Friday night Nebbiolo at Cinghiale in Baltimore

WINE TALK
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KIcked off a wine weekend in fine style this past Friday at Cinghiale restaurant down in the harbor area in Baltimore, hosted by those local impresarios of Italian grapes, Henry Kahn & Tom Maskell. We traveled from as far north as NYC and as far south as Charlotte, NC to savor some nice food and some stunning wines. I was too busy enjoying the evening to take detailed notes, but the flights were as follows:

1969 & 1971 Giacosa Rionda with a '78 Massolino Rionda Riserva

1978, 1989 & 1990 Giacosa Rionda Riserva (the last wine sadly corked)

Three 1982’s - Mascarello Monprivato, Elio Altare & Luciano Sandrone

1978 Monfortino, 1985 Conterno Cascina Francia (also corked) and an '82 Conterno CF

With the exception of the two corked wines, everything else drank well and in terms of surprises, the '69 Giacosa Rionda was nothing short of stunning given the vintage. I believe this was the 7th time I’ve been lucky enough to try the '78 Rionda Riserva and the '78 Monfortino on the same night, and this was the first time where I felt the Monfo was markedly better. However, the '89 Rionda Riserva is nothing short of staggering, and on Friday night may have been the greatest bottle of Barolo I’ve ever had the pleasure of consuming.

In terms of ranking the wines, I think we were pretty unanimous as a group in voting the '89 Rionda Riserva #1 and the '78 Monfortino #2 - after that the wines were pretty tightly bunched, although two other Rionda’s (the '78 Giacosa Riserva & the '71 Giacosa) were definitely contenders for the #3 spot.

The kind of evening that we should all enjoy every once in a while, and one whose memory I will cherish. [cheers.gif] flirtysmile

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Not enough soul? neener

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[drinkers.gif]

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It’s funny, but Ken did come up in conversation as we drank the '78 on Friday (and no, I was not the one who brought him up [wink.gif] ).

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Sorry I couldn’t join you and the Knights,Bob.
Looks like you had a great night…but what about Saturday?
Corino and Clerico duel? [cheers.gif]

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BTW, one thing that did come up in conversation - does anyone know when the modernists actually started using those techniques? The '82 flight that contained the Altare and Sandrone raised this question - I know that by the '90 vintage both of them had embarked upon the “road to barrique”, but none of us were sure what impact (if any) those developments might have had on the wines from the '82 vintage.

Bill, I again didn’t take any notes on Saturday’s wines, but it was a great day, if not quite in the class of Friday dinner.

We had a Sangiovese-themed lunch at a local place Tom knows where they basically gave us a back room and continually fed us - a bucatini dish with fava beans and morel mushrooms was a real highlight. At lunch we had a vertical of Pertimali including the riserva from '97 and normales from '85, '88, '99 & 2001. We had a Biondi Santi Il Greppo frm '95, a Monsanto Il Poggio from '88 (also one from '85 that was corked), and we started with a spot-on 2006 Hirtzberger Singerriedel that was awesome, and a '99 Valentini Trebbiano that was cool if outclassed by the Hirtzberger. I may be forgetting a wine or two here, but that’s what is currently coming to mind.

We then had dinner at Chez Kahn, where Henry whipped up a very nice mushroom risotto to serve with some nice Porterhouse & NY Strip, and some great cheeses & charcuterie. With that, we went for some blind Baroli from the '90 vintage, including:

Mascarello Monprivato
Aldo Conterno Gran Bussia (which I believe everyone felt was the WOTN)
Scavino Bric del Fiasc
Scavino Canubbi
Scavino Rocche del Annunziata (which at least IMO is still drinking very young)
Voerzio Brunate

I know I’m missing two other wines there, so hopefully someone can fill in the blanks.

We also had some German riesling to start us off - these wines really aren’t in my wheelhouse given my dislike for RS, so my comments should be taken with a grain of salt, but I did have a Keller Gross Gewaches that I really liked a lot, as well as wines from Adam & Lauer that were only so-so.

Yesterday, I drank water [truce.gif]

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I am impressed. In one evening you managed to drink (arguably) the three greatest Barolos ever made, and all firing on all cylinders. Not bad guys!

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Bob,how was the 78 Massolino Rionda Riserva?

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Bill,

I liked it a bit better than Bob but I still would have placed it behind every other wine; it was a bit clunky/rustic and lacked the complexity of the other wines.

Mark,

Bob and I, and several of the others have been lucky enought to have done this multiple times, with wines of excellent provenance.

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Tom,

Not surprising given the presence of the other wines.
Sorry I couldn’t make it,but I hope to join you next time. [cheers.gif]

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Bill, I think your comment about the presence of the other wines really hits the nail on the head with respect to our take on the '78 Massolino - the multiple bottles of Giacosa and Conterno tended to dominate everything else on the table, and I think that the Massolino would have fared much better the following night against the various blind '90 Baroli. But even if we “exempt” the Giacosa & Conterno, I still liked the Sandrone from '82 better than the Massolino, and probably even enjoyed the Altare (which I believe was the normale) more as well, so I’d say it was a nice wine but undistinguished on that particular evening.

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Here are my impressions:

2009 Ferrando Erbaluce di Caluso Cariola
Wildly expressive nose of fresh melon and pit fruits. Very refreshing mineral on the palate. 89

We started off the reds with an amazing flight of Rionda. I doubt we will ever be able to put together this set of wines again as most are now pretty rare:

1969 Bruno Giacosa Barolo Vigna Rionda di Serralunga
This started out with a little corky funk but that blew away to an amazingly fresh yet evolved fruit nose. Some bandaid. But great intensity on the palate. Who would have thought a '69 would be this good? 94

1971 Bruno Giacosa Barolo Collina Rionda di Serralunga
Tom said he thought this was overly funky when opened the bottle earlier in the day. But boy had this transformed into a beauty. Very dense fruit palate. Great freshness. Fine tannin and long. 95

1978 G. Massolino Barolo Vigna Rionda
Plenty of ripe fruit on the nose. Red fruit on the palate. Asian spice but a bit drying on the finish. 90

1978 Bruno Giacosa Barolo Collina Rionda Riserva
Dark brooding nose. Very mentholated. Great density on the palate. Slight metallic on the finish. 95

1989 Bruno Giacosa Barolo Collina Rionda Riserva
Mind blowing complexity on the nose after sitting in the glass for about an hour. I have been lucky to have friends who are deep on this wine so I have had many opportunities to drink this as it has evolved over the years. This wine has always had something in reserve I have been waiting for and it is just now starting to give it. Not as ethereal as the '78 Monfortino but so expressive and complete that it was clearly a 100 point wine on this night. 100

1990 Bruno Giacosa Barolo Collina Rionda Riserva
Horridly corked. Maybe it got scared by the '89. I had to bear the arrows the rest of the evening as I had brought this wine. NR

Next was a flights of 1982s:

1982 Sandrone Barolo
Luciano’s first vintage. Only 4550 bottles produced. I believe this was from Cannubi Boschis. One of the wines of the night for me this is flat out delicious. Bright complex nose loaded with baking spices and red fruits. A really wow wine. 97

1982 G. Mascarello Barolo Monprivato
Very earthy nose but with great density on the palate. Graphite and tar. Licorice is really intense on this wine. Great stuff 97

1982 Altare Barolo
Bright red fruit nose. Very shy. Drying tannins on finish. Good density on the midpalate but not quite in balance. 90

1982 G. Conterno Barolo Cascina Francia
Not giving much on the nose at first but this really opened beautifully with time. Coaxed out lovely tar and roses. Dense core. Fresh finish. 96

Finale:

1985 G. Conterno Barolo Cascina Francia
Ouch!!! Another corked wine though not nearly as badly as the '90 Rionda. But corked is corked. NR

1978 G. Conterno Barolo Monfortino
They say there are only great bottles. But if you drink a wine many times you can conclude there really are great wines. This was a perfect example of why this wine is a benchmark for great Barolo. Many this night called the '89 Giacosa Rionda the WOTN. but for me this had that extra wow, make me swoon complexity that makes it a 100+ wine. There is nothing else I can say. 100+

1978 G. Quintarelli Amarone Ripasso
It is the style but this did not win me over with a slightly oxidized finish. My mind and heart were still on Monfortino time.

What great evening. I will remember this one for a very long time. We have another memorable evening planned for tonight.

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OY, really hurts to know what I missed. Damn that work and home improvement projects getting in the way of this serious business of Nebbiolo and Sangiovese! Bravo gents, the Western Chapter of Knights - all two of us neener - is just going to have step up this summer! Rocky Mountain Nebbiolo High! [snort.gif]

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Don’t worry, I’ve got some 83’s and 91’s for you when you get East.

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Oonly the best vintages for a Neb Head brethren! pileon