2004 Vietti Barolo Castiglione- Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo (3/3/2012)
We opened this one with dinner at our Friday night Asti meal. To say that I was pleasantly surprised would be an understatement. In the past, Vietti’s Castiglione has always been an also-ran in the Vietti portfolio (in my opinion). usually, it was lighter, weaker, and less complex than its Barolo counterparts. But in 2004, Vietti’s Castiglione is really a big step up from past vintages. Lovely crunhy red and black cherry fruit, impressive structure, lovely acidity and a minty and earthy quality that I really enjoyed. Great finish and full midpalate. Really a very good Barolo by any standard. Glad to own a couple of more bottles as I think this will develop nicely for at least another 10 years (if well kept, obviously).
I bought three bottles of this at the time, I think they were only $35 or so (just going off memory), which is pretty amazing QPR. I haven’t tried one yet, but this is a very helpful note and data point.
I’ve never had the '04. I started with the 05 but after seeing this note I think I’ll have to find one. It sounds like it showed structure but wasn’t too tight. Do you feel this bottle is starting to drink well now?
Dug my bottles out of offsite storage, hoping that the age would have them in a great spot now.
Early impressions were not very good. Lots of musty old furniture smell and taste, tannins pretty coarse, fruit not showing much over all of it. I left a 2/3 full bottle out for another 6 hours and revisited, hoping for improvement.
It improved, but only modestly. A little brighter and a little more fruit showing, but still pretty rustic and just an okay overall experience. Not really what I expected, and I’m not sure if it was a less-than-great bottle, or was too young, or too old.
Also a ton of sediment at the bottom – probably had to dump a solid 5 ounces of wine to avoid it.
Hopefully you were on the bottom end of the bottle variation curve. Recent CellarTracker reviews don’t match with your experience, they are more positive, but certainly do not show that this wine is any better than a good mature barolo.