TN: 1964 Giacomo Borgogno & Figli Barolo Riserva Antichi Vigneti Propri

WINE TALK
1
  • 1964 Giacomo Borgogno & Figli Barolo Riserva Antichi Vigneti Propri - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo (1/2/2010)
    Brilliant nose of rose petals, forest floor and light tar notes. Penetrating, forest leaves and flowers that opened over the 2 hours we drank this wine. If this wine is going over any hill, I’m following it. The color is a limpid reddish brown color with clear edges. Light to medium body on the palate, very slightly spiky acid on the palate that’s still quite nice, but the nose is amazing. Note that this isn’t a reissued, recently topped up version - this has been in the bottle since '64.

Posted from CellarTracker

2

Drank a 1937 back in March…still had life.

3

Serge,

I’ve had the newly released bottles back to the 58 vintage - they’re very good, but they do seem younger that the original releases.

4

Nice note, Rick.

Seems unlikely. In those days, it might not have finished fermenting until 1965 and it wouldn’t have been bottled for at least a couple of years after that. [wink.gif]

Bottles like the one you had are generally refereed to as an “original release”. The others are called “library releases”. Original releases have red capsules. Library releases have black capsules.

5

DOH!

Ken, do you know how the library releases are stored? The ones I’ve had have pristine corks, new labels etc. I get that the bottles probably are unlabelled until release… but are they recorked? Or do they use crown caps and then cork the wines for release?

6

Yes, they store them without labels. My understanding is that they are topped off with the same vintage and fresh corks and labels are applied on release.

7

Serge,

They do store the bottles unlabelled (not uncommon actually) so the labels ARE new. What I was wondering was if they were cork-sealed. The library releases I’ve had seem in perfect condition for their age. Now, of course, the wines have never been moved around, shipped, etc. And if the cellar is cold (low 50s), evolution will be slow. I was just wondering if the bottles were sealed with cork or with crown caps (like Champagne is).

8

They definitely store them without labels. You can see photos of the stacks on their website.

On their website, the library releases are referred to as Barolo Storico, meaning historic.

There is also this statement:

For centuries, Borgogno House has been in the habit of bottling considerable amounts of Barolo wine of the best vintages and putting it aside for further refinement for at least ten years. This results in extraordinarily rounded and balanced wines that acquire precious and diversified fragrance tones.

Before being proposed to consumers, these bottles are checked one by one and decanted through a delicate but rapid manual operation that also allows elimination of sediments. In a corner of the cellar, visitors can see the old working equipment, proof of the long path travelled by the Borgogno House.

which I would take as confirmation that they must top up the bottles. I have been told that only the wine from that vintage is used for topping up.

Rick, if you are referring to the closure during storage, they use corks, not caps.

9

Thanks Ken. I figured they use corks. but it’s nice to know for sure.

10

Thanks for all the info here, I have a quick question - When they decant to rebottle and top off, how do they prevent the wine from opening up and eventually oxidising after the exposure to air?

11

Serge, because Ken’s post from the winery mentioned the decant, to remove sediment.

12

As far as how it is done, I know nothing more than what I read in the 2nd paragraph of the quote from their website.

13

I don’t know from Borgogno specifically but the usual practice is to just add a bit of sulfur, as is done with young wines at bottling.

14

Thanks Keith, I didn’t know that adding sulfur halted any oxygenation that might occur in the topping off process.

15

Maybe they use this?

16

99,you’ve done it again!..loved that show.