Tonight was the start of Hanukkah and I’ve been sitting on an orphaned bottle of Scarpa for the past few months. While I can feel the craft that went into the wine, it wasn’t nearly as exciting of a bottle as I had hoped. I’ve heard that Scarpa can have some serious bottle variation with their definitely old world style, so maybe this one just missed the mark. Unfortunately with the lack of tasting notes, I can’t get a gauge for where this thing stands. Then again, maybe it doesn’t matter since it was an orphan bottle to begin with.
2008 Scarpa Barbaresco Tetti di Neive- Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco (12/10/2020)
Opened an hour before dinner and decanted into our 2L erlenmeyer flask. I didn’t touch the wine before the 1 hour mark but the nose was muted directly after decanting. Little to no sediment in the bottle. I let the wine come from cellar temp up to room temp hoping to ellicit some more nose. Nothing, nada. At the one hour mark I poured into a set of Grassl 1855’s. The wine was good, but one dimensional and had a streak of bitterness on the mid palate that did not go away the entire evening.
Fast forward to three hours after opening. Wow, the nose is starting to come alive with dark cherry, licorice, cherry liquor, and a tinge of earth. In the mouth things are starting to open up but still falling short. A chewiness is present but fleeting with a short finish that I wish would linger just a little bit longer. Is it best to just smell this wine for the rest of the evening?
In conclusion, a fine and interesting wine, but not over contemplative or playful. It is tough to stomach with the price of entry and I definitely wouldn’t call this a good QPR. Better than a weeknight quaffer, but won’t hold it’s own against the best of the best Barbarescos. I ask myself, is this closed down and should I have waited another decade+? I won’t know as this was a single bottle. (90 pts.)
Sounds a little frustrating. I really love Scarpa - but that love is from bottles of 1964 and 1971. I also had a fantastic visit there years ago. I’d like to think that the wine was still much too young. Scarpa is about as old school as they come. How was it a tough price? I got some of the 2016 Barbaresco for under $50 (which is very moderate by today’s standards and should turn out to be good QPR one day).
Bought a wood case from the cantina 4-5 years ago mixed with '01, '04 & '06 Tetti di Neive. Opened 1 each of '01 & '04 in 2018. The '04 was in a good spot and frankly delicious to drink now and was a huge surprise of an evening of several Barolo & Barbaresco at an Italian (Northern) resto group dinner. Lots of nebbiolo fruit & leather.
The '01 will likely be the best of those 3, but still needs a bit more time to fully mature. Showed a bit more tannin than the '04, but full of material and class.
They are stellar food & table wines. Not built for a tasting line-up, but impossible to complain if you sit down to dinner with one.
Maybe I’ll pull one for a dinner over the next month. CT shows I paid $89/bottle but that’s $Cdn, so would expect $50-60 in most US markets.
I don’t know this wine, but here’s some speculation:
(1) 2008 was a fairly “classic” year, with less obvious fruit than some years. The '08s were expected to be slow to show their stuff. That counts doubly for a very traditional producer like Scarpa.
(2) I think there’s a good chance that, with an hour’s decant, you caught it between it’s pop-and-pour charm and a fuller range of aromas that might have emerged with a longer decant (which seemed to be borne out by your experience with it in the glass). I find this with many types of Old World wines – a modestly short decant sometimes reveals the least in a wine. But it’s always a bit of a crap shoot how long it will need.
I think the bottle was just opened 10 years (or more) too early. I had an '08 Scarpa Freisa earlier this year that wasn’t ready, and there was an '00 Dolcetto released back in 2017 that was drinking very well, but in no danger of decline. These wines are built for the long haul.
I hope my tasting note wasn’t too downer and being misconstrued that I didn’t like this wine. This was a very good wine and drinking it last night was very enjoyable. It’s just that there are swaths of other wines from Piemonte that elicit the same enjoyment for a bit less money.
I still have a glass left for today/tonight. I think both of these points can be validated if I get home from work and the last glass is shining on day two.
As a follow up, I had the last glass last night and the wine was significantly better than the first night. I’m tending to think you are right about opening it way too early.
FWIW, my wife thought the wine was absolutely ringing the right bells both nights.
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