Bought a few of these from an excellent source for older wines from Piemonte and took delivery a few months ago. The bottles came wrapped in clingfilm, so the label was practically pristine. The fill level was also very good for its age.
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1982 Produttori del Barbaresco Barbaresco - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco (12/3/2018)
Opened around noon and allowed to stand in the cellar all day, then decanted off sediment (caked almost entirely at the bottom) at 5:45 and began drinking from Riedel burgundy stems around 6:15. At first some volatility on the nose and hints of madeira and caramel. Color was a little dusty at first despite 4 weeks standing up and decanting off sediment. Within 5 - 10 minutes, though, the color improved and cleared, taking on a more solidly red hue and the oxidative notes faded. The palate and nose both changed almost constantly throughout the drinking window of an hour or so. First it took on weight, and the red fruit at the core - a little cough syrupy - became more focused. The caramel notes never quite went away, but they blended in more with air, and some nice floral notes joined in. The finish was lingering and satisfying. The acid was a little out of balance on its own, however when tasted with our beautiful roast lamb, that improved. Fully mature, probably a few years past its absolute prime, showing more or less as I’d expect from a the normale bottling at this age from an Italian passive cellar, and exhibiting all the right characteristics, just not the very best example of them. That said, we both found this very enjoyable (great isn’t always necessary), though people not drawn to well aged nebbiolo might have found it too developed. At the end, it started to fade and dissipate a little, while still taking weight at the mid-palate for me (JR disagreed), so we sped up our consumption of the last 1/2 glass. I’d give this a solid B without food and high B+ with the lamb. It’s been a while since we opened a nicely aged nebbiolo and it didn’t have to be outstanding to make me happy.
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