Thank you guys, working on the next installment but real work getting in the way!
After lunch, we popped into the town of Castiglione Falletto to “walk off” lunch. And because we had about a half hour before our appointment at Poderi Aldo Conterno.
Here’s a couple shots from walking around town…have I said before how beautiful it is in Piedmont?
And a quick tease of our afternoon appointment at Poderi Aldo Conterno…aka 3 fascinating hours with Giacomo Conterno. What a treat it was…this is all I have time for today, will get to the rest of this visit on Thursday…
To continue with the afternoon appointment at Poderi Aldo Conterno. This was a fun one. We met with Giacomo at about 4pm. We spent the first hour just chatting. This, that and the other thing. About family, wine, etc etc. I think he was taking our temperature in the manner that the Piedmontese do, and I think we passed! I told him of my love for old Nebbiolo and one of the lingering questions I always have about the old Aldo Conterno bottles which pre-date the split of the family in 1969. Me and some of my email buddies have discussed somewhat extensively, but the answer was a bit different than I had always thought. I had thought that when the winery was split up, all of the old wine was split evenly. So for example a 1964 Giacomo Conterno Barolo would be essentially the same wine as a 1964 Aldo Conterno. He said its not the case. That when the wine in brenta was split up, Aldo took certain wines from certain vineyards and Giovanni took other wines from other vineyards. As an example, wines from Serralunga went to Giovanni and wines from Monforte (ie Bussia) went to Aldo. I’ve found much joy in the old wines with Aldo Conterno labels, and often at much better prices than the wines with Giacomo Conterno labels, and so I found the history lesson absolutely fascinating.
Then we got to tasting for about an hour or so, all across the spectrum. Again, i’m not going to belabor the tasting notes and certainly not interesting in bringing up old controversies, just will quickly rehash what we tasted. Starting with the 2015 Bussia Dor Langhe Chardonnay - always fascinating to try Chardonnay from the Langhe - stylistically this was somewhere between French and Cali - had good minerality but definitely a plushness that leaned a bit more new world. Barolo was a great variety - 2014 Barolo Colonnello - super young, really great energy in this wine and big red fruit nose. 2006 Barolo Romirasco - I always liked this wine, darker deeper sexier wine, balanced but firm tannins. 2007 Barolo Cicala - also fruit on the darker side of the spectrum and the tannins have smoothed out here like some other 07s that I’ve had making it quite drinkable. And a pairing of Granbussia - 2005 and 2009 - I really preferred the 2005 of the pairing, great intensity on the nose of bright red fruit, powerful but balanced, great stuff. Picture was above of these two. Here’s the tasting table.
After the tasting we then took a tour of the cellars. Its pretty incredible to see. So much history. I particularly enjoyed seeing all the old winemaking equipment which they kept here. Here are some of the larger barrels.
It was also cool to see the section they dedicated to Aldo featuring their remaining bottles from his birth year of 1931.
And lastly in the cellar, the resting place of the Granbussia…
Alas about 7 at night, we finally departed after a really wonderful visit with Giacomo. We were all absolutely toast from the day! Headed back to the villa for a quiet evening and dinner with the kids. But some super delicious wines. Starting with some white Burgundy which we started this evening and then carried over to the following.
2009 Leflaive Bievenues-Batard Montrachet - this was great, super zippy acidity with great fruit and floral notes. Splendid.
1964 Poderi Aldo Conterno Barolo Riserva Speciale - inspired by the visit in the afternoon and my new found knowledge about the origins, we opened this spectacular wine. Well preserved 64s can be profound and this certainly was. Dried fruit and tea leaves, super tertiary but totally sound. Great acidity to match fruit and resolved tannins. A joy. Cheers.
The next morning we were up bright and early heading down to the village of Barolo to our destination, Cantina Mascarello.
Though looking for a little early morning exercise and having visited the Cantina a few times, we asked Alan if we could go walk the vineyards. So we started off walking Cannubi. Alan had a captive audience!
It was just a perfect day to be out walking the vineyards, and its a great change from winery visits from time to time. Looking here, we got quite lucky, considering now the vineyards are completely covered in snow!
After walking through Cannubi, we got in the car and took a short spin over to Rocche dell’Annunziata and spent some time out there as well.
It was an absolutely magical morning. Much thanks to Alan Manley for the visit, and we would see Alan again later in the week for Thanksgiving dinner.
From there it was on to lunch which this day was at Osteria Veglio. However, we were a little early and had some “business” to take care of. A little Piedmontese “dealing”…on the trunk of a car in La Morra…
After the little jaunt to La Morra, we headed back to Veglio for lunch. The room is Veglio is really quite lovely. I think we may have come on a slight off day because the service was a bit off, and I’ve heard nothing but good things, so I’m happy to give a pass this go around and try again next time. Food was solid, highlight was definitely the uovo ravioli with egg inside. Just delicious. I was also looking to drink something refreshing, and enjoyed the 2016 Ettore Germano Herzu Langhe Riesling with lunch.
We had a bit of time to kill before a late afternoon appointment at Massolino, so we took the kids into Alba for a bit of gelato and cotton candy, which also doubled as a great opportunity to walk off lunch. So far a great day, which would only get better!
We had a late afternoon appointment at Massolino on Tuesday. I don’t normally enjoy when the sun sets before 5pm, but I have to say, having the opportunity to get a Serralunga sunset was pretty special…
We started out on the patio overlooking the vineyards before heading inside to get a tour of the winery. Here’s the rather modern signage inside:
Very traditional cellar, large barrels throughout. And I found it rather humorous to see their apparently first Riesling in the clay pot!
We then headed to the tasting room and they were very generous with pouring a number of wines for us. In the middle, Franco joined us for some conversation and noted that he was very excited to be coming back to NY for La Festa this year. I’d say, overall, I came away very impressed with the current lineup of wines. The 2013 Barolo was very fresh with great acidity, great red fruit and definitely felt approachable. The 2013 Barolo Margheria was a serious Serralunga wine. Structured, darker fruit, would be happy in 20 years to have a few of these in the cellar. They opened a 1997 Barolo Margheria as well, which was really showing quite lovely, screaming tar, great red fruit, more tertiary. Lastly they opened the current riserva, the 2011 Barolo Riserva Vigna Rionda - eminently enjoyable, I found the tannins softer than the 2013s and the wine more open. It was a very nice tasting and great to see Franco again.
It had gotten pretty late, so we hustled back to the villa because we were hosting a dinner party that evening. Guest Chef for the evening was Marco Battaglino, of Osteria Battaglino in Dogliani. Like he did the year before, he absolutely crushed it for us!!!
Guest list for the evening included Clay and his friend Erica, our friend Sandro, and Elena and Luca Currado. We had an absolute blast. Lots of good company, food and wine. I’ll start with the food photos, again the food was just fantastic. I’m definitely missing a few courses here too.
As to the wines, the most special ones of the night were a pair of old Vietti Rocche that I sourced locally for this dinner, but we started with some old Champagne.
1964 Dom Perignon - this was a beautiful old Champagne, tasted like old white burgundy. Not the type of wine I drink very often, but super complex and just delicious.
We then moved to actual white burgundy with the 2013 Domaine Roulot Meursault Clos des Boucheres - this was awesome, phenomenal acidity, very minerally. Zippy and tasty!
Then onto the Barolo! We did a side by side tasting of the 1970 and 1974 Vietti Barolo Rocche. It was pretty awesome. Both bottles were in fantastic shape. To me the 1970 was an absolute star. Showing totally tertiary notes, great dried fruit, tea leaves, mint, great balance on the finish. An amazing wine. The 1974 was great too, but more primary (relatively speaking), great fruit. Elena seemed to prefer the 74, with Luca leaning to the 70. Either way, they were both fantastic. Here’s a shot courtesy of Clay, who takes far more artistic photos than I do.
As a follow up we had a flight of Monfortino, 35 years apart. Though alas the 1958 was corked! Argh! The 1993 Monfortino was in great shape, was powerful, great fruit, but didn’t seem to have the complexity of some of the greatest Monfortino. To me, the 1970 Vietti was easily the wine of the night.
Lastly, a party shot of our merry Barolo drinking party. A wonderful night had by all, and in my opinion, the best part of visiting Piedmont, casually hanging out and eating and drinking together. Cheers!
Wednesday morning beginning with my favorite pairing for white truffles, EGGS!
After a lovely breakfast, we headed to Vietti and met up with Elena once again, but in “official capacity” this time.
Of course, the funny coincidence is when you travel across the world and run into people you know from home, as we did with Josh Leader, who joined us for the tasting with Elena. Josh, good to see you again!
Tasting with Elena is like a marathon. If you don’t have a spit bucket you might end up on the floor by the end. It was a blast. She is an awesome host. We went through the entire lineup of 2015 and 2016 Barolo from barrel, and what a treat that was. I’m not going to get into notes on everything, because I started taking notes, then stopped to just take it all in. I loved the 15s and the 16s. Great structure. The common note I’d say was that I found the 15s to share more of a bright red fruit profile vs a more darker brooding fruit in the 16s. Could just be the moment in time. That being said, great stuff.
We then went into the tasting room and went through a few of the bottled 14s. Really great freshness on these wines, I adored the Ravera and Rocche. Plus a 2009 Villero Riserva for good measure, which was dark and brooding, a total baby. I think it was close to 2pm when we wrapped up, but it was a BLAST!
Then off to the one and only Alessio at Centro Storico. Alessio was in fine form as always and the restaurant was jamming as always. When with Alessio, one just must bust into the Champagne, so we gladly obliged! And let me tell you, after three hours of tasting young Nebbiolo, our palates were thankful!
Food was great as always, and the ham is always a highlight. And the atmosphere is just so fun here. Just great!
And lastly, Alessio says hi from his station!
Cheers!
Great read. We were literally there at the same time as you (as well a lot of other Americans this year). Can’t believe we didn’t cross paths in a cantina or lunch, we went to many of the same places.
After lunch at Centro Storico, we headed to the village of Barolo for a return visit at Giuseppe Rinaldi. Here’s a quick shot of the town of Barolo from the winery.
What can I really say about Giuseppe Rinaldi here that is original? The wines are tremendous and the future of this winery is in the amazing hands of Beppe’s daughters, Marta and Carlotta. It can’t be easy being in Beppe’s shadow, but the sisters do a great job of it. They are both talented and gracious, and committing to continuing the family legacy of fantastic traditionally made wines.
We were initially greeted by Marta, who we chatted with for some time and then switched over to Carlotta, with whom we knew from our last visit. She had the below wines opened for tasting. I would be very happy to own both of the Barolo when they are released. Just elegant and wonderful wines.
I had the good fortune to run into Beppe as well and meet him for the first time. It was a somewhat funny interaction, with him speaking Piedmontese, and probably saying to Carlotta something to the effect of “why do you bother letting these people come visit”…just kidding. He was very gracious and its always an honor to meet a legend.
That being said, the visit felt more like “coming home” than anything else. We spent most of the time talking about everything other than wine…skiing, travel, etc. It sounds like one or both of the sisters will be coming to La Festa, and oh by the way, sounds like Alessio will be making the trip this year as well, which should be fun!
Overall, a great visit and a great end to another awesome day. That evening was a low key dinner back at the villa featuring some home made pizza for the kids. Knowing we would be at Rinaldi, I had a 1974 Giuseppe Rinaldi Barolo tee’d up for dinner.
Beautiful wine, color above looks darker than it was, but it did have good color, which I’ve found in a lot of 74s recently, including the Vietti and Cappellano on this trip. Balsamic, menthol, dried fruit, excellent on the palate. Very solid wine and great night cap to a great day!
