Bad night for Barolos

WINE TALK
1

One of my favorite regions in the “Old World”, but I went through 3 straight bottles that were corked this evening. Lots of wine going down the drain. [swearing.gif]
Lost out on the following:
2004 Marchesi di Barolo
2005 Cascina Adelaide Fossati
2001 Marchesi di Barolo

2

Statistical probability will get ya’ every time. :wink:

3

Same thing happened to me over the holidays with 3 corked Burgundies.

4

I think the cork producers must have upped their game considerably in recent years. Corkiness isn’t at all the issue it used to me. Then again, I haven’t had three in a row in a while. Kinda due for the big one, because it obviously still happens.

5

You know, you had 2 of 3 from Marchesi di Barolo. I would seriously let them know. Take a pic of the corks and send it to them. Different vintages, different wines and several corked in a row - that’s just carelessness.

I stopped buying anything from Justin in CA because of that same issue.

6

You sure they were corked and not just crappy wines?

7

Nope, I’ve had multiples of each. Just my turn on being reminded that corks are not perfect…

8



Respectfully, I think this is a bit rash. Marchesi di Barolo is a relatively high-volume producer, and this is two bottles of wine. It’s far more likely to be a simple coincidence than “carelessness.” Granted, this is not a top-notch producer, but that’s a distinct issue.

9

Did Paul Lin pull those from your cellar?

(that’s the only time I ever had successive corked Barolo…)

10

I drink a lot of Italian wines, and I’d say that Italian wines have, by far, the highest incidence of bottles spoiled by TCA. France is second. I do experience corked bottles from the USA, but at a far lower rate than from Italy and France.

It’s quite frustrating, and I don’t really know of any reason why it is the case, but it definitely is (for me, at least).

11

That’s interesting, Chris. Of my last three corked wines, 1 was a Chilean PN and 2 were Italian (same producer, different vintage).

Do you drink a greater number of Italian wines than any other region?

12

Really? I probably drink more Italian than anything and that’s not my experience. The worst for me have been Bordeauxs from the 70s and 80s.

In general, I haven’t found it a big problem with recent releases from anywhere in the last five years. There has been HUGE progress.

13

I drink more California wines than Italian, but a lot of Italian. There’s no question that Italy has given me the highest % rate of corked bottles over the years – it’s not even close – but as John’s experience shows, that could just be happenstance, or maybe I’m picking the wrong producers.

I don’t know that I’ve opened that many bottles from the last five years from Italy – hopefully, the odds get better as we go forward.

14

Sheeeit, that ain’t cork, that’s Italian terroir.

15

I’m with John. Rarely have had problems with my Italian gems and I drink mostly Italian from first rate (or emerging) traditional producers in Piedmont, Tuscany, Umbria and Etna. I think producer does matter.

16

This is my experience as well, although I’d say France is very close to Italy. USA is lower.