TN: 1988 Giacosa Barbaresco and 2000 JM Boillot Corton Charlemagne

WINE TALK
1

What a treat. The both of them. Had with some great Italian takeout and good friends.

  • 1988 Bruno Giacosa Barbaresco - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco (3/7/2014)
    Perfect in every way. Cork was in great condition with only staining on the bottom. Decanted for sediment. The nose smelled of a hint of tar, leather, wet autumn leaves, and dried flowers. Palate was wonderfully sweet, smooth, and integrated. Some spice, dried fruit, a hint of blood. This improved with 30 minutes of air and remained at a perfect plateau for the next 3 hours. A wonderful treat. So sad I don’t have any more.
  • 2000 J.M. Boillot Corton-Charlemagne - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru (3/7/2014)
    Medium yellow in color. Nice developed hazelnut, honey, rich tropical fruit, orange zest. Still some nice lemon acidity and minerality. Long finish.

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2

Nice to hear that 88 is still showing so well. Do you have shot of just the bottle or label?

3

I have a partial. Will take one later just for you Ken.

4

Thank you, Fred.

5

Here you go Ken. You’ll have to rotate it yourself. Can’t do it on the iPhone.
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6

Thanks!

7

You don’t have a close up of the takeout do you Fred?

Two outstanding wines, thanks for the notes.

Best Regards
Jeremy

8

go into your photo album, hit edit, rotate once, save, edit again rotate back to normal and it’ll upload correctly

9

Just a little bucatini with sausage, lasagne, pollo al diavola, fettuccine verde with ragu…

10

Tried brotha. Rotated the shit of of it but always goes horizontal.

11

You have to save after you rotate 90 degrees. Then edit again and rotate again and then save.

12

reluctant to state this publicly, but 88 is shaping up to be an very very good to excellent barbaresco vintage, so no surprise with this normale bottling

13

My experience is that the 88s are generally quite austere.

14

is that a bad thing?

15

Unlike Ken’s, my own experience with Giacosa’s 88s led me to conclude long ago that the vintage was one of his exceedingly rare “misses”. Always glad to see a note like this one that suggests I’m wrong.

16

Ken,

Rather than austere, I had found them a bit rustic. But, I am in agreement with Enrico. Over the last several years I think the tannins have started to resolve with sufficient fruit remaining and tertiary elements starting to show. The net is a vintage that I think is outpacing 90 in Piemonte. An 88 Giacosa SSR I had last year, and a G Rinaldi the year before were profound wines and an 88 Produttori Rabaja that I had last month at Osteria Morini was a very pretty wine. Maybe we should do an 88 tasting?

17

This would seem to mean you agree with me. I am not a fan of 1988 in Barolo or Barbaresco.

The first bottle of 1988 SSR I ever in the early 1990’s was stunningly good, but ever since I have had nothing but mediocre and bad bottles.

18

Somewhere along the way I picked up a mistaken impression that you admired his 88s more than me. There is no vintage of SSR that I like less.

19

…not to mention that stellar 88 Bartolo that you brought to Cinghiale some moons ago…or was it a Gaja… [wink.gif]

20

OK, wow, this brought me out of hibernation, I guess.

Ken, really? Is this opinion re Giacosa or re Barolo/Barbaresco generally? The thread is ambiguous. I LOVE '88 in Piedmont, but have little/no experience with Giacosa '88s. As a generality, I prefer '88 to '90.

I took an '88 Cascina Francia to a dinner last December, and it was like Orodruin, a volcano of power and fruit, perturbed at having been plugged up for so many years. Though, yes, austere.