I opened this earlier today and will give it several hours. I bought this at auction and have been curious to try it because I don’t believe the wine is still produced, and back vintages aren’t available in the US. My initial impression upon opening is that this has all the signs of a high-quality, traditional Barolo – no trace of oak, mild sediment, garnet color, a balsamic-like sweetness that is not overpowering, and strong classic aromas of aged nebbiolo. I think this will be quite good by tonight. I’ll report back.
Kevin, will you be enjoying the treasure of a bottle depicted beneath it, too?
Jonathan
Indeed I will. What kind of holiday would it be without some Quintarelli magic?
Had two bottles of the '99 last year.
my tn says the producer website was not very informative but it seems they do short macerations and than age ins Slavonian Botti. I liked the wine and my first impression was of a good quality barolo in a middle ground between modern and traditional for those 99s. It had cherries, tar, leather and very discrete notes of worcestershire sauce.
my tn as posted on cellar tracker:
"O site do produtor não informa muita coisa, mas pelo que entendi a maceração é curtinha e depois vai pra Botti da Slavonia.
Cerejinha madura, alcatrão, especiarias, couro, suor e uma nuance de molho inglês. Bacana, aberto na hora certa.
Me pareceu meio de caminho entre moderno e tradicional, um vinho mais simples, mas muito gostoso."
Not certain when but Porta Rossa stopped production for a bit between the tenure of the current owner and the previous. 1988 was definitely under the previous ownership and the wines were traditional, fairly elegant and really quite lovely. The few examples I’ve had from the past decade have shown well but lacked the complexity of the older wines, both aromatic ally and texturally. The 1982 in particular was a lovely wine that showed strongly at peak about three years ago and held its own with G Mascarello and Giacosa on the table.
Interesting, as I’ve seen older bottles by this producer, but my knowledge of who was good 30,40 and 50 years ago is very sketchy. Some such as Fontanafredda and Marchesi di Barolo I can see (and taste) were worthy of better reputations in the 50s and 60s, whilst others that are bad now, were just as bad years ago. Most of those no longer in production, remain a mystery to me.
So far it’s good but not great. It hasn’t really opened up much. The sweetness has intensified a bit. We’ll see how it progresses. With a bottle like this from auction, I’ll never know if it’s typical of other bottles.
The bottle just opened up a few minutes ago. About time!