My quick view of 97 - I never thought the vintage merited the initial hype. I also never thought the vintage deserved the backlash and sneering of the people who deemed this a vintage that would die quickly from too much friendliness and ripeness. That’s one of the things I love about cellaring wine - wait long enough and you get past all the short-term quibbling about style, oak, alcohol and all the other tripe and you get to actual wine - much like literature, music, and other art, time shakes out a lot of truth from wine.
This Cavallotto is a very good wine. Arguably excellent. Not quite great. It evolved quite well after opening. The Nebbiolo tannic grip loosened, and the aromatics are, as I type this, beautiful and complex. Soil, subtle flowers, dark berries. fresh vegetables, black pepper and coriander. There is good acidity that frames the wine and gives it excellent length. The wine’s young tannins have subsided and turn the midpalate into a deep pool of rich, albeit minerally fruit. Creamy and mouthfilling. This wine seems to hit every corner of my mouth - something I look for in an excellent, mature wine.
This is in no danger of cracking up, though if I had more I would probably drink up at age 20 from the vintage.