Even before dinner is on the table, this is showing well. A faint trace of smokiness on the nose. (Or is that just from the bacon I was adding to a dish?) Medium body (it’s a blend from Verduno vineyards, and a '12), with a fair deal of fine-grained tannin. The fruit is a bit reticent, but it’s on the sour cherry end of the scale. If you tasted this blind, you could mistake it for a top-flight Volnay from an austere but serious vintage.
A lovely wine. Pretty much the same overall impression as I had tasting at the cantina in September, except that the finish seems to come up a bit short now – perhaps a symptom of the vintage:
2012 Barolo Acclivi: A blend of Verduno vineyards, including Neirane, which they used to bottle as a single vineyard. Floral scents and red fruits on the nose. Lovely balance, more toward red fruit in the mouth. Elegant – lots of finesse, but with depth and structure. I liked this better than earlier vintages I’ve tried. Another bottling that shows it’s a mistake to be too hung up on single-cru Barolo. 91++ (Burlotto also makes a Barolo classico, but I did not sample that.)