Unfortunately, this was rather disappointing.
2003 Cappellano Barolo Piè Rupestris Otin Fiorin
4 hr decant. brick in colour, slight browning. From the getgo, i knew this was not going to perform to the level of my expectation. Initially the nose is tight, but unfurls and reveals some dried roses, ripe plums, sweet licorice, and most dominating of all; prunes/dried plums. with time also cool mint and eucalyptys. Palate is certainly impacted by the heat, the prune and plum flavor as well as the licorice is carried onwards, but it is ultimately quite simple in flavor. Tannins are fully resolved, and acid is not high. Hate to say it, but this does not seem to be able to improve from here on. 86p
Sorry to hear it. I recently had an 03 Monprivato that was quite enjoyable.
You know, I bought very few 2003’s from anywhere in the world, but there’s no reason to not just be quite patient and hope.
I’m curious what you were expecting.
John, i had heard from reliable sources that the wine did not carry the trademark heat of the vintage, and from the first sniff i could tell that wasnt true in this instance. But, there may just be a lot of bottle variation, although CT also seems to indicate that others have found it prematurely aged as well as influenced by heat. Maybe it needs more time, i am certainly no expert in determining that, but there just wasnt any hard tannins or high acidity to indicate that it would hold together for decades to come
Im no expert in how barolo ages, and i have heard that Nebbiolo is indeed fickle. But it just didnt seem to me that the wine had enough structure to go anywhere positive from here on.
I did purchase it recently, so provenance could be an inssue. But the retailer is very reputable, so im not leaning towards blaiming the experience on that just yet.