This past summer I held a belated 90th birthday dinner for my mother, as I had finally tracked down a 1927 in honor of her birth year. Notes to be found elsewhere on WB. So it was nice to gather up friends to celebrate her 91st this past Armistice Day. No birth year wines but we did have a surprisingly nice Spanna from Sizzano and some delicious black truffle dishes!
We started off with an older NYT recipe for potato wrapped truffled cod. Made some minor modifications like cutting the cod portions in half and doubling the truffles! This was fantastic. Served this with
2007 Colin-Deleger Puligny-Montrachet Les Demoiselles
Now Colin-Deleger has been dead to me since having all my 2001s oxidised, but this wine was not contributed by me. It was a pleasant surprise to find it tasting very fresh and young. Perhaps more opulent than I like to think of for Puligny, but stellar quality nonetheless. This was excellent, and a great match for the sumptuous cod.
After a first course heavy on truffles, what next? Heavier on truffles. Made a truffle risotto with overkill shaved truffles. For this I opened up 3 Nebbiolos to go with it.
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1961 Cantina Sociale di Sizzano e Ghemme Sizzano - Italy, Piedmont, Northern Piedmont, Sizzano (11/11/2018)
Spectacular for what it is: a 57 year old coop wine with ‘only’ about 60% Spanna (aka Nebbiolo) to fortify it. Mild tar, rose, earth and wild mushrooms, and plenty of delicious cherry. Bit thin on the finish. This was decanted about 9 hours before drinking and mainly consumed between two truffle courses. From a 720 ml, BTW. (Totally) Excellent. (91 pts.) -
2000 Alessandro e Gian Natale Fantino Barolo Bussia Vigna dei Dardi - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo (11/11/2018)
Nice with black truffle risotto. Decanted for about 9 hours. Still fairly brooding with tar and tobacco notes, with dark cherry fruit more on the background. Excellent. (90 pts.)
1998 Marcarini Barolo Brunate
This was also contributed, but did manage to decant it for about 5 hours. Still dark and brooding as well, but a little more expressive and a smidge more fruit too. Really enjoyed this too!
Company, wine and food were really great. Another successful birthday dinner for Mom! It was also interesting that the 57 year old wine was the ‘fruitiest’ red of the night. I remarked that the Marcarini perhaps just needed another 37 years to get to peak. These wines really did demonstrate the aging ability, as well as the tastiness of Nebbiolo. Here a a couple of pictures. The fish looks anemic, but it tasted really fantastic. I managed to snap a photo of the bottles afterwards, just before they hit the recycling.
