advice on an old Barolo

Hi,

I am planning on trying a 50 yr old Barolo - celebrating birthday

Any recommendations on how to prep?

Pop, n pour? Decant? Open let sit in bottle ?

It has been standing up for a couple months.

Thanks!

Which bottle are you opening? That might adjust my advice.

Traditional Barolo service is often done from a basket, where the bottle lies at a consistent angle, so you can carry it around and pour it without mixing up too much sediment. Barring this old fashioned way of doing it, I would absolutely gently decant off the sediment right before serving, it may need 30 or so minutes but it will open up over the course of the meal.

The best advice would be to have a back up bottle of something 20 years younger. It has been said here many times that mature Barolo often needs a lot of air to fully reveal itself. But if I had a 50 year old bottle, I would be concerned about the line between mature and dead.

Hi Jeff
I would advise not serving it to Michael, but instead enjoy with friends & family

The standing up is a key element, so just be mindful of spoiling the good work - I’ve known a couple of people who passed such a bottle to dinner guests to look at, who proceeded to turn the bottle sharply on its side to read the label, then turned over again to see the back label - the host’s face aghast at their careful standing up being wasted. No need to be too geeky about it though.

Having an ah-so cork remover on hand makes sense, as these can be the best to remove old and / or soft corks. Otherwise be prepared that the cork might break & have a clean / recently rinsed decanter or carafe to hand. The sediment might be fine, and it sometimes will shake up very easily so don’t sweat it if you get some.

Not decanting vs. Decanting time is hotly discussed here. Differing views, so choose your preference. One advantage of decanting is doing so in one ‘pour’ allows you to minimise sediment being kicked up, but that’s not always a problem.

Regards
Ian

If I could take a look at the bottle it´s easier to give advice …

If the fill is good, the color looks clear and bright, the cork ok … and if it´s an artisan bottling (not a cheap negociant)
the odds that the wine is fine are high indeed !

My personal preference: opening 4-5 h in advance, decanting very gently right before serving …

???

Even a Nattering Nabob… should know better

Stand up the bottle in your cellar at least a week, if not 2 weeks in advance. About 6-8 hours prior, pull the cork. Take a small taste at some point without disturbing the sediment. Decant off sediment at the time of service. This is my modified Audouze.

A friend brought a 1958 Serafino Barbaresco Riserva to a blind tasting recently. He stood it up for a few days then decanted and immediately served it to us. It had some in stink which blew off and what remained was textbook aged Barbaresco/Barolo. It improved in the glass for an hour or so.

I expected the finish to be all acid but it wasn’t.

Let’s wait until we know, vintage, producer, and provenance before deciding whether or not a 50 year old Barolo should be drinking well.

From the man with the golden decanter: The Subject Was...Decanting - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers

Its a Giacomo Borgogno & Figli.

I have a few so will give it a try. (I also have Michele Mascarello & Figli - but only 2 of those).

Will drink at home - so I have lots of back up bottles.

Thanks for the input - cheers

1967 (I’m assuming this is a 67) was an excellent year for Barolo…so this should be an excellent bottle.

I’ve had a lot of older Barolo (most 50’s and 60’s, but a fair number of 40’s/30’s) and folks with more Barolo experience (including Thomas Brown, an old Barolo fanatic) have taught me the following for preparing them:

Stand the bottle up at least 2 weeks before hand. A little know fact is Barolo sediment was the inspiration for Agent Orange!

Decant mid day (4 or 5 hours before the dinner). Be super careful to not let any sediment through as you pour…drinking less wine is way better than allowing any sediment though. I prefer narrow decanters (the ones used for water in some restaurants) over the wide bottom decanters.

Rinse the bottle of all sediment and let the bottle drain in a dishwasher rack.

After ~half hour in the decanter, return the wine to the bottle (cork it or not, doesn’t really matter).

Have an awesome dinner. Opinions vary on the best glassware. I really like Zalto Universals, Gabriel Glas (the one that’s similar to the Zalto Universal), or any non-huge burg glass (Riedel Somm Burg glasses are too big imo).

This might seem like lunacy, i.e. the decanting, but it’s not…esp with Borgogno (Borgogno is more structured than many Barolo), and esp from a good year. Old Barolo is based on a completely different set of wine physics than other wines…the big risk here is missing the best of the bottle.

Off bottles: In my experience, the majority of off bottles have been caused by a cork failure…esp corks that fall apart as you try to take them out, or by heat damage during the bottles storage and/or moving around. In either case, decanting or not won’t make much difference in its enjoyment. There’s a temptation to take a taste prior to decanting. Judging a old Barolo at PnP is a skill…even with my moderate experience, I always decant ahead (as above). The one exception to this is Barolo that have lost their color…taste the wine, but move to the back up in this case.

Deciding what to do when you have a compromised cork or heat damage is a very difficult judgement call. I’ve had many exceptional wines from scary corks and/or wines with a lot of ullage. And judging heat damage vs a pissed off but sound Barolo (when the bottle is first opened) is a tricky thing requiring experience. Of course, the best option in these situations is to open/prep the back up bottle (as above), if you have have a back up and are willing to open it.

The other thing to consider, when buying older Barolo, is to factor in the possibility of off bottles by buying additional bottles. Considering the reasonable price of these, compared to a Bordeaux or Burgundy of roughly similar age, this is ‘easy’ to do…and an old Barolo in top form is every bit the equal of an old Bordeaux/Burgundy.

Had the 57 of this wine earlier this year at a friend’s birthday (birth year). It’s not a shrinking violet, and did fine with a double decant several hours before the event, as Eric suggests. Older Barolo needs plenty of air, so the idea that you need to be fearful and quickly pour it off and drink it is not the case. In fact if it first seems underwhelming, give it even more time (air).

Jeff,

John Stimson provides very good advice. Borgogno’s older wines are fairly sturdy, often library releases that were topped of (I’m not sure with what) just prior to release. I would open the bottle early in the day and decant mid-afternoon. If you are familiar with older Nebb you can then get a sense of whether it needs some time in the decanter. I wouldn’t be surprised if an old Borgogno needed 2-3 hours in the decanter.

Irrespective of what you decide to do, double decant. Nebbiolo sediment is fine and easily disturbed. The bottle will be cloudy and bitter, ruining the wine, if you disturb the sediment.

Some good advice here. Stand the bottle up for at least a few days and carefully decant. We’ve had an excellent strike rate with older Barolo from the 40’s, 50’ 60’s and '70’s. If the cork hasn’t failed, you generally can’t kill them in the decanter, so don’t be afraid to give them at least 4-6 hours, maybe more.

The above is exceptional and properly detailed advice,IMO

Bill Klapp had some very long and detailed posts on this. IIRC it can be rather different than for other wines, for instance some old Barolo has sediment that is very tannic and so should be allowed to settle out, and some years (1964 in particular IIRC) can take more than a day in the decanter to settle down.

ed: I should add that I’m just passing this on, IANABE (I am not a Barolo expert).

I really doubt that the OP would celebrate his birthday by opening a doubtfull supermarket spoofed wine from 1967
There are a myriad of threads about handling both modest and heralded 40-60 years old bottles

Some great advice here. Thanks to whomever posted my recent notes on old Nebbiolo. I actually have quite a few more to post but haven’t gotten to it yet. Speaking of the decanting sensei klapp, I happen to be in burgundy now and heading shortly for lunch with Bill. 67 is a great vintage and one that is really drinking very well now. Do not be afraid of air. And the borgogno should be very nice. Those wines age very well. If it is a red capsule that is ideal as it means it’s the original bottling and has not been topped off or recorked. My suggestion would be first decant carefully off sediment and don’t get greedy. Like was said earlier, better to lose some wine than to get stuck with sediment. Also best to decant through a fine screen which will help. If the wine is sound, the air won’t kill it. Nebbiolo is very sturdy. I wouldn’t be afraid of a few hours. If at some point the wine is singing, then pour back into a cleaned bottle. And enjoy!

Hi Jeff
I’ve had excellent 1971 and 1961 Borgogno riservas in recent years, but also a bottle of each that was on the slide (yet still enjoyable). The 1971 that was fading did improve a little in the glass over ~ 30-60 mins.

Hope you have success, and do report back

regards
Ian