opinions on these wines. No one in this group is pretending to speak with the voice of God (or Robert Parker) on these wines.
Let me point out that if you have formed the opinion that “Even the 82s are too young for the most part” then you have done exactly what we have done. There is no moment, no year, when these wines will be at their peak and we will know it. You can only know a wine was at its peak after it is no longer. Every tasting is a point along the evolution of a wine. IMO people can get great pleasure and information from a tasting like this, and we did.
OK, I took your first post seriously, but this is just a stupid troll.