Some great 07 CdPs...just kidding...Handful of old Nebbiolo Notes

Catching up on a few. I used up a ton of bad bottle luck for wines opened for La Festa, with 5 bad bottles, so at least my bottle luck outside of that has been pretty good! These all rocked pretty hard. Starting with the most recent:

1978 Bruno Giacosa Barolo Pugnane di Castiglione Falletto - certainly one of the rarer Giacosa wines, considering this is the only vintage it was made. I saw one note from AG, but didn’t do it justice. This wine was great, and not in the least bit frail. This was a powerhouse, not as sweet as some other Giacosa, but absolutely gorgeous and somewhat spicy aromatics. Stunningly long finish. Similar to many 78s, where there is unreal power and balance. Killer wine! As an aside, a handful of us nebbiolo nerds were trying to figure out exactly how to pronounce this vineyard name…

1967 Prunotto Barolo Riserva - sometimes you get surprised. I’ve been surprised on the upside with some good old Prunotto. Definitely a lot of bottle variation, but at $40 which I paid for this, its worth the chance. This was a very good bottle. Enjoyable mature and elegant Barolo. Not a world beater but didn’t need to be. Great with food. Nice wine.

1967 Giacomo Conterno Barolo Riserva Monfortino - sorry about the crooked label for the picture people, taped it back after falling off…this was opened on Super Bowl Sunday, in honor of Super Bowl I back in 1967. Spectacular, but took a long time to get there. One of those wines that could easily change in score over hours. Opened this at noon. Despite my careful handling, it was loaded with sediment, and this was standing for a few months. Decanted it twice through a fine screen and then an even finer one to get the sediment out. I was moderately disappointed in the nose after the first hour, and then the wine started to blossom. This sat in the decanter from noon until 9pm when we finally drank it, and I was following it much of the day, as it proceeded to smell better and better. When we finally drank it, the wine was magnificent. Glorious ethereal aromas, and a finish that went on forever. Truly magnificent.

1971 Marcarini Barolo Brunate Riserva - another one that was a great value. I’m generally willing to take a flyer on a Riserva from a great vintage like 1971. Decanted off the sediment for three hours. More in the darker soy/balsamic flavor profile here. Strong finish. Very good. Have had pretty good success with the older Marcarini wines.

1979 Bruno Giacosa Barbaresco Gallina di Neive - another great Giacosa white label. 79s get lost in the shadow of 78, but I often find many great wines from this vintage. This was so clean and excellent, great sweetness, nice finish. Excellent.

1964 Aldo Conterno Barbaresco Riserva Speciale - I seek these 60s Aldo Conterno label wines whenever I can find them. They are all pre-split Conterno juice and the Aldo labellings trade for usually 1/3 of the price of the Giacomo ones. Like many great 64s, this had plenty of life left. Totally smoothed out tannins and just riding that phase of pure drinking enjoyment. Great!

Last but not least a pair of Nebbiolo that accompanied us for a couple courses at Momofuku Ko. We were joined at Ko by our friends Pedro and Liz, who while not posters here, did join us at La Festa as well. This was our fist time at Ko. Not sure why we waited so long. It was really special. Amazing food. Wine service was totally top notch from our somm Chase Sinzer. Its the complete dining package. Here’s some pics of two of the meat courses that accompanied our Nebbiolo. The first was barely seared beef that was melt in your mouth good:


Followed up by quite simply the best duck I can remember eating in ages.


Not to be outdone, the wines were tremendous:

1978 Giuseppe Rinaldi Barolo - old Rinaldi may be the single hardest wine to find from Piedmont. Its just never around. For good reason. Beppe’s dad made some outrageously good wines. The 78 had such a purity of fruit yet such an intensity. A breathtaking wine.

1970 Gaja Barbaresco Sori San Lorenzo - stood head to head with the Rinaldi, in both power and pleasure. Also, aromatically gorgeous. Fantastic finish. Truly great like many of the Gaja wines of this era.

Happy Nebbiolo Days!

Great writeup!

Somebody correct me if I’m wrong, but usually represents /ɲ/ in Italian, the same sound that is represented by <ñ> in Spanish, so I would read Prugnane as /pru.ɲa.ne/, or something like: prru-nyah-nay.

fantastic notes as always!

Hi Tyler
Yes that’s correct, though there was a discussion here a while back that covered how the ‘nay’ sits somewhere between ‘nay’ and ‘neh’, but I’m not entirely sure I know where now! You’ll certainly be understood with how you’ve written it.
regards
Ian

That’s size, dude. Well done.

When did you come back to the board! Hope all is well! Been far too long…

I’ve been getting that a lot. I didn’t realize I had been so hermetic!

Hope all is well with you and thanks for the clickbait header for this post. Well done.

Happen to be in NY this Sunday night. If anyone free, happy to get together for wine. Have a ‘few’ bottles of ‘decent’ Barolo and other stuff that I can bring from my cellars

Great stuff Daniel. Restaurant looks amazing. I was really looking for 2007 CdPs reviews, but this will do. LOL. Where do you source most of your old nebbiolo?. I recently got a bunch at auction, including a double mag of Aldo Conterno Reserva Special 1970. Was good, not amazing, but not as good as the 1955 also from the same auction. Salud!

$40 for a Prunotto Riserva from when they were very good and in a recognised good vintage. 5-10 years ago that would have been a sound bargain. If bought recently then it’s borderline theft

Well done, Daniel!

Stuck in the burbs for me tonight with the kids, but hoping you have a volunteer to drink some good stuff with tonight! Some advance notice and my wife and I can usually manage to get into the city to share some great wines. Enjoy!

Occasionally from auction. I won’t touch Acker, but will buy from Zachys or HDH. Rare wine and Chambers are good sources in the US.

Fantastic notes on some amazing wines! The duck looked simply amazing…Momofuku is a master with ducks!


Cheeers!
Marshall