2004 Marcarini Barolo Brunate- Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo (1/8/2010)
I’m deeply conflicted over this wine. It deserves credit for unassailable varietal correctness; drink it blind, and you’d know you were in Piedmont. The nose betrays the classic characteristics. And yet it is so simple and weak, and brings all the impact of a tennis racket covered in a soaking wet towel. I don’t need a massive wine but this is just short on, well, everything. (The remaining bottle in my cellar won’t be touched for a long time, tethered with the hope that I will return to this note and laugh at myself.) (85 pts.)
I’ve got a few bottles of '04 Marcarini La Serra in the cellar, and polished one off back in May, with these notes:
A beautiful wine - the nose shows the sweet anise, violets, rose petals, and sweet fruits that the '04’s are happily known for. Bright and fresh overall. Silky on the palate, more bright fruits, a building midpalate, and a wall of tannic structure at the tail end. All the components are here for a blockbuster wine in at least 10 years - I will look forward to the rest in probably 12-15 years…
Interesting that yours was a thin mess…this one was quite substantive.
I should always consider that context and bottle variation can be factors. This bottle had some decant time, but there are so many reasons that it might not show well. And your notes largely match the potential I found. Bright, fresh, classic characteristics - a very near match, though obviously a different wine. The tannins were surprisingly subdued, but if you think of wine as a plant, the stems were there for possibility. It just gave the impression of a “meh” Nebbiolo. And believe me, I came in with high hopes, which I’ll retain for the next bottle.
Anyway, what kind of idiot is reviewing 2004s right now? [suicide.gif]
Evan, it’s a different vineyard also - not only bottle variation possible, but most certainly ‘fruit’ variation! Mine’s La Serra - but still, surprising that yours being Brunate showed weak.
Nothing wrong with reviewing '04’s - perhaps they are headed for a closed stage, but they were SO PRETTY soon after release. Beautiful aromas in particular - it’s the '04’s that got me hooked on Barolo, and got me spending too much money on wine. Bastardo.
When I speak of bottle variation I’m talking about the possibility that even my two bottles could show differently. As I mentioned, the hallmarks are there, and given the labrynthine journeys that some bottles take - from Italy to Rochester - I think it’s possible that my bottle was a hair off. Wine is a strange thing. I don’t have direct reason to believe that - it wasn’t at all corked or obviously flawed - but who knows? Prhaps it has closed up almost completely, hiding the aromatic and palate expansion that is still to come.
And considering the fact that I still have a bottle, I’ll just assume that’s the case…
Bingo!
This is a tradidionally made nebbiolo that requires plenty of time or at this point a very creative decanting regime to allow the Brunate to show its charms.
If anything, Brunate should be bigger than La Serre. Sounds like this is at an awkward stage. Marcarini is quite traditional and somewhat on the delicate side. I have served one of their 1985s blind to non-Italophile friends who thought it might be mature Burgundy.
I found the wine quite beautiful when I tasted it in January, 2009. My only regret then was that I had not loaded up on it… I would not have thought it would have gone dumb over the past 12 months… A wine with nuance and beauty…
This is all very helpful, everyone. I’ve seen many wines go through dumb phases, but this one came off as different, as if there were simply something missing. But as I told Todd, I blame myself for even showing the kind of avarice required to try to get away with drinking a Brunate this young. I’m hopeful for the next encounter, as this is my preferred style of Barolo.
There’s another possibility - very slight TCA. Saw this last night with a 1990 Sociando Mallet - it wasn’t corked noticieably, but the nose and palate were pretty muted compared to other, recent bottles. The tough thing here is that the wine doesn’t appear flawed, just less than it should be. Since TCA gets worse with air, you can leave a bit in the bottle and see if there are actually TCA notes that appear.
Exactly what I was just about to post . Slight TCA can strip the wine of its fruit and not be recognized on the nose. Probably one of the causes of “bottle variation” If the wine gets worse with time would also be consistent with TCA.
This just sounds like five year old Marcarini. I remember the first time I tried the producer 10 years ago. It was a '95 Brunate I believe. Seemed just like this note. I’ve enjoyed young Marcarini that were more giving, but all of the wines seem to require time to sweeten up and fill out, aromatically but mostly on the palate. It’s wine like this that makes you sort of understand why some producers make their wines differently to be more appealing young. I’d rather drink well aged traditional wines, but I can’t deny the young ones can sometimes be pretty disappointing.
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