Focused tasting ideas for Piemonte

WINE TALK
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I’m looking into putting a local nebbiolo tasting group together with some wine lovers mostly around my age (30’s/40’s) once people are back from summer travel. Trying to think of some comparative tasting ideas that will be very educational, with wines that are relatively easy to source (many of us don’t have deep cellars to pull from).

I personally have a good handle on traditional vs. modern winemaking style and broader differences in communes based on my travel to Piemonte last year, but was hoping to dive in deeper (e.g. differences in MGAs within the same commune, differences between producers working the same vineyard). For those more experienced than me (hi @Todd_Tucker and @Ken_V!), any tips?

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  • A few matched pairs of Langhe nebbiolo vs. their barolo/barbaresco
  • age vs. younger is something that makes great sense with nebbiolo
  • comparisons between vintages can be interesting

As for very granular terroir differences, producer differences in broadly the same terroir, I can’t guide, but such a tasting is probably best done without such external guidance. In vino veritas after all. If that’s your personal interest, go for it, based on what bottles you can pool together to make some interesting comparisons.

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Vajra vs. Baudana. Pretty much the same winemaking, so it shows the dramatic difference in terroir.

Seconding Ian’s “age vs. younger”: A vertical of a modestly priced wine like the PdB base Barbaresco. It’s not hard to find older vintages.

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Seems like a great organizing principle, Brian! I sit in on a tasting group that was originally organized similarly, but for Burgundy, and I think the ideas apply to Piemonte as well. So here are my takeaways from what I’ve participated in:

First, format: We taste as close to double-blind as we can and I love our format (I did not come up with it). The evenings are generally 8-9 ppl (more can be chaotic, less is fine but less instructive).Everyone brings a bottle that meets the theme (sometimes one person buys a chunk of the wines for the tasting, but no one ever buys all the wines for the tasting) and then as you arrive, you put your bottle into a bag that’s already in a box. Each bag (burlap, fwiw) has a number on it, but because the bags are already in the box you don’t see what number your wine is. We then taste through in numeric order, talking about each wine as we go, take a 15 minute break, then taste through again in random order. You’d be surprised how much the wines before and after can influence your perception of a bottle, so the second impression is really valuable. Sometimes we unbag as we go during the second round, sometimes we don’t (like when we do X vs. Y). Make everyone spit.

Themes (what you actually asked for):
It’s a great way to get a handle on vintages without preconception. We often have done the new vintage to hit the market, broken down by sub-region (CdB/CdN/whites/etc) and I’d imagine you’d learn a lot about both the character of the year and what sort of winemaking handled it well if you did either Barolo or Barbaresco and a single year. Then the next month do either the other area and the same vintage or the same area and a different year.
I think you’d also learn a lot by picking a vintage or a 2-3 vintage range and doing a single village, which obviously you could continue across the map. And I love your idea of picking a single cru and doing a bunch of producers. I don’t know that you’d need/want to do an explicit “traditional vs modernist” tasting because if people are bringing a bunch of different wines that gradation will show up within the other themes.

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Don’t rule out adding a few old people who have back vintages. I joined my local tasting group just before I turned 40. Everyone was older than me to varying degrees. I learned so much from the wines they had collected over the years.

Alternatively, hire a van and bring your group to Albany, NY. I’m happy to open old bottles!

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Alto Piemonte - Gattinara, Lessona, Bramaterra. Lots of easily obtainable bottles that will yield some gems.

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Another small, but very handy benefit of Saul’s format (tasting and then returning later), is the way this keeps palate fatigue under control, at least until every wine has been tasted once, as it requires genuine ‘tasting pours’ rather than ‘half a glass (or more)’

Another twist on that format, is to know which wines are present at the tasting, but not which is which. That can be helpful to people when the focus is on compare and contrast within a region/village/Cru etc. Yes, we’ll all play the parlour game of guessing which is which, but in such exercises its the observations and ‘working out’ where we hone our tasting skills. A good wrong answer is more instructive than a lucky guess correct answer.

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On the same MGA, different producer idea would definitely focus on the varying expressions of Cannubi/Valletta/Boschis/San Lorenzo/Muscatel, here you have quite a variety of styles: Chiara Boschis, Michele Chiarlo, Sandrone, Francesco Rinaldi, Giuseppe Rinaldi, Burlotto. Appreciate Giuseppe Rinaldi and Burlotto are probably tough to find! Would apply the same principle for Brunate, both the La Morra and Barolo side (Giuseppe Rinaldi, Francesco Rinaldi, Poderi Oddero, Roberto Voerzio, Vietti, Ceretto); Francesco Rinaldi, Oddero, Vietti and Ceretto I imagine are most sourceable?

On different MGAs, same style/producer definitely Vietti (Ravera, Brunate, Lazzarito, Rocche di Castiglione, Villero) and Paolo Scavino (Bric dël Fiasc, Ravera, Bricco Ambrogio, Monvigliero and Prapò) have plots across all of the Barolo DOCG.

I’d also try broadly, keeping “traditionalist/modernist” style constant and varying the producer/MGA/commune, say for “traditionalist”: Bartolo Mascarello Barolo, Burlotto Monvigliero (alternatively the Verduno blend, Acclivi), Giacomo Conterno Cerretta/Arione, Cappellano Pie Rupestris, Vajra Ravera, Vietti Cerequio. This does skew hardest to source of the three here.

If anyone in the group does stumble on the tougher names above, I wouldn’t pass on them. That chance won’t come round on schedule.

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I have no value to add to this thread, but just wanted to say I’ll be following this closely (thank you for starting the thread) as I’ve started venturing more into Nebbiolo

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EMUNG’s Cannubi suggestion might be a fun/provocative topic, as there have been disputed/controversial moves to fold them all into ‘Cannubi’. Here’s a decade + old article that might spark some creative ideas about how to do a ‘Judgment of Cannubi’ :wink:

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A lot of good ideas, many I would expect (nevertheless very good), yet I think this is a very nice addition to blond tastings for several reasons. Especially if there’s more bottles than wine glasses per person.

Thanks to the variety of within the region, many good wineries - the possibilities are so many. Vintages, producers, communes (similar or very different in character), crus in one area or comparing crus with similarities in different areas.

If you want inspiration I’d listen to Levi’s interview with Ian D’Agata. It was a long time since I heard it but I re-listened to it like 4-5 times as there was so much to digest as he explains the region at an incredible pace dense with nuggets to obviously learn, and ideas for tastings!

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And a documentary:

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In the interview with Ian D’Agata he talks about the various cannubi plots as well!

I’ll add that Masnaghetti’s books about Barolo/Barbaresco are treasure troves for tasting ideas and perhaps also excellent background to the tastings along with information about everyone who has a plot and where…

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And those would be different communes, too.

Check the details on the winemaking, though. As I recall, when the Currados owned Vietti, they used some new barriques on some of their bottlings (e.g., Lazzarito) but not on others. I think there are some variations in the wood used across the Scavino wines, too, these days.

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Not many older folks with deep Barolo/Barbaresco cellars in our area, at least that I know of.

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I literally just listened to it again, just need to slow it down to 0.8 speed.

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Yeah its just so dense with insights, comparisons and it all processed so fast in his mind and speech. I kept jumping back 30s, a minute or two just to be able to register it well.

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In terms of MGA comparison, I think a Rocche Di Castiglione vs Villero tasting could be fun. Pretty easy to source from multiple producers for each and could be a good exercise in microclimate.

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Yes definitely. Vietti 2019 for example, Ravera/Rocche was botti, Brunate/Lazzarito mostly botti little barrique; elevage, lees and macerarion period also different! Believe recent (10y+) Scavino has mostly used the identical methods for his MGAs, short macerarion then barrique + botti

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Do you have any local merchants that you buy from? They might know a few.