Common sense would tell you to wait on a wine like this at age 12 but sometimes we do ill-advised things. I suppose it played a part that these back vintages of Oddero are somewhat readily available at decent prices. Despite its current state it was not at all undrinkable with nicely marbled beef sirloin and roast potatoes à la Heston Blumental and Gruyère Alpage cheese for dessert. That said if you have any do the smart thing and stay away from them for a few more years.
2007 Oddero Barolo Mondoca di Bussia Soprana- Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo (29.12.2019)
Decanted for 3 hours, during which it moved some but not a lot. The nose is neither mind-blowingly complex nor an aromatic explosion but it is pleasant and classic with savory cherry-driven fruit, tar and hints of herbs and truffle. Bright and detailed most definitely. On the palate the wine is not huge per se but the structure damn straight is. After the mellow entry a tidal wave of tannin emerges and grips the palate in a way only Nebbiolo can. That’s not the end of all the fun however as there is some delicious, bright fruit still present after that and the finish is pleasantly dry and clean. About 10 years away from reaching its apogee, I think it is a very good wine of the more traditional kind. While young there is clearly an elegant side to it, it is not a bruiser by any means despite the notable structure.
Thanks Ilkka! I have a bottle of the 2006 and was wondering to myself when it will be time to pop. Your feedback means i’ll aim for at least 2026 and enjoy as a 20 year old youngster!
Sounds like a plan, especially so considering that 2006 should be an even longer lived vintage. I might buy some myself as funny enough I just found it for a price lower than what I paid for the 2007 at the winery
In October, I met Jonathan and Victor in NYC - I brought the 2005 of this wine. Sadly it was only aerated in decanter for ~ 45 minutes (ty Gramercy Tavern), but still, I thought it quite lovely, very elegant. It’s a nice time to visit these if you’re sitting on any, even if it’ll hold, and positively evolve, for another 6-8 years. Seemed to have its feet mostly in the secondary camp; the balance, tertiary aspects. Hand carried from Santa Maria to Colorado in 2009, this was a joy.
Thanks for the note re: '07
below, a price list at Oddero from a visit a few weeks ago, in case you’re visiting anytime soon (the magnum of the 2005 is a bargain, imho)
Oddero switched importers on both coasts a couple of years ago and the old importers dumped their inventories. That’s why you see so many older bottles at very attractive prices. For those of you with long memories, that’s also why so many mid-90s Roagnas came on the market in the early 2000s.
Are there both Riserva and non-Riserva bottlings of this wine still being made or did they start labeling the wine as a Riserva around the beginning of the decade?
When visiting Piemonte, I was surprised to learn that many wineries have no back catalogue of wines. Some producer might keep a small portion of each vintage so they can see how the wines evolve and occasionally arrange vertical tastings for media etc., but those wines are not for sale. Only very few wineries had back catalogue to go beyond the last 2-3 vintages, which were the bottles they were yet to sell at that point. Things might have changed since my last visit (2015), but I doubt it has been much.
This is mainly because for the longest time the wine regions in Piemonte was complete backwater country and the producers really struggled to sell anything - especially something as expensive as Barolo or Barbaresco. Every time they could actually sell all the wines from a single vintage was a moment of celebration. Even though the Piemontese Nebbiolo wines been very popular for a few decades now, many producers still haven’t started to collect back vintages (or even have any storage room for such projects) but prefer to sell everything as fast as possible. Those that have something tend to have wines from only past 10-15 years, even when the winery might’ve been producing wines under their own name for close to a century.
I actually think this is pretty good that they still offer some cuvées for 10yrs+ after vintage.
Compared to France, it’s been my experience that in piedmont you can find a reasonable selection of back vintages, at least going back 3-5yrs. In France this is very rarely the case: you’re lucky if they have a few bottles of the previous vintage left, and if it’s burgundy they’ve already sold out of the current one as well!
As Otto said, most Barolo and Barbaresco producers don’t have extensive back inventories.
Also, in Oddero’s case, the estate was split between the two brothers, Giacomo and Luigi, in 2006. Poderi e Cantine Oddero is Giacomo’s half. That side got the old winery building. Figli di Luigi Oddero is the other successor, and he set up nearby. The split was acrimonious, according to the website of Luigi’s importer, Neal Rosenthal, and I assume they had to divvy up any back vintage wines.
When I visited P&C Oddero in 2016, they were getting ready to release the 2006 Vigna Rionda reserva, so there were some older stocks. But I guess that was made after the split. And that was three years ago, so the 2009 offering now is correspondingly old.
My understanding from a visit to the Oddero domaine in 2017 was that they had established a consistent practice of holding back the Vigna Rionda Riserva for release 10 years post-vintage as a way to assist their global costumer base, many of whom are new to barolo, in buying and tasting a new release and experiencing the wine at a reasonable level of maturity.
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