TNs: Vietti Perbacco Vertical: 2005-2011

VIETTI PERBACCO VERTICAL: 2005-2011 - My place, Chicago IL (9/21/2014)

I’ve slowly been working on this Vertical. It all happened by accident as I had 3 vintages on hand. So, I decided to keep buying each vintage until I had a small run of them. I finally felt like I had enough wines to do a decent vertical, so I had a few friends over and made the food for everyone.

• NV Zoémie de Sousa Champagne Brut Merveille - France, Champagne, Avize, Champagne
  Nose: The nose is wide open and balanced with brioche, red apples, baking spices, yeasty tones, and some pears. There is excellent depth and style to this that comes with this being an older disgorgment.

Taste: Medium bodied with refreshing medium/high acidity. The acidity is certainly there, but it’s more in the refreshing category. There is a silkiness to the feel with brioche, red apples, baking spices, fresh baked dough, and pears.

Overall: This is from a 6/10 disgorgement. This showed off some real class and was a real pleasure to drink. (91 pts.)

• 2005 Vietti Langhe Nebbiolo Perbacco - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Langhe DOC
  Nose: The nose is wide open and perfumed with roses, red cherries, tar, fresh picked red berries, strawberries, and roasted herbs. There is excellent complexity with a good layering effect too.

Taste: Medium bodied with medium+ acidity and silky tannins. The structure is there, but it is well in balance and doesn’t overpower. The feel is polished and lovely with roses, red cherries, tar, strawberries, and roasted herbs.

Overall: This feels like it’s at a mature stage. It does show off Barolo-esque complexity, but it does lack the depth as expected. Still, this is gorgeous and shows off the benefit of aging. (90 pts.)

• 2006 Vietti Langhe Nebbiolo Perbacco - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Langhe DOC
  Nose: The nose just sings from the get-go with roses, violets, perfumes, incense, roasted herbs, tar, dark red cherries, and wild flowers. The complexity grabs you and really draws you in.

Taste: Medium/full bodied with medium/high acidity and noticeable tannins. The structure is still there along with dark red cherries, licorice, tar, roasted herbs, and a good bit of wild flowers on the back end.

Overall: This feels like it can still get better. This is punching very much above its level and was gorgeous. (91 pts.)

• 2008 Vietti Langhe Nebbiolo Perbacco - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Langhe DOC
  Nose: The nose is very perfumed and high-toned with red fruits, fresh picked red berries, roasted herbs, roses, and wild flowers. There is a feminine and airy quality to the nose that is quite attractive.

Taste: Medium bodied with medium/high acidity and silky tannins. There is noticeable structure, but it isn’t overpowering. The feel is deft with red fruits, earth tones, fresh picked red berries, and wild flowers. The feel is pretty, but there is a lacking on the mid-palate that is disappointing.

Overall: This is a pretty Perbacco. It is lacking slightly on the palate, but that doesn’t take away from the higher-toned and attractive nature to it. (88 pts.)

• 2009 Vietti Langhe Nebbiolo Perbacco - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Langhe DOC
  Nose: There is a nice red fruit core with red cherries, spice tones, red fruits, tar, and some roses. This is lacking some depth and isn’t showing as much complexity as the other Perbaccos.

Taste: Medium bodied with medium+ acidity and silky tannins. The feel is rounded, but it is lacking on the mid-palate with red cherries, spice notes, tar, roses, and some herbs.

Overall: This was the weakest of the Perbaccos. It’s still a nice and balanced wine, but it just didn’t have the complexity compared to the other wines on display. (87 pts.)

• 2010 Vietti Langhe Nebbiolo Perbacco - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Langhe DOC
  Nose: The nose is very perfumed and feminine with red cherries, red florals, violets, earth tones, and some berries. There is a higher-toned nature to the fruit, but there is a slight lack of depth.

Taste: Medium bodied with medium/high acidity and chewy tannins. The structure is very youthful and noticeable with red cherries, red florals, tar, roses, and some earth notes on the back end.

Overall: If this gains some weight and complexity, it will be lovely. This shows off a more feminine and nuanced side that is very pretty. (89 pts.)

• 2011 Vietti Langhe Nebbiolo Perbacco - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Langhe DOC
  Nose: The nose is very savory and perfumed with roasted herbs, red cherries, wild flowers, tar, red berries, and strawberries. While there could be some more depth, the aromatics are very inviting.

Taste: Medium bodied with medium/high acidity and silky tannins. The acidity is certainly there, as are the tannins. There is a lot of youth to this with roasted herbs, red cherries, tar, strawberries, and roses.

Overall: This is pretty and very young. The aromatics are extremely pretty and if the 05 and 06 show where these can go with age, this should be really good in about 7-10 years. (90 pts.)

I would’ve loved to have had the 07 in there, but it was not to be. Even still, this was a great way to see how these age as well as having the vintage differences right there on hand next to each other. This was a fun little tasting and I wish I bought a little deeper to do a bigger one of these down the road. C’est la vie, but this was well worth the gathering and it was a great time.
Posted from CellarTracker

Loved reading about vertical done on a good qpr wine that can age that I also really like. Time to stock up on the newly released 11’s.

Thanks for the notes Keith - I just tasted the 11 yesterday and was impressed with the quality and really liked it so great to now that it can age as well

Thanks for the notes. Perbacco is a great QPR wines. I’ve not tasted any older vintages but recently tasted the 2011. Might be a good place to start cellaring some.

Thanks. Funny though, I have mostly 04 and 07 in the cellar.

Great idea for a vertical. Was just on CT the other day browsing the notes on 2011. This wine has an interesting buyer base, per CT anyway, with tougher graders than most.

I’m interested whether the fruit sources for this wine stay relatively the same from year to year.

Keith, thanks for the great notes. Had a quick question on the 05…you mentioned that “It does show off Barolo-esque complexity, but it does lack the depth as expected.” I know we all probably use terms like complexity and depth in slightly different ways…curious how you differentiate between the two descriptors in this case.

Thanks.

I would think that 2008 will be better with time. Likewise the 2010.

I recently popped an '04 and that baby barolo was shut down…

A great tasting of what is in effect Barolo. A great entry point into Nebbiolo as it’s affordable and ages very well.

Not exactly, but significantly.

sorry, I’ve been meaning to get back to this. I look at it as a horizontal/vertical type thing. A wine can have 3 or 4 notes (for me), and have it going for days. So, it would be more in the depth category (again, for me). Likewise, a wine can have a lot going on, but they would be more surface tones thus providing complexity, but lacking depth. Hope that makes sense.

What’s funny is that this idea came from you saying something along these lines a few years back and it really resonated with me. Now I just need to follow through and buy deeper on these bottles instead of constantly having the instant gratification from them (of which they do provide a lot of that) .

What was the food?

I love that a post like this is up on WB. These are awesome wines and too often we get wrapped up in the higher end wines of the region. I haven’t bought much of this in recent vintages but have loved them to death whenever I do. Thanks for posting notes. Are there any other Nebbiolo normal wines that you cellar?

Keith, thanks for the notes, great idea. I’ve been thinking of stockpiling these for a long time but will hopefully get it in motion in my 2015 buying budget.

Cool idea, Keith - I’ve got about five vintages of the Produttori Normale in the cellar, so maybe I’ll do something similar in the near future.

one of the first things i remember Keith telling me back when we first met in 2008/2009 was to cellar these wines. “baby barolo” was the term he used, and i’ve been using that name for this cuvee ever since. looks like a great lineup, too.

I’ve tasted one vintage of this in a blind lineup of young Barolo/Barbaresco/Gattinara, and I thought it was Barolo. It was just as good as some significantly more expensive wines.

As will I(and of course I’ve made the same silly decision to have only bought 1 of most of them)

Funny, we like in a small world. Have to be careful what we say!

I’m glad it turned out so well!

Hopefullyu we’ll be able to sit down and drink some fine Nebbiolo together at some point.