More like impressions. I used to be a member of the “40 descriptors for each wine” school of tasting notes, but those days are over…
Last night, the Ross Bott tasting group tasted 8 wines. It was quite educational to see the winemaking go to the Dark Side.
Not surprisingly, the '90 Bric del Fiasc, '85 Cannubi, and '85 Bric del Fiasc were my favorites, in that order. No spoof in those. Great aromatics and complexities, as well as terrific balance. These definitely shouted Barolo.
Then you get to the wines of the late 90s-2001. The one decent modern wine was '01 Carobric. It showed decent balance, and the oak seemed to be in check. On the other hand, '98 Bric del Fiasc was a heinous mess, all oak and it could’ve come from anywhere. The two '97s, Carobric and Bric del Fiasc, were spoofed, but with more fruit than the '98. They still didn’t taste of place. '00 Bric del Fiasc at least showed some spice and brighter (read: acid) tones, but it came off as a “so what?” wine.
It was totally worth being there to taste the older wines.
It is a shame that they went over to the dark side. I had the good fortune to come into a few bottles of the 82 Bric del Fiasc and every time I drank them, I always asked myself how they could possibly think they could improve on what they had by adding new oak. I have a bottle of the 85 Cannubi and assumed it was spoofulated so I am glad to hear you say it is not. Also one bottle of the 78 Bric del Fiasc Riserva, their first vintage I believe under their own label. dc.
The word on the street is that they’ve changed their ways and are back to a lower oak style in the last several vitages. Anyone know if this is true, and when did it change?
John – Sometime around 2000, they bought more botte and reduced both the portion of wine aged in barrique and the length of time in barrique, Enrica told me when I visited in 2002. There may well have been other changes, as well.
I liked a lot of 98s I tasted elsewhere on that visit to the Langhe, but not Scavino’s. The flavors just seemed muddied.
Larry – I take it you didn’t have the 96s. I liked the 96 BdF but I haven’t checked in on it for some time. The last time I had it six or seven years ago, a friend who loathed Scavino wines and had unfailingly spotted them in prior blind tastings liked it.
I like Barolo but don’t buy any because I really don’t know who has gone over to the dark side and who has not. It kind of scares me. Any short primer? Especially, on good producers where the wines are a little bit more reasonably priced than say Giacosa or G. Conterno?
What can I say? It was 2000, I was young and foolish, charmed by Enrico and Enrica Scavino and brainwashed by Marco di Grazia. Still, I’ve never hated the wine. It’s been a while, though, so perhaps now I will regret having bought a case.
I remember liking it on release, too. Of course my palate was a lot more accepting of oak at that time and the wine still had the youthful fruit to help stand up to the wood, but a couple of tastes over the past five years have been unpleasant. The wine is a bit of an oak shell, imo.
Interesting. I thought 96 might be a year in which the grapes would shine through the winemaking among the modernisti. I haven’t had any De Grazia 96s in a few years now, though.
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