I tasted this wine at the cantina in 2011 and liked it, even though I generally did not like the 07s I tasted on that trip. Most struck me as hot and sort of diffuse. I liked the Burlotto Monvigliero enough that I bought some when I got home. This is the first bottle I’ve opened.
Sadly, the vintage seems to have prevailed. This seemed hot and lacking focus when I decanted it to take it to a restaurant on Monday. On that first sip, there was some nebbiolo dried strawberries and rose hips, but also some slightly candied cherry – of the cough drop sort. (It came straight out of my cave, which is set at 60F/15C. I single decanted it into another bottle. It threw a reasonable amount of sediment, to my surprise.)
It definitely benefited from food – exquisite smoked pork shoulder at Sutton Inn on East 54th (no corkage on Mondays). But it was still hot, somewhat candied and lacking something in the middle. Very little grip here. And we kept the bottle in a bucket with ice in the bottom. It resembles a lesser nebbiolo from a hot year, or maybe a warm-year Terre Nere Etna Rosso. (It reminded me of the 2009 Langhe Nebbiolo from Vajra after five or six years – a nebbiolo from a hot year that was better on release.) 83-ish points for me. Meh.
I see two notes on Cellar Tracker that are somewhat critical (one says to keep it cool, the other said it doesn’t taste like nebbiolo), but most are relatively positive.
Greg dal Piaz told me back in 2011 that he wasn’t a fan of this and he seems to have called it right. I’m happy to say that in the vast majority of cases where I’ve bought wines based on tasting at the property my instincts have been borne out. Not this time.
Could very well be the vintage, and perhaps partly due to Fabio’s learning curve as both a winemaker and grower, which he seems more involved with now. I feel like if another 07’ came along today he would probably make a better wine in the same circumstances.
Anyhow, going back to vintages…the '08 is very fine juice. Wish I had a case or more.
Indeed, he just sent me a 425-word e-mail assuring me that he sticks by his view. (Have you ever known a view of his to budge?)
My error, and Greg dal Piaz’s, according to Bill, is that we are “bottom feeders” who base our views on wines like Burlotto’s and not on Giacosa, Gaja, Bartolo Mascarello, Vietti and G. Mascarello’s Monprivato.
Hi John
My gut feeling is caution before writing it off. 2007s were often approachable, and were a useful restaurant choice where only recent release wines were available. There was a feeling they might not shut down (or at least not shut down hard), but this sounds like the initial fruit receding has upset the balance.
FWIW I was more tempted by the 2006s and 2008s when we visited the region in 2012, so despite buying quite a bit (we had the car), I only have 2 bottles of Barbaresco and 1 of Barolo from 2007 vintage (and 1 of those Barbaresco wines is a magnum bought when back in the UK). Not that I didn’t enjoy a number of 2007s, but much preferred what I tasted from the vintages either side, and was buying mainly for the cellar. I guess that showed a little concern about how the 2007s would perform in the cellar, but I certainly hadn’t anticipated them becoming permanently unbalanced.
I’d let your others rest for 5+ years and then try again. Who knows what they’ll be like, but drinking now seems to be a problem.
Marcarini still remains for some reason relatively under the radar despite a track record going back decades. For me it’s always been the Burgundy lover’s Barolos.
Checked in on the 2007 Monvigliero after reading this thread and have to agree with previous comments…this clearly had too much hang time and lacked the verve and delicacy that I love in this bottling…disappointing.
I happen to like the monvigliero but didn’t really see it hit it’s stride until the 2010 and it’s also a really atypical Barolo so not really one to peg a vintage on I think. That being said I looked back at CT and the only 2007 I’ve checked in on in the last two years has been the Giacosa Asili Riserva which is a fantastic age worthy wine. We’ll see about the vintage. I’d say at year 10 it’s far to early to make a long term call on the vintage.
I have the 2007 VAJRA, BRICCO DELLE VIOLE–haven’t tried yet, but seems to get good reports on CT (including from Ken V). Also have and have drunk the '09 of this wine, and have liked–maybe a little fruit forward, but true neb character and ready to go out of the gate. Others have tried?
I wasn’t basing my assessment of the vintage of it. I was saying that (a) notwithstanding my view of the vintage, I liked this wine early on, but (b) after 10 years, it seems more in line with other wines of the vintage.
Fabio has been the winemaker at Burlotto for more than 20 years. While a learning curve never ends, he has been well along that curve for a long time. Monvigliero 95, 96, and 99 for example were terrific wines on release and have aged very well indeed, and the 2000 is an amazing wine from what was a fairly warm vintage, which had gorgeous fruit by the way so keep that in mind as we hear more about the next greatest vintage ever. I can not imagine why someone would say otherwise or feel that his wines were of a lesser quality until very recently, except for the fact that the critics were either ignoring his wines, or were unimpressed by them until very recently.
Pure speculation on my part Greg, seeing that he’s still a young guy (by Barolo standards) and the wines seem to be in top form of late. I also assumed his father was much more the author of the wines from the 90’s with the transition happening in the early 00’s