A TIMORASSO AND TWO ROAGNA PAJÈ - Châteauneuf-du-Salil, Albany, NY (2/28/2026)
Salil made his classic chicken thighs with cauliflower and carrots. We started with a lovely Timorasso, but the main event was the side by side of the 1998 Roagna Crichët Pajé and the 2000 regular Roagna Barbaresco Pajé. It was fascinating and fun.
2016 Cascina Baricchi Ça Va Sans Dire - Italy, Piedmont, Vino da Tavola
[Pop and pour.] Lovely nose of flowers and citrus. Rich, full bodied with crisp acidity. Long. I think this has some serious upside potential. I'll hold my other bottle for a few years. But today, this is a wine to enjoy with food. 91-93 (91 points)
Pajè v. Pajè
1998 Roagna Barbaresco Crichët Pajé - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco
[Double-decanted at 3pm for one hour. Tasted about 7:30.] At first the nose is muted with lovely black fruit and spice. Stunning in the mouth. Tannins still noticeable but soft. Incredible balance and harmony. Around 9pm, the bouquet has bloomed. Wow! What a wine in a year that wasn't that great for Barbaresco. (97 points)
2020 Roagna Barbaresco Pajè - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco
[Decanted at 6:30pm. Tasted around 7:30.] Bright red fruit in the nose with hints of cocoa. Surprisingly open and singing from the get-go. Rich and complex in the mouth with a great sense of harmony. Appreciable tannins, but loads of bright red fruit. Long finish. Another stunningly good wine with such restraint in a warm vintage. So fragrant. 95-96 (95 points)
A great group of wine with delicious food. In my experience, the wines made by Luca's father Alfredo are more prone to off bottles, but when they're on (like this 1998 Crichët Pajé), they are every bit the equal of the great wines that Luca has been making since 2001.
That was immense fun. Also really educational for me as I’ve really been getting into Roagna’s wines in the last year or two (thanks Ken!), and I had wanted to explore the different sites he vinifies. So when I said I planned to open one of the '19 or '20 Pajès that I’d bought recently, Ken offered to open something a bit older which turned out to be the '98 Crichët.
The two were a real contrast. The '20 was of course very primary, but also had a very red fruited flavour profile - really all red fruits and flowers. So crystalline and delicate, and the lightness was striking. Power with barely any sense of weight. Even the color was remarkably pale - I commented that it was so pale/light in color that it made me think of some of Truchot’s wines.
I found the Crichët far darker in the flavour profile - more dark fruited, but also lots more earth and tar, and also a lovely herbal complexity (the kind of high-toned herbal flavors I find in some Amaro with Alpine herbs). But again, such an elegant expression, and really haunting aromatic complexity. Both wines were tremendous, but Roagna continues to be terrible for my wallet (as I’ve been adding more Roagna to the cellar than any other producer in the last couple of years).
I though the Baricchi Timorasso that we started the evening with was also really interesting. Really bright, floral aromatics with a core of ripe pears and citrus beneath - reminded me a lot of Viognier in terms of that floral perfume, but an unusually rich, almost oily texture.
Curious - isn’t Viognier known for its rich, oily texture?
I’ve always found Timorasso to be more Riesling-like with its floral aromas that are more subtle than heady (as they’d be in Viognier) with a more zesty, occasionally even lemony fruit profile along with a firm mineral core and a tendency to sometimes develop subtle petrol nuances. Sort of aromatically and flavor-wise quite like Riesling (often coming with a Riesling-level acidity), but, yes: texturally rich and oily like a Viognier.
Yes agreed Otto. I drink a reasonable amount of timorasso (Giacomo Boveri makes great timorassos) and find the well made versions oscillate between Riesling like characters of lemon and lime and Meursault like characters of grapefruit. Great acid and minerality.
Salil and I have limited experience with Timorasso, but this had a distinctive floral component to the nose that didn’t remind me of Riesling (which we both have a lot of experience with). And the mouthfeel is very different.
I honestly don’t think Timorasso is really particularly “like” anything else, unless one really really must stretch it just for the sake of having something to compare it to, no matter how loosely.
