In the still wine category, I think just this one. I was just trying to be responsive to the OP’s actual question. How’s the Gouges?
The Gouges is a bit of an odd duck. It can seem almost tannic, and can show some pinot fruit flavors (as other white pinots I’ve had do). I’ve saved a couple of bottles from 98 and 99 because the ones I opened over a long period of years never seemed quite ready. I’ve got one at home now, though. I’ll report back.
Thanks a lot, Kevin, your data correspond much better to my intuition/expectation.
Where did you get them from?
I’m with you John; I really like that wine. I think I have 07 remaining
Why are Gilberto’s and Kevin’s weather stats so different?
Gilberto,
After realizing that most of the public weather data sources were not accurate for Barolo, I met a leading viticulturalist from the area and he gave me his recordings from a vineyard in Monforte.
We tried to grow some Nebbiolo in one of our Pinot vineyards and it didn’t get close to ripening. The data shows why as Nebbiolo needs a great deal more heat accumulation. Nebbiolo’s climatic needs are closer to Grenache than Pinot.
First time I have ever heard anyone say that.
Gilberto’s figures are for Alba. I’d expect the summer temperatures to be higher there than in Monforte, which has substantially higher elevation. So nothing computes!
And to boot, you have the countrywide geothermic activity going on, which is what causes the nebbia (fog) to begin with. (I will confess that, 15 years ago, I thought that the Tanaro River here and the Po to the north caused the fog, analogizing to the SF Bay area. Nah!) We have had a very mild winter here, with only two brief snowfalls. It is only the second full winter that I have spent here, and when snow does not come in quantity and linger on the ground due to cold temperatures, it amazes me how much ground cover remains green. From a distance, everything seems brown, but when you walk around, you see a lot of greenery and even wildflowers that are getting what they need to sustain themselves from the ground…
That greenery in winter is not unlike California.
FYI, in the SF Bay area, the fog forms on the ocean near the coast in the summer and blows over the land. In the winter in the Central Valley – geographically and climate-wise not so different from the Po Valley – you get dense ground fogs like Northern Italy.
P.S. I know a young guy in the wine biz here who is growing a small plot Pinot in Barolo (no, no, an Italian kid, not Ray Walker!) and aging the wine in used Conterno-Fantino barrels. His first vintage was 2009, so that wine was, not surprisingly, accessible early. His is a good QPR wine that I have in my cellar, and it seems to be age-worthy. (I left a bottle open for 5 days at the winemaker’s suggestion and it continued to evolve for the entire time, with no loss of quality.) However, the wine comes up a bit short on the nose and long on flavor, and it is neither Burgundy nor California Pinot Noir. The alcohol is sub-14%, and the body is slightly heavier than traditionally made Nebbiolo. I would indeed call it Piemonte Pinot, with more in common with Barolo than Burgundy…
I obviously know of California’s seismic woes, but does that carry with it geothermic activity?
You think its geothermal forces that cause the ground fogs in Italy? There’s a lot of geothermal activity in Northern California – e.g., Calistoga hot springs, geothermal power plants. But I don’t think that’s the cause of the ground fog.
Gary it is known but not well known. Here is a chart comparing grape varieties.
I don’t have a good comparison between Monforte and Alba but in CA the higher elevation hills often have lower daily highs but warmer nights. This can lead to an overall warmer mean temp (but not always).
The Monforte charts above describe a very warm climate that rarely gets hot. The heat accumulation is driven by warm nights (high daily mean which drives vine metabolic rates) and a low diurnal. The daily highs are not that high but the soil temps would be similar to Avignon.
Indeed, it is. There are no bodies of water close enough to cause it. I am no scientist, but the process is one of thermal inversion, I believe, and the type of heat that is required to produce the local fog does not result from the sun hitting the ground…especially when there IS no sun, which is quite often here!
There are no lakes and not much in the way of rivers in the Central Valley of California, either, but they get dense, dense Tule fogs in the winter.
Check the same phenomenon there maybe…
I learned this from local lifers, by the way, not from some wine guide or deep thought on the subject. Could Oregon have the same physical conditions, too?
The moisture for fog can come from damp earth and vegetation: Fog - Wikipedia You can see that to a lesser degree in many, many places in the fall and winter.
You certainly have damp earth in Oregon, and the Po Valley and Central Valley are heavily irrigated and heavily farmed. It helps when the air is trapped by mountains, as in California, the Po Valley and the Langhe.
Of couse it is not geothermal forces producing ground fog in Italy. What a stupid old wives tale.