Still quite tannic on the palate; 15 years on for a supposed “early ripening” vintage, but to be honest, I have never seen that with wines I’ve tried. Reasonably well-integrated at this time, though.
FWIW, I believe Veglio was a protege of Elio Altare, and this is certainly a modernist take on Barolo. That said, at this point, I don’t find much in the way of oak signature here.
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Do you mean the 98s in general? The only 98 in my cellar that I’ve drunk was the Brovia Rocche, which showed very well even five or six years ago.
John, I was referring to 98’s in general. I think there has been a tendency to consign '98 into the same “vintage bucket” that '97 and 2000 belong to, and at least from my cellar, I’ve never seen the comparison. For example, while the two Mascarello’s (Bartolo and Guiseppe’s Monprivato) have drunk well since release, I’ve never gotten the impression the wines won’t also reward extended cellaring. And if you’ve had the Conterno Cascina Francia from '98 and 2000, you can easily see that the '98 is on a totally different (and much slower) evolutionary curve. Even some base level bottles like Roagna’s Paje are wines that in my opinion still require time.
When I pulled the cork last night, I figured that if I was going to be able to find a “ready” version of a '98 to taste, my odds would be increased by choosing a modernist that presumably was “sculpting” his wine to show better earlier, but the wine was surprisingly (at least to my expectation) tannic. Maybe I bought the “wrong” stuff, but I’m still looking for all that early-maturing wine from this vintage.
Interesting. As I said, the only 98 I’ve opened (and finished off) was the Brovia, which was surprisingly advanced, though very tasty.
BTW, much better on night two, especially on the palate. Although to give credit where it’s due, my wife may have made her best pizza ever tonight, a quatro formaggi version with mozzarella, provolone, asiago and fontina, topped with various mushrooms and kalamata olive - so perhaps the wine is showing better because of the food pairing.
So maybe the key here is air, as opposed to the pop & pour I employed last night.