1964 Barolos

My post on the forum!

I’m planning to open two 1964 barolos for my birthday:

1. Giordano Barolo 1964
2. Schiavenza Barolo 1964.

How do you suggest I serve or decant it?

I’m hoping it shows well.

I would stand them up for at least a week before serving, then highly recommend using the Audouze method - open them up 8-12 hours in advance but don’t decant or disturb the wine.

I would also use a Durant if you have one to extract the corks. If not, be ready for the cork to crumble if you try to use a standard corkscrew as most of the corks on old Barolo aren’t great and 55 years is a long time for a cork to stay perfectly sound.

I don’t know those 2 specific wines, but 1964 Barolos are great and to my palate drink very well now. Good luck!

Happy Birthday!

Warren

I think Ed’s advice is sound. I would be reluctant to decant these many hours ahead. I’d try a little taste after opening them and see if they seem fresh or tired. If you get oxidative, coffee notes, I would definitely NOT decant. If they seem very fresh, with no such scents, you might try decanting – possibly just half the bottle of you want to hedge your bets – closer to serving.

Be VERY careful pouring, as nebbiolo tends to produce extremely fine, very bitter sediment, and it’s harder to prevent it getting into a decanter or glass unless you pour VERY slowly with a flashlight under the neck to make sure you don’t get any cloudy wine.

I don’t know Giordano. Sheldon Wasserman’s encyclopedic book on Italian reds (last edition 1991) lists a Giovanni Giordano in Barbaresco, and gives him only one star on a five-star scale. Does the label say where the producer is based? Many Barbaresco producers in that era made some Barolo and vice versa.

Schiavenza has very good holdings in Serralunga, where the wines tend to be very structured and long lived. Other things being equal, the odds on that being good and very intact are better.

On the sediment issue, I tend to decant (for something this old shortly before serving) through a coffee filter. Curious if others would recommend that, or if not what the downside might be. I find it catches most/all of any sediment.

I would agree with Ed. Do not be afraid to double decant it in the AM, wash out the bottle and refill it, then recork it and then you can follow it. I drink a fair amount of older nebbiolo. The number of older nebbiolo I have had that got better after the slow O method like this is a much greater number than any that got worse with the air. Also, most importantly, set them upright for as long as you can. Weeks would be ideal, at least one week. Nebbiolo has very fine often bitter precipitate at that age and even a little that gets resuspended in the wine really compromises the wine. Be ready to sacrifice a few ounces of the bottom of the bottle when you double decant. Many 64s are showing well now. Good luck!

Sigh unfortunately they were not stored standing up and I’ve asked the supplier to stand the bottles up. What should I do with the sediment? A coffee filter?

What I have been doing, when I have luxury of time/location:

1. Standing up bottle for long period of time
2. Filter initial pour through coffee filter (For cork sediment etc.)
3. Pour vast majority (but not all) of bottle normally
4. Pour out the remaining few ounces through coffee filter into a second vessel/glass/tupperware. Filter can work slowly at times (it is fine) so may only revisit this after an hour.

Coffee filter captures a shocking amount of fine sediment, but I suspect not “all”; this is what i use:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000CF2WP/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Assuming your birthday is within the next week, I would wait for another occasion to open them.

FWIW that is the filter I use as well.

If you don’t have at least a week or two, I might agree. That Schiavenza, if proper, should be VERY good. I opened a bottle about 6-8 hours beforehand, and it smelled great. I decided to decant about 2 hours before dinner, and it was going strong 2-3 hours into it. The remainder was holding up until the next day.

Normally, I’ll pop the cork for about an hour or so, re-cork, then pour 24 hours later.

What I would do—PM Ken Vastola, Bob Hughes or (IIRC) Tyler Rico

My experience with 64s is variable—some have been elegantly dead. Some have been pure magic. I hope you get the latter out of your two bottles Shawn. Welcome to the board!

Mike

Has anyone heard of a Giordano Barolo? Or a Barbaresco?

Hope these work out for you. I have had lots of problems with older Barolo. I would do one of the two below.

1. Stand them up for 2-4 weeks. Open 6-8 hours before serving and keep them cool, pour slowly to keep sediment from being disturbed. You could decant right before serving to get the wine off the dregs. It makes pouring during the meal easier.

2. Open 6-8 hours before serving and keep cool. Filter them right before serving with the above filter.
   
   
   Good luck.

We had this one last year


it was opened and tasted early am to increase exposure
Poured from the bottle in the evening
Brilliant wine

So I tried the 1964s yesterday!
It was a pity I didn’t treat the Schiavenza so well because it was showing pretty well on the nose when I opened it in the afternoon but by the evening it was slightly too oxidized almost like vinegar.

Anyway my tasting notes:

Schiavenza 1964 Barolo
On the nose, some wood, leather, licorice, vanilla, and some banana.
On the palate: leather, some apple, relatively smooth, with some sweetness of honey, rounded licorice. The cork completely disintegrated and I had to filter it into a carafe which probably meant that too much air went into it. On hindsight, opening it up 5 hours before dinner was probably not a good idea as by 1 hour into dinner it was almost like vinegar which was a pity as there was lots of potential. Lesson learnt: old wines like 1964 barolos need to be treated with fragile precision.

Giordano Barolo 1964
A musky nose of licorice, cheese and some almonds.
On the palate, some red fruits, cheese, smooth caramel, leather, dried raisins, almost port like but still retaining good structure. Very tasty.

That’s unfortunate Shawn but not altogether surprising. In my experience with older Barolo (and other types of wine), I’ve seen many more bottles ruined by too much air than not enough. When asking people in Piedmont a few years ago (Winemakers, retailers dealing with very old Barolo…) the usual response was to stand the bottle for 3 hrs. They didn’t decant and some commented that sediment is a ‘natural’ part of older wine. I have no taste for sediment, so I do decant just before serving. The best results I’ve result from:

1. Stand for weeks, not days
2. Open and pour off a small amount into a stem per slow ox method. Check the condition. Do this early enough to allow for additional time if needed.
3. Give it 3 hrs slow ox.
4. Check the condition. Re-cork if where you want it to start… If not give it more time. If going to a restaurant - double decant to remove sediment
5. Decant just before serving. If signs of a lot of sediment I’ve used unbleached bamboo coffee filters with no adverse effect. Otherwise, decant slowly.
6. Enjoy while it evolves further in the glass.

Sorry to hear
I am currently enjoying this perfectly stored 1961 Schiavenza