Brickish in color. Evident VA fades with air, revealing leather, rose, and balsamic notes. High acid with some muted earth and cherry flavors. Silky mouthfeel with drying tannins on the finish. This is already a little dried out and may unfortunately be an example of '96 Barolo that doesn’t reach maturity until most of the fruit has faded. (Bottle 7423) > (90 pts.)
I took one for the team with this wine. Unfortunately I’m not not sure this bottle would have come around before the fruit was nonexistent.
I stood upright for two days, decanted for three hours, and then drank over three more.
I’d say it showed best at 2-3 hours and plateaued there. Time in the decanter certainly softened the wine and brought out a bit more on the palate, but the nose is already dominated by secondary flavors and didn’t improve.
Not the '99, but the '98 Voerzio Brunate was outright flamboyant about 1 month ago, with a 2 hour double decant. CT reviews are similar to my experience. Energetic, youthfully fruity, detailed taste. Not really mature afaik, but immensely satisfying, such that I am considering opening my remaining few btls in the short term. And much more alluring than the '11 Rinaldi Brunate also opened about 1 month ago, which was merely very good (will not buy more). No experience with the '99 Voerzio Brunate, however the '99 Clerico CMG one year ago was monolithic (with good componentry) with a 6 hr decant, and not nearly as entertaining as the 98 voerzio.
I drank a 97 Voerzio Brunate in May and the wine was decanted for 2 hours prior to drinking. I scored this 98 points. It was just starting to enter a drinking window and the wine was a beast. I’d say the 99 is probably close to drinking but I’d decant 4/6 hours and I’d say it’s got a 20/30 year window to drink if the 97 was any indication. My 2 cents Cary
I am in complete accord with Ken about extended aeration for Giacosa (or any other serious traditionalist’s) 1996s, and I would try to handle the sediment far differently than standing it up for two days prior to serving. Normally, I would either stand this one up for a month (minimum) to let the sediment fully come out of solution at the bottom of the bottle, or open the wine on its side with a screwpull and keep the line of sediment undisturbed on the side of the bottle. Robert’s description of the wine not having enough fruit to withstand the drying tannins sounds like archetypical dusty Nebbiolo sediment still in solution to me. Barolo/ Barbaresco sediment is far more nepharious than pinot and will turn a wine astringent in a heartbeat of not fully removed from the equation. I am willing to bet Robert that if you stand up the same bottle for a month before decanting, you will find a lot more fruit available for inspection in this young wine. And like Ken seriously suggested, opening and decanting it the night before service would help the wine blossom significantly as well, as the 1996s are still very, very young wines in the traditionalist camp.
I had this wine earlier this year and it’s one of the best Nebbiolos I’ve ever had (95 Pts.). Oddly, many of my descriptors are similar to yours but I suppose I men them in a more positive way. My criteria, admittedly is more for complexity over fruit though.
I agree that ideally I would have stood the bottle up longer, but I didn’t get any astringent or bitter notes on the finish, which is how I normally perceive Nebbiolo sediment.
As it happens, I recently enjoyed the '96 Rinaldi Brunate-Le Coste at a restaurant in Piemonte, where it presumably wasn’t standing up at all prior to my ordering. I did note the bitter fruit on the finish there, likely due to extant sediment, but that was still a significantly more aromatically complex wine, with plenty of fruit balanced by gorgeous secondary notes. I think this '96 Giacosa was just dried out.