I think this approach could have merit. If it were me, I’d use my preferred method of filling up a 375 and recording that (minimizing air from the open full bottle or potentially suckling (is it bad my phone auto corrects sucking to suckling?) off aromatics. Just my preferred preservation method. I haven’t done this blind (not that I have some preference, I just want the maximum experience) but I have a few notes I’ve taken on bottles like this. I can post them in the morning if folks desire.
I just find they improve with a decant and time in the glass.
Couldn’t agree more with Pat Burton here. If I’m going to try a wine on release for scientific purposes, as a rule I never decant - the wine will generally show fine right out of the bottle, but if you let it air for any length of time it tightens right up.
W/r/t Michael’s questions, I just think it can be a “trial & error”/it depends kind of thing. I will say from numerous looks that the '98 Conterno Cascina Francia shows best right now (albeit still quite young) with a full day (8-12 hours) spent in the decanter prior to consumption. OTOH, as you may have noticed with the note on the '99 that the folks from Chicago just posted, the '99 CF did not respond nearly as well to extended aeration (I can’t speak to this directly because I haven’t pulled the corks on any of my '99 CF yet).
I do think extended decanting benefits a lot of the 2001 releases right now.
Michael, one last comment re: vintage, as I just noticed you specifically asked about 1996.
Last Christmas, a buddy of mine had a tasting of the entire Giacosa line-up from that vintage. He decanted the red labels the day before, and the white labels the morning of the tasting, and I thought all of the wines showed well for admittedly young wines. Sandrone is very different stylistically than Giacosa, but for that vintage, I definitely would consider a lengthy decant.
Just received my allocation of Cappellano in Hong Kong and told on the mail out if tempted to try the 09’s don’t decant.
Pat and I are both researching Nebbiolo aeration with some intensity, and the overarching rule, the ultimate truth, is simply: THERE IS NO RULE, and do not be fooled into believing that there is. A 6-hour Audouze with a double-decant is flat-ass wrong, except, of course, for the wines that it works perfectly for. Hard to accept, but that pretty much kills the possibility of meaningful results from any vertical tasting of older Nebbiolo where all bottles are subjected to the same aeration regimen. (Sadly, that is usually a necessary pre-condition to such tastings, and why I no longer bother with them, preferring to examine each bottle in its own time and upon its own terms. Too limiting for some, I know, but the only way to draw conclusions of real value beyond “I like this wine better than that one in this moment”.) Audouzing itself is nothing more than a better-safe-than-sorry approach for old wines, not a magic bullet as some have convinced themselves. It stands to reason that delicate old wines whose aromatics and taste may be ephemeral and easily compromised are likely to lose both with the agitation of decanting. Nebbiolo most often poses the additional problem of pesky, ultra-fine sediment that may not filter out, and is best allowed to precipitate out by standing the bottle for months rather than days and left behind in the bottle during decanting to the maximum extent possible. However, the value of Audouzing ends there, and with old Nebbiolo, the absolute necessity of decanting and extended aeration usually begins.
As Pat’s work with new wines has shown, extended aeration (sometimes ANY aeration) can be an out-and-out disaster for many new-release or very young Nebbiolo, which will shut down hard with too much air, via Audouze and/or decanter. But the key is: NOT ALWAYS. It depends upon the wine. Some will never shut down and will be at least acceptably drinkable always (sans paradigm). The 2010 Castello di Neive Barbaresco Santo Stefano SEEMS to be that way, at least with food, but I am still testing. Some young Nebbiolo iwill not give one the time of day without extended aging, regardless of what one does to the wine. See the 2010 Fratelli Alessandria Barolo Monvigliero.
My work with old Nebbiolo likewise does not arrive at a fool-proof formula, but it supports strongly the opposite conclusion, that many people rarely give the wine as much aeration as it needs, at the wine’s peril. There is only one hard truth: if your bottle fades within a few hours after opening, whether with Audouzing, decanting or both, the wine is too old, flawed or both, and was never going to be worth drinking. However, there is never any harm to let even those bottles sit in a decanter to confirm the finding. On the other hand, Nebbiolo is a surprisingly durable wine that often requires many hours, and occasionally DAYS, to fully open, and it can be decanted safely with little risk of loss of flavor or aromatics. In most cases where shot bottles are not involved, old Nebbiolo will add color and the impression of greater body with extended aeration, as well as developing increasingly complex flavors and aromas. (I understand that the greater fear will always be loss of aromatics, but that loss means little if the wine remains disappointingly undrinkable. My experiments suggest that old Nebbiolo generally has a good aromatic reserve, such that one can afford to lose a little on the aroma side in order to maximize flavor, and may even develop more powerful and complex aromas with extended aeration.) I have posted extensively elsewhere on WB on this subject, so I will not repeat it here, but offer one interesting aside in passing: it seems from a recent thread here that Burgundy may also benefit from extended aeration, at least in some cases.
To the OP’s question: where is the line in the sand between young and old Nebbiolo? There is not one, and there will never be one. Pat Burton’s theory works best on new-release Nebbiolo, and the younger the better. Most age-worthy Nebbiolo will shut down within a period of months to a few years from release. There is no practical way to pinpoint the moment for any given wine. Discovering the wines that do not shut down at all is a matter of hit-and-miss experimentation and word of mouth. I would say that 5 years from release would be the likely extreme outside date for “Burtonizing” young Nebbiolo, with “the sooner the better” being the safe rule of thumb. Remember that knowledgable Nebbiolo collectors are opening young bottles only to get some sense of what the wines are likely to become in time, to understand the balance of fruit, acid and tannins, the ripeness and fineness of the tannins, the quantity, quality and ripeness of the fruit. The young bottle may be popped to inform buying decisions. Rarely is young age-worthy Nebbiolo opened for drinking pleasure by those who know what they are doing.
The notes on the recent 1999 Barolo tasting posted on WB tell me that there is danger in misapplying the Burton theory to older Barolo. In particular, the discussion on the 1999 Cascina Francia jumped out at me. The author experienced the “wall of tannin” phenomenon that Pat has described on a 15-year-old wine, and decided that it had been a mistake to aerate. False conclusion. Either the wine needed much longer aeration, or it is simply not drinkable yet, but I doubt that there was any chance of enjoying the wine or learning anything from it in the first hour or so after opening. Given how well many 1999s have been showing, to the point where I personally have come to doubt whether 1999 is a classic vintage for the ages or merely a year with a few classic, age-worthy wines, I would be surprised if the 1999 Cascina Francia did not show more with extended aeration. The only thing gravitating against that is that both the 1999 Cascina Francia and 1999 Mortfortino served up some pretty huge tannins. (My jury of one is still out on 1999, subject to more tasting. I am thinking that age 20 is the time to taste through the traditionalists and see how they are progressing. From the recent 1999 tasting, it appears thst the modernist wines are showing pretty well.)
Bill: Do you agree with Mr. Burton’s anecdotal conclusion that all Giacosas regardless of age, benefit from decanting? If so, why?
Absolutely not. My now-shop-worn example, the 1996 Giacosa Falletto Riserva, has shown me the same thing from days after release to the last bottle that I opened, from the moment that the bottle must blows off to 3 days later. It is what it is. (Could be time to try again. Hope springs eternal, even if maturity does not.) I wonder if the same would be true of the 2004 Le Rocche Riserva at this point, but I am not going to waste a bottle at age 10 to find out. Pat’s anecdotal evidence is what it is, mine is what mine is (and it is considerable at this point), but Giacosa made too many different wines from too many different vineyards to allow any generalization about decanting his wines to hold water…
I haven’t tested it out extensively yet, but I have also generally found this to be the case with young Barolo or Barbaresco.
Could it be because…it is true? I think so! 
It is the recommendation here when “testing” young Barolo/Barbaresco. To much air shuts it down
I would like to thank all of those on this thread especially Pat and Bill for providing such interesting and informative info on a subject that I have limited personal knowledge of… Loving this discussion
So at what point does the wine become “old” enough to decant and drink it? Not sure that I am buying it. But if it works for you.
Our wine group is planning to have a 2010 Barolo theme this year to get a feel of the vintage and to assess how various producers have fared with reference to our palates. The exact producers to be included in the line up is yet to be decided. In this instance would you recommend just pop and pour?
Here’s an interesting tasting experience I had at another Berserker’s home around the holidays. He had poured two wines for the guests to taste blind. The first was a big tannic brute that was aromatically tight and very acidic. If you swirled aggressively enough, you could convince yourself some fruit was hiding in there. Not a very exciting glass. The second wine was immediately enticing. I picked up plenty of ripe fruit characters. The wine was balanced, smooth, and enjoyable. The other guests at the table were of similar minds regarding the two glasses. It turns out they were the same wine, 2007 Silvio Grasso Barolo. The first had been decanted six hours, the latter opened upon my arrival.
Sanjay, I personally would pop & pour the 2010 vintage right now.
+1
So the example you used above could be explained by bottle variation, slightly corked, etc. Just not sure that you can say it was caused by air.
For what it is worth I did a tasting of 2010s several months ago. Pop and pour. All the wines showed very well.
While not Barolo, decanting the 2007 Produttori horizontal seemed to work well tonight.
24 hours of slow ox also did wonders on the 08 Giacosa Asili.