There’s Rocche dei Manzoni’s, Quatr Nas, which is 50% nebbiolo with the rest a blend of pinot nero, cabernet and merlot.
There’s also Altare’s l’Insieme, which is cabernet 40%, barbera 20%, nebbiolo 20%, dolcetto 10%, syrah 5% and petit verdot 5%.
I haven’t had either in a long time, but both get pretty heavy oak treatment (18 months in new barriques for the Altare), so any varietal character plays second fiddle.
For many years there were rumors about Aglianico being added to Nebbiolo. In the last couple of decades, I have heard talk of Barbera and CS being added to B&B, but not Merlot.
Once genetic testing was introduced for DOCG, Gaja made public that he had been adding Barbera to his single-vineyard wines and took them off DOCG.
Gaja’s Sito Moresco is 35% Nebbiolo, 35% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, but it labeled Langhe Rosso and not Barbaresco. Still imo it is a shanda since I believe the Nebbiolo comes from the vineyard where Enrico Giovannini-Moresco used to make wonderful traditional Barbaresco.
What Mr Ken V said.
OTOH I am very surprised that someone ITB for so long makes such allegations based on his tastings with no reference to any Cantina.
I am not the guy who starts spreading rumors of gamay into any burgundy wine with no proof or without any specific references to Domaines.
Next topic please.
And I would find it amazing if someone in the business did name names publicly. Particularly when they’re participating on a board with people in the UK, where the libel laws are draconian.
I guess this is a new frontier in the “They’re spiking pinot noir with syrah to get more Parker points!!!” dreck we’ve seen over the years on wine boards.
I think these rumours have dogged France and Italy for centuries. Bordeaux used to have Tannat and Malbec shipped up from Cahors to “beef” up their wines, Burgundy added a little Syrah from the Rhone Valley into their standard cuvees, Morroccan juice shipped to the south of France to beef up the cheapies. Ditto with Italy.
I really doubt if it’s being done today. I think a lot of us haven’t had late picked Nebbiolo fruit in Barolo and Barbaresco in the past (for example) and the grape does lose it’s acidity and gain color with the longer skin contact/higher sugars etc.
Also, isn’t the law (as it is with Brunello di Montalcino) that you just have to have the wine in your cellar for four years, not necessarily in barrel? Less wood contact will also deceive the palate with early lush fruit as well.
Chris, I suspect that the wine you’re thinking of is La Spinetta Pin Monferrarto. Sometime between 2001 and 2005 the blend changed from 50 % Nebbiolo, 30 % Barbera, 20 % Cab Sauvignon to 65 % Barbera, 35 % Nebbiolo.
Filippo,
Are you suggesting it’s never happened, or that everyone has seen the light and it doesn’t happen any more?
Thomas,
There is something about the interaction of Bordeaux varieties and Italian varieties such as Nebbiolo, Sangiovese and Aglianico that makes even a small amount of the former stick out when added to the latter. I’ve had Chianti with 10% Cabernet Sauvignon in it that tasted like mediocre Cabernet, not like Sangiovese. I think this is a really important topic. I don’t find new oak clouds this distinction, personally.
Yes, it’s amazing how cab can dominate sangiovese. It’s like a little bit of muscat or gewurtz in a non-aromatic white.
Yes, funny how you should mention aromatic white varieties added to non-aromatic varieties…
Oliver,
what I said. If it happened in the past I don’t know but if I found it very hard to believe a wide spread practice nowadays, especially among Tier 1 and Tier 2 producers. If occasionally the random Cantina Sociale does that oh well…
Well, Filippo, that’s the problem, you haven’t made a case; you’ve just disputed what other people have said. Now you’re arguing with a straw man, no-one said it was a ‘wide spread practice…among Tier 1 and Tier 2 producers.’
It was open knowledge in Barolo in the '90s that this was going on, I think it’s much rarer now, and I think that it’s very easily avoided. I think consumers should be aware that some producers are fiddling with their appellations, so they can look out for it and avoid it.
Oliver,
you are completley missing my point. I have no case to make because I did not put forward any allegations. Whoever did it should bring data to support the evidence. Bizzarely, you seem to think I should when you are saying it is a very wide spread practice in the 90s. By whom ?
“In God we trust, everyone else bring data”.
I will pull a Stephane here and unless I see someone posting names or some facts I am done with this thread.
My understand is that to receive a DOCG designation as in Barolo or Barbaresco, the wine is genetically tested and must be 100% Nebbiolo, so I do not think it is likely to be going on today. Moreover, there are now many techniques available to make Nebbiolo turn out more like Merlot or Cabernet without adding any, e.g. super low yields, rotofermenters, new oak.
Ken, this is news to me. Welcome news, but can you or anyone else document it?
+1
The regulations enacted in the mid-1990s require a “physical-chemical analysis” of the wine. I remember reading that this was detailed enough that Gaja realized that his addition of Barbera would be found out, so that’s why he removed his single-vineyard wines from Barolo and Barbaresco designations, since they would not pass these new tests. But I cannot find anywhere that specifically states that this “physical-chemical analysis” includes genetic testing.
If regulations were this strict and testing this thorough, the latest and biggest Brunello scandal of 2008-9, Brunellogate I believe it was dubbed, would have been a much swifter and cut-and-dried affair. Or rather avoided in the first place.
I’m not sure that routine genetic testing for a variety was even possible in the 90s. Was it? Confirmation that zinfandel was the same as primitivo and Crljenak Kastelanski didn’t come until 2001, for instance. Even now, I doubt the consorzio can afford to do DNA testing on every wine.