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2001 La Spinetta (Rivetti) Barbaresco Riserva Vürsù Vigneto Gallina - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco (6/9/2020)
{magnum} Held since release, this was opened and allowed to Audoze for about 4 hours prior to service. Took some doing on a warm (outside patio) Denver night to get this under 19C; certainly worth the effort. In the first 90 minutes, there’s simply too much oak for my tastes. Served blind to my mates, most were guessing modern-leaning Sangiovese. I’d have agreed that would make sense - but it was my bottle, and so I already knew what it was. The last sip, with just over half the bottle consumed on night #1 was the best. And by best I mean that the oak was ~50% of what was in my glass, and the rest was at least recognizable as Nebbiolo. The second night, after 24 hrs on the counter, this was served at 18,5% and was mixture of ~90% Nebbiolo, with bright, powerful perfumes/fruit of good+ typicity, and just 10% oak. I’ve two more that I’ll approach in 5 or 10 more years - even then, I’ll be aerating to remove as much of the oak influence as possible. It was even a decent partner to food on day #2, whereas it was just an OK partner to pizza on night # one. 14,5% abv. For the style, it’s recommended
Posted from CellarTracker
super fun winemaker making wines that just don’t fall in my preferred style.
IIRC, these riserva wines were only issued in magnum format, fwiw, so take drinking window info with that in mind.