TN: 2000 Produttori del Barbaresco Barbaresco Riserva Moccagatta

The CT history of this wine is very interesting - a consensus at release that the wine is an ugly duckling, then an equally strong recent consensus that the wine is aging into something terrific. There’s even a guy who drinks through his 3-pack and marvels at the transformation over such a short time.

  • 2000 Produttori del Barbaresco Barbaresco Riserva Moccagatta - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco (3/27/2012)
    Fabulous. I suspect my bottle was a bit advanced, since it had been kept at climate controlled room temp for several years- but clearly, never heat damaged. Noticeably a tad bricked. Very ripe, but pulls it off brilliantly - tar, anise, and a chocolate/spice thing that reminds me uncannily of mole sauce. Then, and this builds with air, loads and loads of truffle. The combination of the sweet black fruit and spice and truffle is gobsmackingly delicious. Hard to believe this is Barbaresco - and from a reportedly cool site, at that, but it is SO Nebbiolo. A bit alcoholic on the finish, and there’s plenty of tannin, but the concentration of flavor hides that and creates an impression of balance, albeit big bodied balance. (94 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

A nebbiolo that improved with age? I’m shocked – shocked! :wink:

I didn’t understand what you were saying about your bottle being advanced. Were you speculating that it didn’t have the coolest storage for part of its life?

In any event, it sounds yummy.

I thought it woul be WAY too early to open my 2000s, maybe I need to try one

John,

When I say advanced, I mean, showing more maturity than a well-stored bottle would. I was up in the mountains and bought this dusty bottle at a local wine store - the owners clearly care about wine, but, they’re more of a barefoot & yellowtail type of place with a single dusty shelf of bottles that still has the same bottles from when I first shopped there five years ago. I.O.W., this bottle was kept at 72 degrees for a looooooooong time.

I thought the 2000 was an early drinking vintage? :wink:


I’ve had very few, but it was a relatively (for Barolo/Barbaresco) soft, approachable vintage.

Sort of hard to tell from the CT profile whether this wine really did not show very well when young, the people who reviewed it simply didn’t like it/that style of wine (one note clearly indicates this) or whether the writers simply aren’t inclined to give out anything but mid-range scores. One guy has an 85-86 point average on over 550 tasting notes so he either drinks a lot of mid-range wines, doesn’t really like youner Nebbiolo or just gives most things 84-87 points.

That wouldn’t be a bad thread. I average 90.01 on 406 notes (75% of which are Burgundy).

I had the 2000 Rabaja earlier this winter. Fairly tannic wine with more acidity than I expected, nicely approachable so that you wouldn’t be punished for drinking it now. there is a touch of the ripe fruit, very slightly raisiny 2000 quality, but overall I was pleasantly surprised. again you could drink it now, but ideally at least for this cuvee I’d wait 2-3 more years, although if you have a stash, go for it.