Assorted Piedmont wines

They were tasting Barolo, etc., at MacArthur’s Saturday. I am still learning Piedmont wine and had several producers where I recognized the labels but had not had the wines before. So, I was kind of coming at these blind.

They opened a lot of wines, but there were four producers: Ca Rome, Marcarini, Conterno Fantino and Einaudi. I found the Ca Rome wines sort of simple. I liked the Einaudit and Conterno Fantino more, but really liked the Marcarini wines a lot more than anything else we had. They seemed younger and more tannic, but were a lot longer and more likely to develop into something good. The wines we had were 2008s mostly.

Any thoughts on these producers would be appreciated.

I love Macarini and feel they’re underrated. Older stuff is still around on the market and if you like them you should try grabbing some. Prices are still quite reasonable.

I love the wines of Ca’ Rome (especially the Maria di Brun Barbaresco cru), Einaudi (although they are a touch more modern today than back in the day when I was drinking them) and especially Marcarini. I have limited experience with CF but if you like modern style Barolo you will like them.

howard - i’m a big fan of marcarini. as rick mentioned, their prices are decent and you can find vintages (at both retail and auction) that are ready to go.

You are a man of good taste. Einaudi and Conterno-Fantino usually have a fairly marked oak profile. I don’t know Ca Rome well. But Marcarini is quite old school. Their wines tend to be quite light in color and fruit when young, but they take on weight with age, like many good Burgundies (I know you can appreciate that, Howard). When I first got interested in Barolo, I thought they were sort of dilute compared to other Baroli – which in my case meant mainly the Marco di Grazia producers.

Last Saturday I served an 01 Marcarini La Serra against a couple of more modern 99s (an Aldo Conterno and a Rocche di Manzoni) and then a 90 Brunate against a 90 Conterno-Fantino . In both cases, the Marcarinis were my favorites, though a lot of people liked the denser, oaky RdM and some people even preferred the heavily extracted, oaky C-F. The Marcarinis had finesse and nimbleness, and they had the nebbiolo aromatics that I want in my Barolo.

I posted here on a visit there last June.

+1

I’ll add that fully mature bottles have occasionally fooled a Burgundy lover. That is, Marcarini is a producer I think of as making somewhat Burgundian Barolo, so I’m not surprised you like them.

Howard,
I too enjoy Marcarini and consider it a terrific value. Mid-term aging only adds pleasure. We recently finished our last of the delicious 1988 Brunate, but I’d be happy to open '96/'98/'99 if we get a chance to pop corks together.
Regards,
Peter

Howard, four nice producers, each with a differing house style, making for a varied tasting. Always a pleasure to sample in that context. Curious what specific wines they were showing? Were you actually drinking 2008 Barolos? Come to think of it, the earliest releases are indeed arriving, but most will be arriving later in the year.

Marcarini – great traditional house with two very different Barolo bottlings – Brunate and its masculine power could not be more different than femininely cut La Serra. I know people call them underrated, but if one looks they’ve received plenty of glowing press in the past. The wines age ever-so-gracefully, but in some vintages the fruit can be on the lean side of the equation (the 93s stick out in my mind for possessing this trait).

Einaudi – great producer that actually isn’t seated firmly in either camp, but rather, produces excellent examples of both modern and traditional Barolo, Nei Cannubi leaning toward the former, Costa Grimaldi & Terlo embracing the latter (although like Bruno Giacosa & Paitin, some of the 30 hl casks are French oak :~))

Maria di Brun – continues to be a sleeper in the US market, but a producer of some very lovely traditional Barolo and Barbaresco, my fave being Barbaresco Maria di Brun. Perhaps it was just the way the wines were showing that day, but with proper cellaring they can develop generous complexity. Recent magnums of the ‘98 Maria di Brun were really delicious.

Conterno Fantino – obviously the most modern of the bunch, but their oak integration is first class and the wines can be very impressive. Of course, with proper cellaring (those 2008 probably won’t be in their early prime drinking window for another 15+ years) the oak will have integrated quite nicely.

John – Aldo Conterno modern? How so? The ’90 Marcarini Brunate is in a terrific place right now.

They occupy a middle ground. In my comment I was contrasting them with the Marcarini La Serra.

Certainly Conterno is nowhere near as modern as Rocche di Manzoni. But their wines are unusually silky, particularly for wines from Monforte, and the last time I visited, in 2005, there were what seemed like distinct oak notes in several bottlings. Aldo’s son (I’ve forgotten which is which) said something about replacing a botte, but that didn’t explain why it came across on several crus. I posted on eBob at the time and some other people reported similar tasting impressions.

Rico – As you saw in that other thread, I’m not the only one to pick up oak notes in Aldo Conterno wines.

John, I was curious about your view on Conterno because I didn’t quite understand the nature of your comment calling it “modernist”. Modernist it is not, nor do I think it should be characterized modernist by mere virtue of some woody aromatic elements. I’ve smelled plenty of wood over the years on traditional barolo and of course you’re not the first to report smelling wood on one of Aldo’s young Baroli. Given his very traditional oak elevage techniques the possible sources are quite limited and most likely routine cask rotation to replace older botte. I remember an identical aromatic issue with the 2000 Giacosa Asili Riserva when it was released, but already it has all but vanished. And of course, that didn’t make Giacosa modernist even for a fleeting moment. Having had a number of 1999 Aldo Conternos over the past few years - Colonello & Cicala, but not the base Bussia bottling - I did not encounter any issues with woody notes on the wines, so perhaps this is limited to the Bussia bottling. Irrespective, I don’t think it will leave a lasting impact on the bottling and moreover consider Aldo Conterno a truly great traditionalist.

Rick – As I said, I see him in the middle somewhere. But I’m certainly not alone in seeing him as something other than a clear-cut traditionalist these days.