RISTORANTE BOVIO, LA MORRA - (6/28/2015)
My favourite dining experiences in Piemonte on this trip were in the typical local trattorias we visited with Jeff Chilcott of Marchesi di Grésy … However, from the perspective of fine dining, the meal at Ristorante Bovio was probably the highest quality one on the trip.
We worked our way through a number of appetisers each (the highlight for me being the veal tartare with black truffles), before I had an exquisite cannelloni with duck and black truffle entree and then a surprisingly tender, hare-like main dish of roast baby goat.
The wines were excellent too:
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2004 Azelia Barolo Bricco Fiasco - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo
We had enjoyed visiting Lorenzo Scavino at Azelia earlier in the day so thought we could not go wrong with one of their 2004s … We didn’t. Deep, dark colour. An attractive bouquet showing some fruit sweetness, suggesting preserved dark plums and berry fruits. There was sandlewood and a little, subtle tar and even suggestions of cassis and menthol on the nose. Some evolution was evident on palate, we could see the line from the '11 Azelia Bricco Fiasco back to this wine. There was some softening and mellowness here with flavours of dry brushwood, tar, old plums and cardamom spices. The acidity and tannins were in place and in proportion. Well balanced. There was good structure and shape to the palate with some sweet tannins on the mid palate. Very good!
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1995 Giuseppe E Figlio Mascarello Barolo Monprivato - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo
But there was a big step up in quality with the Monprivato … Deep but radiant ruby colour. An exquisite, multi-layered nose of red cherry liqueur, subtle five spices, dry underbrush, tobacco leaf and cooked meat juices. A lovely bouquet! On the palate, after a relatively sweet entry, there were layers of red berry fruit, cooked smokey meats, red liquorice and high cocoa chocolate. In fact, in some ways, the wine seemed more primary than the Azelia. Viscous and velvety in the mouth, the wine had serious fruit weight and dry extract. There were big tannins but they were fine grained and well integrated. Elegant and refined. The Monprivato paired beautifully with my duck cannelloni. The wine finished long, dry and savoury. I got the impression it was just reaching its drinking plateau now … Excellent!
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Good notes, nice pics, and great job not writing “Piedmonte!” 
It’s mid-30’s (90’s F) today in London. How is it there?
One of the great restaurants of the world.
Brady, it was above 30 often in Burgundy and Piemonte. I’m actually in Iceland ATM. It’s a balmy 15C tops today.
Jeremy, an amazing restaurant experience.
All, I’ll add more notes and pictures this evening (I’ve run out of time this morning …).
Great stuff Howard. Food looks great, as do the wine matches. I am steadfastly keeping my hands off my 04 Azelias, but you are a bad influence! I look forward to further notes.
I love Bovio as well. I was there early December last year and had their truffle menu - wow was it great. Instead of charging you by the gram like a lot of places, it was 150 Euro prix fixe - and they didn’t cheat you on your truffles. And the 2010 G. Rinaldi Tre Tigne for 85 Euro didn’t hurt either (side note - amazingly approachable for a young Barolo. I had the Brunate the day before as well, and same story - drank very well).
Congrats on a good experience!
Kent, I’m definitely going to pay more attention to Azelia after tasting through the range there.
Cheers, Howard
TRATTORIA DELLA POSTA, MONFORTE D’ALBA - (6/28/2015)
The meal at Trattoria della Posta in Monforte was not far behind that at Ristorante Bovio. There I had an excellent green ravioli filled with goat cheese before a succulent stuffed quail. We finished by giving their excellent cheese cart a good work out. The wines were:
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2009 Bartolo Mascarello Barolo - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo
An attractive, quite lifted nose of red cherries, red plums, red currants, tobacco and dark roses. Quite a sweet front palate followed by a more savoury, red fruited, mid palate, with dried herbs and spices across the palate. The structure arrives towards the back of your mouth, which is when the tannins kick in. The Barolo showed good acidity. At this young age, some of these tannins were a little chunky and rustic, but just time is probably needed for them to soften. I enjoyed this wine, particularly with my ravioli. At age six, relatively forward. Optimally, I’d still give it another 5+ years.
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2004 Silvio Grasso Barolo Ciabot Manzoni - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo
Trying wines you don’t know from a wine list is, I think, a good idea, but here it did not work out … The bouquet suggested some trouble, a nose of very sweet, dark fruit with mocca, menthol and a good whack of vanillin oak. In the mouth, this translated to a wine appearing too sweet right across the palate, with too much wood overly prominent. Like biting the mantlepiece. The wine seemed very modern (in the worst sense) and we speculated that it would be fairly indestructible in this style. We thought it could have passed for a bad example of a Cali Cab. It was open in the decanter on the table for several hours over dinner. We did not finish it.
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SOME WINES WITH JEFF CHILCOTT - (6/30/2015)
Officially, Jeff Chilcott works at Marchesi di Grésy. Unofficially, he is like New Zealand’s wine ambassador to the Langhe. He is a guy everyone in the Piemonte wine business knows and likes.
To break the ice with a Piemontese winemaker we have just met on this trip, we needed just to mention Jeff’s name, which would inevitably lead to the relating of an epic wine experience or the fishing out of a phone to show a photo of a 15 bottle lineup from a dinner with Jeffrey a couple of nights ago.
Jeff likes small family-run trattorias, full of the local people, and asked me not to post the names of the ones we ate at. They are the sort of places where the menu is set for you, and delicious, and where magnums of local wines are passed around from table to table for you to try …
We had two great meals with Jeff and friends and these were a few of the highlight wines:
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1997 Vietti Barbera d’Alba Vigna Vecchia Scarrone - Italy, Piedmont, Alba, Barbera d’Alba
Vietti proprietor Mario Cordero’s son Lorenzo brought along two excellent Viettis to lunch … One of the key things I’ve learned from a week of tasting in the Langhe is to fully appreciate Barbera, especially those from G Conterno and Vietti. These can be serious, age worthy wines … The Scarrone had a gorgeous, perfumed nose of dark flowers and ripe black cherries, blackcurrants and some Asian spices. A beautiful, dark fruited Barbera on palate, approaching full maturity. However, it had no suggestion of secondary nuance. Concentrated, rich and powerful. A serious wine. Good acidity, structure and length. There’s no hurry to drink this Barbera. ‘From a warmer year, which Barbera likes’, said Jeff.
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1996 Vietti Barolo Lazzarito - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo
A beautiful bouquet, with subtle creosote aromas. A broad, rich nose of red berries, raisins and raspberry jam, with spices and gentle florals. Also broad and rich on the palate, with lots of bright red fruit. Very precise and focused (‘a high acid year’ said Jeff), but with serious architecture, depth and scale. Very balanced, with spherical, suave tannins. Again, nothing secondary on the palate. I liked this Barolo very much but some around the table thought it showed too much new oak. Drinking very well now, I’d give a bottle of this wine 5+ years, looking for some evolution.
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2006 Tenute Cisa Asinari dei Marchesi di Grésy Barbaresco Martinenga Camp Gros - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco
A lovely nose of spices, dark cherries and other dark fruit. On palate, savoury, umami flavours with blackcurrants and other dark fruits, dry earth, soy and mixed dried herbs. Powerful and driven with good structure, fruit weight and length. A beautiful match with my preserved fig dish and local cheeses. Thierry and I debated whether we preferred this wine or the 2007 Camp Gros we recently had. I preferred this wine and Thierry preferred the 2007. Years ahead of it, of course.
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1985 Gigi Rosso Barolo Riserva Arione Sôrì Dell’Ulivo - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo
Andrew’s wine had been sitting in a decanter for more than two hours before we broached it. Still, the bouquet was a little musty and dusty, with fragrances of dried and preserved red fruits. It was also showing some oxidisation with porty, raisiny aspects, suggesting a ruby port with a little age. On palate, a pleasurable, mellow, savoury older Barolo. The fruit was at the red end of the spectrum, with flavours of dry underbrush, dried herbs and pipe tobacco, as well as raisins and dates, suggesting, to me anyway, a glazed old English Christmas cake. Jeff attributed the pruniness we all saw to the vintage, not the effect of evolution. Clearly a wine in a secondary phase, but nothing tertiary here. The tannins were present but now nicely rounded and resolved and there was acidity, but it was not over-prominent. Thanks Andrew!
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2008 Cavallotto Barolo Riserva Vignolo - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo
A gift from the winery. Our contribution to the dinner. Excellent potential with this wine. A little reduced on both bouquet and palate. Fresh and very intense aromas of dark cherries and blackberries, liquorice and lifted dark florals. Also a suggestion of citrus juice I sometimes see on Baroli. On palate, as well as the reduction, the wine was a little primary and closed, although it did open somewhat with time in the glass. Vibrant and crystalline red fruit flavours. Elegant, refined and well balanced. I’d give this wine 10+ years cellar time and a lot of oxygen if I did open it earlier.
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2003 Tenute Cisa Asinari dei Marchesi di Grésy Barbaresco Martinenga - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco
Jeff very generously brought along to dinner three magnums of Marchesi from his cellar. Talking about the first, he described the super hot vintage of 2003 as ‘The year we went back to school to learn about winemaking’. He said, ‘Imagine you are a chef. In 2003, you can cook whatever you want but the oven is only set to high’. A sweetly fruited nose of ripe dark plums, tobacco and spices. On the palate, super-concentrated and very ripe cherries, stewed plums and a touch of crème de cassis. Also some minerality. Seemed lower acidity but relatively fresh given the vintage. This wine won’t I suspect make really old bones but is a tribute to the winemaking team.
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1995 Tenute Cisa Asinari dei Marchesi di Grésy Barbaresco Martinenga Gaiun - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco
Jeff talked about the challenging vintage of 1995 and then served us the Gaiun and Camp Gros side-by-side from magnum. Thierry, Helen and I preferred the Gaiun over the Camp Gros. Darker colour than the Camp Gros. A nose of tar, savoury nuances, dark earth and tobacco leaf. ‘Smoked green pepper’ Helen said, meant as a positive descriptor. On palate, I thought the Gaiun was superb. It was drinking fairly young but the tannins were nicely softened and resolved. Tarry and earthy. Quite fresh and precise with the acidity and the oak matching the fruit well. Drink or hold.
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1995 Tenute Cisa Asinari dei Marchesi di Grésy Barbaresco Martinenga Camp Gros - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco
A brighter colour than the Gaiun. Aromas in the darker fruit end of the spectrum, more lifted and primary, with balsamic, espresso and liquorice notes. The Camp Gros gave the impression of more oak on bouquet, which surprised us as it sees less new oak than the Gaiun. In the mouth, more primary and concentrated, with more fruit weight than the Gaiun.Riper, deep, dark fruits, with soy, dark herbs, liquorice and Black Doris plum. Plush and glossy. Good freshness and acidity. Very powerful and quite long. The palate seemed to show more woodiness than the Gaiun, perhaps due to the greater ripeness of the underlying material? Years to go here too obviously.
Mille grazie Jeff! See you soon in NZ.
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A board recommended favorite. Ours too.
Howard
Indeed - some of the finest labels, and I doubt there is another producer who has a range of labels that are as aesthetically pleasing as Vietti’s
regards
Ian
Howard,
Thanks for posting. However, you should correct your posting as to the ownership of Vietti.
My husband and I also enjoyed Bovio and Trattoria della Posta during our visit in 2012. The views from Bovio are fantastic.
Marilyn
Bovio was our favorite meal in 2013 and La Libera the worst. Only negative at Bovio was the tight parking.
John, sorry to hear that about La Libera. Funnily enough my next, and last, report for this thread is …
LA LIBERA, ALBA - (6/30/2015)
With Andrew and John gone, Thierry, Helen and I decided to dine on the last evening of our Piemonte trip at the well regarded La Libera. The food was very modern and excellent and they have a good wine list:
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2001 Cascina Luisin Barbaresco Rabajà - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco
Enrico said that his friend at La Libera had a good palate and suggested we ask her to select a wine or two for us. I ordered the Corino and she said she would provide something to complement. She offered us a replacement bottle if we didn’t like her choice … We did not call on her guarantee … We all very much liked the Rabajà. A nose of dark fruit and black spices. In the mouth, the first impression is of the sweet tannins, then ripe, black cherries and dark berries. Quite driven and precise. Good acidity unfurls on the front palate and then the fruit sweetness drives through … Due to this acidity, it’s a good food wine. It paired well with both my quail egg and duck dishes (the latter, better than the Corino). Drinking well on its drinking plateau and no hurry to drink this …
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1995 Giovanni Corino Barolo Vecchie Vigne - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo
The colour of the Corino was ruby, just beginning to brown. A umami meat broth nose, with sautéed field mushrooms, a whiff of melting road tar and some barbeque smoke. There was not any real oak artefact I could detect. Gentle and mellow on the palate, but the fruit still very much alive with some primary red fruit. Barolo like I like it, fully mature, just beginning to turn secondary. Flavours of dried plums, red berries, meat stew, dried autumn leaves and creosote. The tannins seemed pretty well resolved to me. But unmistakably a big, large scaled wine. Helen and Thierry were less pleased with the wine’s evolution with Helen noting a ‘varnishy’ character (I could see, but did not mind, perhaps polished mahogany) and Thierry finding the wine somewhat ‘blocky’ … Anyway, I was very happy with it … Plenty of stuffing and structure here to see where a bottle of this evolves over the next 5-10 years …
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The opening scene in The Trip to Italy is shot in Trattoria della Posta. A very funny movie for those who haven’t seen it and the restaurant is another beauty.
