http://vinousmedia.com/articles/an-update-from-barolo-jul-2005
What was the weather like during the tasting?
That’s good,very good! ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
According to the Biodynamic Calendar it was clearly a Root day. Try the tasting again on a fruit day to really test if there is any merit to this myth.
Root Day
Root days are when the moon is in any of the Earth Signs such as Capricorn, Taurus and Virgo. If you follow the lunar calendar for wine tasting, root days are not good days to enjoy wine.
This is one of the most gut-wrenching threads I have read on wine in the last 10 years. Such a promising tasting and the results are freighting. I’m going to skip back-filling 01s for now and that G Conterno was very high on my list. Based on CT notes and your reports of other poor bottles, I would surmise that bottle variation is extreme. Maybe it is the corks at fault?
The 2001’s were fantastic on release and then they shut down a few years after.
It’s a classic vintage that needs more cellar time to emerge from their sleep.
If I were brave enough to pop a cork now I would slow O’ for 24 hours before tasting.
A few that others have opened and have shown beautifully recently are the 2001 Gaja Sperss and the 2001 Altare Brunate.
Tasted that 01 Oddero Mondoca this Summer and loved it. Should’ve bought more.
RT
As you can see, the Altare showed pretty well in our tasting.
Did you find any sludge/slime in it? WTF is this? - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers
Everybody should calm down. This tasting brought back memories of tasting the 1982s in 1994. Almost the same age, almost the same results. Same month as well.
The point of the tasting was to see if modernist wines drink better when young than the traditionalist. That was what they set out to do 30 years ago, and what better time in Barolo’s evolution to test this thesis than when the best wines would be expected to show poorly.
I don’t believe there’s anything to the widespread cork theory. Wineries buy lots of corks from lots of people and to think that one region is particularly plagued in one vintage is difficult to reconcile with the supply chain.
Now there may be problems with a particular cork supplier, who supplied several producers but I’m not ready to commit to even that at this point.
There were several wines that were obviously defective. the oxidized Brovia, Grasso, and the Monprivato with the benefit of the doubt also extending to Chiarlo and Schiavenza.
I think several of the wines that showed poorly did not show badly. They were pretty much where one might expect them to be at this stage of the game. 2001 is a classic vintage, and it’s ageing along a classic arc. It’s also a bit of an austere vintage and as such I’m not surprised that warmer, fruitier sites like Brunate would show better, or that some producers who are making a fruitier style of wine would come out on top at this age.
I’ll do this again in 5 to 7 years, that’s about how long I think these wines need to really begin to show well, 10 would be even better. The results will very likely be radically different. Until then I’m happy to have these wines in my cellar.
All too often we expect great wines to always be great. We also rationalize when we drink them to such an extent that they rarely seem anything but great. It takes a blind tasting like this once in awhile to remind us that great wines are not always great and there’s a reason we cellar wine.
Tom, I checked a biodynamic calendar and it had Saturday and Sunday as fruit days. Can anyone confirm that they were in fact root days?
Thanks
I’ll be publishing my notes later this week but this is the order I had the wines in from best to worst.
1 - Sandrone Cannubi Boschis - Barolo
2 - Vietti Brunate - La Morra
3 - Voerzio Brunate - La Morra
4 - Ascheri Coste & Bricco - Serralunga
5 - Cavallotto Riserva San Giuseppe - Castiglione Falletto
6 - Oddero Mondoca di Bussia - Monforte
7 - Burlotto Cannubi - Barolo
8 - Cappellano Rupestris - Serralunga
9 - Clerico Ciabot Mentin Ginestra - Monforte
10 - Marcarini Brunate - La Morra
11- Massolino Rionda - Serralunga
12 - Aldo Conterno Cicala Monforte
13 - Alessandria Gramolere - Monforte
14 - E Pira Cannubi - Barolo
15- Marengo Brunate - La Morra
16 Cascina Ballarin Tre Ciabot - La Morrra & Monforte
17 - Giacomo Conterno Cascina Francia - Serralunga
18 - Altare Brunate - La Morra
19 - Brezza Cannubi - Barolo
20 - Scavino Bric del Fiasc - Castiglione Falletto
21 - Grasso Casa Mate - Monforte
22- Brovia Garblet Sue - Castiglione
23- Chiarlo Cannubi - Barolo
24 - Schiavenza Broglio - Serralunga
25 - Mascarello Monprivato - Castiglione
The Altare was served in decanter at an auction tasting and others at the table thought it sensational as well. The aromatics were gorgeous.
According to A Galloni the rare Altare Brunate is one of Piedmonte’s cult wines.
Well said,Greg.
Just teenagers breaking bad…
I mean,it is Nebbiolo…
Gregory: Given your previous comments regarding Marcarini, were you surprised by the Brunate’s showing?
What a small world, even before Gregory’s “WTF is This thread”, I had the 01 Altare Brunate on deck for drinking on Saturday night. It was sublime (though clearly a decade or more away from the real fireworks), and no evidence of the mystery particles in question. I’ll try to get a note up later in the next day or two.
What a depressing thread though.
Michael,
I was surprised by the showing and it does make me want to revisit the wines. In fact I was thinking of putting together another Marcarini Vertical, which proved quite successful the last time around. Interesting to see how more recent vintages would hold up when compared to those.
Greg, given the showing in general, it does raise one question in my mind. I’ve always been of the belief the '99 would be a slower vintage to come around than 2001. Given how poorly these 2001’s showed, is that still a reasonable assumption?
That’s an interesting question Bob.
1999 is my favorite vintage between 1989 and maybe 2010. It’s a great vintage because it has it all.
It’s a classic warm vintage that has richness and fruit in addition to the tannins and that richness and fruit has made it a more approachable vintage than the sterner 2001s.
I think in the long run the 1999s will reach higher peaks and last longer than the 2001s but at the same time there is simply more to like about them even now, so in answer to your question I think that the 2001s are fundamentally more challenging wines but I don’t think they will be notably faster or slower to evolve than the 1999s.
Time to try 99 vs 01 to find out.
Did Astor have air-conditioning, back circa 2005/2006?
I’ve been wanting to try my new Coravin on one of the 01s. Should I pass on that idea, or should I try now, and then re-try every two years hence?
These wines spent 1-10 days at Astor and they were stored in the cool rooms in the basement.