TN: Side-by-side tasting of all nine Produttori crus in 2011

WINE TALK
41

In my personal experience I haven’t found that the Rio Sordo is generally some kind of black sheep among the riservas although any one cru may of course be subject to some kind of mishap in a certain vintage. Rio Sordo has also enjoyed a good reputation for quite a long time and figures as one of the best growing positions already on Ratti’s Barbaresco map. As far as I can tell, there is nothing wrong with the specific plots owned by Produttori members either. Finally, the Produttori can of course select, on a vintage-to-vintage basis, exactly which plots or subsections of plots they let into the riserva from a certain MGA zone. It’s only if an entire area has been more or less wiped out by some problem (say hail) that they run into problems with the rule that they must either produce all riservas or none.

42

I was looking at the empty bottles, noting the vine owners’ names on the back, so I went on the site and dug out the production figures for 2011. I thought maybe more owners would equate to bigger production, but it doesn’t.

What is interesting is that the production is not in the same proportions all years; some vineyards such as Montefico, Asili and Paje’ produced much more in 2011 than in 2009, while the others showed smaller increases – or none at all in the case of Rio Sordo. I don’t know if that reflects the yield in the vineyard or selectivity in the winemaking. (Perhaps less Rio Sordo made the grade in 2011.) I would guess the latter, but it could get complicated under the coop’s all-or-nothing rules for cru bottling if a much smaller proportion of some vineyards is selected for cru bottling.

I suppose it could also reflect new vines that came of age in that two years.

I wonder, too, whether the large crop affected the decision not to bottle single vineyards in 2012.

That’s all speculation. Here are the facts:

Asili: 13,333 bottles (3 owners)
[+33% vs 10,000 in 2009]
Montefico: 13,333 bottles (4 owners) [+100% from 6,666 in 2009]
Montestefano: 16,584 bottles + 1,708 magnums (5 owners)
[+20% vs 14,442 bottles and 1,112 magnums in 2009]
Muncagotta (fka Moccagatta): 16,666 bottles (3 owners)
[+25% vs 13,333 in 2009]
Ovello: 16,650 bottles + 1,720 magnums (12 owners)
[+20% vs 14,350 bottles and 1,158 magnums in 2009]
Paje’: 10,000 bottles (2 owners)
[+50% vs 6,666 bottles in 2009]
Pora: 16,666 bottles (2 owners)
[+25% vs 13,333 in 2009]
Rabaja’: 16,524 bottles + 1,738 magnums (9 owners)
[+20% vs 14,586 bottles and 1,040 magnums in 2009]
Rio Sordo: 13,333 bottles (2 owners)
[unchanged from 2009]

FYI, the Vacca family has holdings in Rabaja’, Ovello, Montefico and Montestefano.

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Thanks for doing the follow up on this Anders. I put some trust in to Ian d’agata’s claims about Montestefano (cool), and Rabaja (hot), and have to doubt that after seeing this. He even described Rabaja as a “heat trap”.

I’m not sure if I’ve seen him on these boards before. Will see if I can ping him for a response.

44

You could have just looked here:
http://www.finewinegeek.com/produttori/index-qty.html

The quantity varies because different vintages have different yields and because they don’t use (say) all the Asili grapes every year. Some Asili lots may go into a lesser wine in some years. Same for each of the other vineyards.

The names on the back are all the growers for that vineyard, even if not all of them have grapes in the wine. Also, “Vacca” on the back could be any one of several Vaccas. Same for several other names there.

45

Thanks for the additional info, Ken.

But your table doesn’t calculate the totals for each in 750ml equivalents. [wink.gif] [shock.gif]

46

Thanks so much for this commentary. 2011 was my wedding year and I’ve had the opportunity to buy a few of these. I bought some Montefico as that’s the only cru that’s been released in the Union of Soviet Socialist Ontarians. On an upcoming trip to Montreal I’ll get the chance to buy Ovello and Pora. I’m convinced I’ll like the Ovello as that sounds like the most elegant, red fruited, almost Pinot like? The Pora I’m on the fence about. The fact that it was top rated by the group in this tasting is promising, but I can’t say I love hearing the “a bit riper than some” comment. Hopefully that’s in a more minor relative sense.

Small sidenote. It appears the Ovello is only available in Montreal in Magnum. I was interested to see in a previous post that only some crus are made in magnum. Other than the production numbers, I was wondering why only some crus are available in magnum.

I’m also wondering more generally about the vintage. I loved the Produttoris in the 2008 vintage, but what I tasted from '09 I really didn’t enjoy. I’m expecting '11 to be between those extremes, but I’m hoping it leans toward '08 in terms of ripeness, but I’m seeing some mixed comments. Wouldn’t mind some clarity on that.

47

It would be interesting to those who know little (me) to have those who know a lot put the crus in a sort of rank order. By preference or style. I have had bottles of one cru or another in most recent vintages in which they were produced, but have too little experience to be able to perform that exercise.

48

I think this is very hard to do. I’ve even heard Aldo Vacca do this, and I didn’t entirely agree with him.

One aspect is that occasionally the growers and their plots change, and this can change the character of the wine, esp. in the larger, more variable vineyards. Even when the growers don’t enter or leave the coop, one’s wine could be left out in a particular year (yet still the family name will appear on the back label).

If I haven’t caveated that to death, here’s a shot at it (all from memory):

I think of Rabajà, Montestefano, and Asili as the most structured, usually in that order. Having done a couple of Rabajà verticals, I feel confident that Rabajà is the longest ager of all of them. Within this group, Asili often has the ripest fruit.

The next group would include Pora, Pajé, Montefico, and Moccagatta/Muncagota. Here, I think of Pora as the closest to the above group. Pajé and esp. Montefico often have a delicacy and fragrance that I find appealing, what some call “lifted”.

Ovello, esp. in recent years, seems to be the ripest, most fruit forward of their wines. It’s a huge vineyard. I think it is more affected by global warming than any other. If I was picking one Produttori for someone with no history in Nebbiolo, I might pick a fairly young Ovello.

Rio Sordo has consistently been the least impressive to me after 1978. I just find it has less of everything.

49

Neal, as I think you have hinted, ‘ranking’ is probably not the best approach. Rather, I’d suggest that a list of the outstanding and weakest attributes of each cru would be more valuable. While I enjoy Produttori as much as any other wine (on a QPR basis), I not confident enough to tease out those strengths/weaknesses in great detail and will leave it to the esteemed cognoscenti of the board. It should be a great exercise.

I will start it out with one sort of ranking…alphabetical.

Asili:

Montefico:

Montestefano:

Muncagotta:

Ovello:

Paje’:

Pora:

Rabaja’:

Rio Sordo:

50

For what it’s worth–I was at the tasting, but am hardly part of the cognoscenti when it comes to Produttori or much else–I found the Paje the most elegant (my 1st, group’s 2d) even though the tannins were roaring. I also thought the Pora (my 2d, group’s 1st) was excellent. I didn’t pick up the “riper than some” but did get a beautiful balance between higher acid notes than the Paje and yet a bit of bacon fat at the end. I think you can’t go wrong with either of those.

51

Overall the three “best” are - Rabaja, Ovello, and Asili. But in any given vintage and depending on the age, some of the others can sneak up on and equal the “Big Three”. On a rare occasion they can surpass them. All of them are worth pursuing, at least to some point. They offer many things that the true Nebbiolo lover wants and have good, if no longer great, value.

52

There’s a nice video of Aldo going thru the characteristics of each wine with Steve Tanzer that I think was carried over from the Tanzer site to vinous. Hopefully you can still find it on Vinous, but I think it’s very instructive. It’s not necessarily “best” to “worst”, but does nicely summarize what each wine is like.

53

I opened a 2011 Pora a few weeks ago. Very little of the fruit you mentioned but loads of biting acidity and tannin. I have a Rio Sordo and a Montestefano left of my 2011s. Figured I’d let them sleep for a long time.

54

Would love to taste them all to figure for myself. What I do know is that an aged (99’) Rabaja didn’t agree with me due to an overt iron/blood note that I don’t tend to enjoy, even along with a meaty entree. Guests loved it, however.

First I’ve heard of Ovello being top tier, though I have been noticing it in the marketing more than I would’ve thought. My feeling is that the Asili, Montestefano, and Montefico would be among my favorites but I see a full, or near full horizontal in my future.

55

This has been very interesting; thanks to all who answered my unreasonable question. I bought an offer from Rare Wine in which they sold one of each cru from the 2008 vintage at a decent price, so in some years when they are something like mature, I will taste through them to see how they vary (at least in this vintage)

56

I think 99 Rabaja is still in an in between phase where it has lost some of it’s youth and still hasn’t quite reached the beautiful old nebbiolo stage. Ovello has one of the biggest productions of the crus so there’s more of it out there, and doesn’t have the sex appeal to consumers of Asili or Rabaja, so you are going to see it more often, whereas Asili and Rabaja get snapped up.