John, these are just opinions. Some people like wines at different stages. I was at a Bartolo Mascarello tasting put on by Mannie Berk of Rare Wine Co. For me, the best wines were the 1958 up through the early 1970s. The ones from the early 1950’s were too OTH for me, but Mannie and others loved those the best. It is ultimately personal taste.
I do think you didn’t have a good bottle of the 1989 though.
The 89 was a profound bottle. I’ve had a case already.
I agree with Ken also. Drinking windows are highly personal. I remember a friend obtaining an old cellar and brought a 47 Oddero over to show us. Wifey and I choked it down and thought it sucked while my buddy swooned over it.
Yes I would agree that drinking windowsare personal, although I would have put myself in the group prefering an older window. Perhaps it was just the night or perhaps the specific bottles involved.
For those with experience and an opinion, what are the most age worthy produttori bottlings and where does Rabaja fit onthat spectrum?
Thanks everyone for contributing valuable opinions to this thread. I’m now back in town and have have a better chance to re-read the whole thing. I’m not entirely sure why I was trying to be so dogmatic about produttori Rabaja when there are board members here with more experience with this bottling. (my experience with the produttori riservas would be about 50-60 bottles, some of which were tastings and not consuming the entire bottle).
I suspect part of it was listening to Aldo’s comments after the tasting and feeling they were so similar to mine. Again, to summarize, he emphasizes that it is perhaps the quintessential Barbaresco, warmer site, a little riper than some of the other crus. At one point he says that it can age beautifully, but when asked specifically about how it ages, he said that he prefers it at about 10 years. At 20 years, he felt that it had a tendency to seem too ripe, and that he preferred other wines from some of the cooler sites for longer aging. (the video is on the Tanzer board site. For those of you not subscribers, it’s also on his winophilia site--winophilia.com --which I think open to all. It’s a great summary of the vineyards.) Of course, as we know, the winemakers interestingly don’t always share the same ideas about their wines that we do.