TN: 1967 Fontanafredda Barolo (Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo)

• 1967 Fontanafredda Barolo - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo (11/2/2020)
  Past its prime. Very transparent orangish red. Lightening half way to the core. Nose shows soy sauce, Unami flavors, celery, old oak and hints of strawberry, cherries and mint. - maybe a little smoked meat. The palate fairly fresh but maintains some acidity and tannins that remained unresolved past the fading fruit. Interestingly, I drank this out of both a Grassl Cru and Conterno Sensory. The Grassl shows more soy and oak while the Conterno shows more Unami and vegetable. The palate with the Conterno is much better balanced and fresher. With this particular wine, the Conterno has to get the nod. (90 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

I had a much fresher bottle on Saturday. Sorry yours wasn’t up to snuff. What kind of air did you give it? I opened mine at 9 to serve around 2 and it needed every bit of that air, and continued opening in the glass.

It’s been opened maybe an hour and a half. I will pop something else and come back to this in a few hours. Stay tuned. Lol.

I have one I plan to open. Did you decant or just Audouze it?

Decant.

I don’t use that term. I just pulled the cork, based on how pale it looked. Stood up for almost two months before, fwiw. I carefully decanted off sediment just before serving. Think I hit this one just right.

This is why WBers are popping their 2015 Barolos now, so they won’t get over the hill like Jordan’s bottle.

I would rather open a bottle slightly over the hill than way too young. Also, the purchase price easily reflected its danger.

Got one here too, I’ll stand it up for drinking over the holidays and check back

Do you just drink every old decade of Fredda or what?!

I’m a hoarder

I got to hand it to you to Sarah. You were so right. A couple hours later this did not die like I was expecting. Instead, the palate fleshed out a bit and this became a much more stinky smooth glass of old wine.

Jordan,

I posted a note on this wine in June. Like Sarah’s, my bottle was much fresher than yours. I stood it up for three months, then decanted for at least four hours; I don’t recall, it might have been longer. I left almost 1/4 of the volume in the bottle to avoid the sediment. Base on that experience, I’ve reloaded three more.

Cheers,
Warren

After 6 hours I would say this wine is good and open but certainly not fresh.

Ive just now taken notice of old Fontanafreddas after a remarkable 1964 La Grand anatta. I popped and poured, drank over two hours. Last glass was the most balanced and most glorious.

re
I love a stinky smooth glass of old wine!

Very glad to hear you ended up with something more enjoyable. There’s way more art than science when it comes how best to treat these, but I’ve definitely come to believe that nebbiolo is the opposite of most grapes - decant the old ones, pop and pour the young ones (if you must open them in the first place).