Welcome to Week 5 of the 2025 Virtual Tasting for Charity
The Theme: Barolo & Barbaresco
I’m very excited to be back for my second year doing this virtual charity series. It’s that time of year that I like to pull out some Barolo, Barbaresco, and other nebbiolo-based wines. After our trip to Italy this fall during the height of harvest and truffle season, I headed into the holiday season reinvigorated by the wines of Piemonte and want to see more WB members popping bottles from this beautiful region
A few of you know that I am a pediatric nephrologist. Kidney disease in children is uncommon, but those who are affected often have decreased quality of life compared to their peers due to their chronic symptoms, frequent office visits, and the medical burden of their care. This is especially true for children with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) who receive chronic dialysis or have received a kidney transplant. Camp ChiMer is a program that provides an overnight summer camp experience for children ages 9-18 with ESKD, staffed by health care professionals, in which they foster peer relationships and participate in fun activities without feeling excluded or stigmatized because of their kidney disease. My fellows have attended as medical staff in previous summers and can vouch for how much the children look forward to this camp experience all year.
Donation:
$5 for each tasting note for a Barolo, Barbaresco, or other nebbiolo-based wine.
$10 for each tasting note in which you post a photo of yourself with the wine.
As all great wine should be enjoyed in the company of others, I’ll donate $15 for each tasting note in which you also post a group photo with 3 or more people enjoying the bottle.
This is the only bottle of Nebbiolo left in the crypt so far as I know. It’s incredibly tannic, but there is still good fruit and some floral tones. Not exactly what I was hoping for at nearly 20 years old, but certainly drinkable. 2006 Pio Cesare Barolo
Poured in a Grassl Cru with no decant. Vivid magenta going out to a pink/clear rim. Deep and fragrant perfume of sour cherries, crushed blueberries, lavender, eucalyptus, and dry asphalt, with a touch of oak spice on the back end. Clean, dry, and silky texture, this has some delicacy on the mid palate before the grip from its fine-grained tannins and juicy acidity emerge on the finish. More closed down on the palate currently compared to the nose, just some vague black fruits on a bed of gravel minerality. This definitely needs time and has the stuffing to age nicely.
I find 2006s to still be wound tight and a bit unforgiving. I plan on just letting them sit for as long as possible to see if I can get any enjoyment out of them in 5+ years time.
2010 Fratelli Bravia Barolo
This one is fully open for business. Good length throughout and secondary/tertiary are at the forefront rather than the fruit. Leather and tobacco on the mid palate and finish. A solid middle of the road wine.
2011 Sottimano Barbaresco Pajoré - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco (12/25/2025)
Hey now. This is pretty good. Richer than I remember, with dark cherry, and menthol. Some floral notes, too. We are both enjoying this tonight. I imagine this will cruise along for a while, but it is delicious right now.
Turns out I have a lot more Sangiovese in the home cellar right now, so this was the Nebbiolo closest to drinkability right now. Painfully young at first but miraculously opened up. From CT review:
Had no idea whether to decant or not so… pnp baby! Initially very tannic, but with a blast of cherry, fennel, some sort of floral (violet?) submerged under the earthy meaty body of the wine. Although there isn’t any real tobacco note on the nose m, after a half hour the finish gave me the feel of having taken a drag on a really good cigar. Kept improving over the 2-3 hrs we had it open. Lots of potential for the future.
Well here is a fun one! Opened on Christmas Eve at my wife’s request, and it was great with our huge meatball and sauce dinner, but at 48 hours (tonight):
48 Hours: Substantially better, revving up to 5th gear.
Aromas: Morello Cherry and some other complex spice flavor that I really could not nail down.
Palate: Has picked up much better weight, almost vibrating with tension between the acidity, tannin, and perfectly ripe fruit. A little bit of sucrosity, but not overbearing.
I entirely believe this will become something gorgeous over the next 20 years, and this is just the Gattinara normale!
The much more fun backstory can be summarized thus:
We too were in Lombardia and Piemonte in the fall for our third “baby moon,” and so my incredible, dear wife sat through tasting after tasting, enjoying, but spitting a ton. We did in fact make it to Nervi-Conterno, had a wonderful lunch at Cucine Nervi (€15 btg 2003 Cantine Nervi Gattinara!!), and all these months later my wife hadn’t really had a chance to taste the full story. So when this was her request, of course I was going to say yes. Merry Christmas, and thanks for giving me a reason to share the note.
2022 Serafino Rivella Langhe Nebbiolo was excellent once again last night. I’d never peg this as a '22 and might mistake it for a Barolo. Very structured but with a certain suppleness to the fruit that allows it to be enjoyable now.
Bit bleary eyed in the photo here after a long couple of days of family gathering, but I’ll allow it for charity’s sake. Dinner out with friends this evening so I’ll see if I can get a group photo. Haven’t decided on what wine to bring yet, but will like be Barolo or Barbaresco.
2023 Burlotto Langhe Nebbiolo is a different animal entirely; much fresher, lighter, showing perhaps a bit more heat too, but easy drinking and enjoyable. Typically the Burlotto LN improves for a few years but this one is very easy to drink now.
A bit on the young side so fruit is more lively and has a good jolt of acid to kickstart. Another solid middle of the road offering. Could benefit from a few years in the cellar but is drinking fine now. A good charcuterie accompaniment.
We didn’t decant, thinking a 1999 wouldn’t need it. But it did. Last night it was heavy, dry and sour while light in flavor. What was there was front palate, nothing mid, sides or back, but still with a super long finish. Brackish in color, not oxidized.
Tonight, after 24 hours opened then recorked, it’s very nice with aromas of cherry and a hint of mushroom. The mouthfeel is more full today; the tannins and acids have mellowed. The taste is of red fruit, mostly cherry and a hint of raspberry, and ends a bit spicy.
The cork would have been trouble without the Durand, but there’s plenty of cellar time left in this wine.
2011 la Ca’ Nova Barbaresco was drinking pretty well on Saturday. A recent winebid purchase, I’ve no idea of provenance, but the bottle was in perfect shape. Overall, the wine showed quite well. It appears to be transitioning into more tertiary territory, and had some beef broth character to compliment the dark fruit. I’ll drink my other bottle soon as I don’t think there is much upside.
