Great to hear. I went deep the 2019s!
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- I am beginning to think that I should just buy this by the case each year and make it my house red. So bright, light on its feet, and red fruited, it is tasty on release or at fifteen years. It delivers for any occasion or night of the week. Serralunga Barolo this is not. If you say things like ācould use more structure and concentrationā in your Nebbiolo tasting notes, this is probably not for you.
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2016 F. Rinaldi Barolo: enjoyed in the Blue Ridge Mountains with Short Ribs and Risotto. A great match. Really expressive nose of red fruit, floral and tar notes. This is showing very young right now. I had to check the lable twice to make sure I had not opened the Brunate. Opened up over several hours to reveal a classically built Barolo with layers of depth and complexity. A beautiful wine that should continue to develop at least from what this bottle showed. My first try with the 16ās. I will leave the others for several years. Really surprised by this one
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Excited to read your notes Fred - thank you.
Have a couple of this and a few more of the Brunate, hidden away somewhere in storage.
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2018 Paolo Sordo Barbaresco: A little too tooty-fruity on the nose for me, although it is lifted. The palate is a little thin with bright, light red fruit, a hint of citrus good, and a tart acidity. Tannins already feel resolved with just a slight drying sensation on the finish.
2021 Poderi Colla Barbaresco Roncaglie: Thereās dark red cherry on the nose interwoven with a subtle hint of smoky tar. Classic Nebbiolo with flavors of red fruit and a subtle hint of smoky minerality. Very elegant with a light weight that hovers over the palate. Drying tannins coat the palate on the finish, but are still accessible. A very well-balanced and enjoyable wine.
2019 Cantina dei Produttori Nebbiolo di Carema Carema Riserva: This has a really fragrant nose of classic rose and red cherry with just a subtle lift to it. Thereās lots of depth with tart red fruit flavors and a gravelly, smoky minerality. Texturally quite silky with an acidity that is very refreshing and more-ish. Light on the palate, elegant, but intense, with great balance and good tension between the structure and the rich fruit. Just really well made and a great value.
2020 Fratelli Brovia Barolo Rocche di Castiglione: This is very fruity and young on both the nose and the palate. This lacks the earthiness and mineral complexity I normally associate with this cuvee. Acidity is there and provides energy and a cranberry tartness to the rich fruit. Tannins are ripe and soft, but still convey a drying sensation on the finish. The wine is certainly approachable now, but it feels a little too heavy, lush, and velvety for me. A Barolo for hedonists instead of eudaimonists.
2018 Cavallotto Barolo Riserva Bricco Boschis Vigna San Giuseppe: Iām getting more wet earth and forest on the nose here with an undertone of dark red cherry. This is subtle, elegant, but not super intense, but thereās enough stuffing here to satisfy. Nice acidity and rather elegant. Tannins are grippy, but approachable, and thereās a hint of spice on the finish. Not a blockbuster, but satisfying and showcases the minerality over the fruit.
2020 Bartolo Mascarello Barolo: There are red cherry aromas that are quite fruity and not particularly flora. The palate is very pure and elegant with pretty red fruit, but is, quite frankly, lacking some complexity except for a bit of earthy minerality on the finish. Acidity is decent, and the tannins are already extremely silky; Iām not getting any astringency or drying sensation at all. This is very pretty, very well-made and shaped, with a feathery lightness on the palate, but it comes across as a little soft structurally. Kind of underwhelming considering what this is. Iām beginning to think 2020 is just a soft, overripe vintage in Barolo, and even this producer could not overcome the limitations of the vintage.
2020 Nervi-Conterno Gattinara Vigna Molsino: An intensely mineral-forward wine with pronounced graphite and earth lying on top of a substrate of cool red fruit and herbs. Very balanced with a refreshing blast of slightly tart acidity. Lean, mean, and linear, but elegant and light on its feet. I imagine some may find this too austere, but, for me, the wineās strictness reminds me of the days of auld lang syne.
2013 AR.PE.PE. Valtellina Superiore - Grumello Riserva SantāAntonio: Definitely has that lifted rose and tar nose I associate with Nebbiolo. The palate is perhaps a tad slimmer than a Barolo, but this still has plenty of concentration to its red fruit, herbs, and mineral flavors. Still a lingering hint of grip on the finish.
1990 La Meridiana Boca Campo delle Piane: Lots of dried red fruit on the palate that is approaching coming across as slightly maderized, but there was enough freshness on the palate to keep it from coming across as over the hill. Elegant, silky, and fun to drink with plenty of verve and lift. Perhaps not quite generic old red wine, but it is definitely old Nebbiolo.
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Seems like alot of infanticide going on here.
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This is brought in by Panzer or Fass (or both)? Canāt recall.
I think they have multiple US importers. Pretty sure Polaner still distributes in NY although not sure if they import them. A bit of a blast from the past to see this as I used to rep them for an Italian importer over 20 years ago and havenāt seen them much since. Nice wines.
btw, ImportGenius will usually give you some good info in this regard. I think it requires a subscription to see everything but it will usually give something at the free level.
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Yes, Polaner.
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Most of these wines were from a tasting and I wanted to get a sense of the wines and the vintages without having to sacrifice my own bottles.
Even if that wasnāt the case, as Iām sure you know, Barolos are much more accessible young now because of global warming. Not to mention 2020 and 2018 are earlier drinking, less structured vintages in the Piemonte.
(Iām assuming you werenāt referring to the Alto Piemonte, Carema, and Valtellina wines as examples of āinfanticideā because Nebbiolo-based wines from those regions tend to be accessible at much younger ages than those of the Piemonte).
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I love aged Barolo and Barbaresco and drink a lot of 50+ year wines. I also love young Barolo and Barbaresco. The '21ās and '20ās will provide a lot of drinking pleasure early and they will age.
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Same.
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Re: 2020 Barolo, it is obviously not one of the great all time years by any means, but there are some very good wines. But the Bartolo is not one of them IMO. I see Mascarello as a producer that tends to reflect very transparently whatever the vintage gives, for better or worse. With the exception of 2014 where I think that wine is aging quite well so far and very pretty, I donāt see them as a producer that outperforms in a typical poor vintage. The 2017, 2018, 2020 all reflect the issues with those years. I was not a fan of the 2020 Bartolo, finding it simple / uninteresting.
The one wine from 2020 Iāve had that is truly spectacular and I think a must own for a Barolo collector is the Conterno Francia. Iām sure the Monfortino will be even better, but for now I think that is the wine of the vintage. Plenty of other successes though. Trediberriās Berri is a great value and a really beautiful wine, the Grasso lineup is pretty good, Oddero Rocche/Monvig (havent had the others) are really good, G. Rinaldi Bussia very good, Brovia Rocche / CaāMia are excellent, to name a few.
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Thank you for your comments about Bartolo. Thatās very interesting; at least the house can always say they make transparent wines that always reflect the vintage and terroir, for better or for worse.
Also interesting to hear about your experience with 2020. I have not had as many as you, though I did kind of liked the 2020 Burlotto Monvigliero (though I thought it had some issues with alcohol and ripeness).
I may be an outlier, but I actually preferred the 2018 Brovia Rocche to the 2020; the 2018 seemed a little more soil and mineral driven, for my palate at least. I havenāt tried the '20 Brovia CaāMia yet; that would be interesting to taste.
I will also try to track down the Trediberri Berri. I have some ā20 Trediberri Rocche dellā Annunziata; I will try to find an opportunity to open a bottle one of these days and give a report.
Too bad to hear about the 2020 Bartolo. I hadnāt bought this producer in a while but got a decent deal and went for a little bit of the 2020. Maybe Iāll get offered the 2021, or maybe I wonāt, but I was hoping that the 2020 would be good. I guess Iāll try one young and then decide what to do with it.
On the '20 Bartolo, it is not a bad wine, itās pretty enjoyable IMO. And who knows, I only had it once on release. I just did not find it to defy the vintage - itās what you would expect, a lighter, less complex, fruit forward Barolo. I didnāt find it to drink that well young based on the one bottle I opened - open aromatically, but I didnāt get much out of the palate - a touch diluted. Whether more on the palate will come with time, or if this is just all weāre going to get, not sure.
2019 Tenuta Rocca Barolo Serralunga dāAlba - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo (8/13/2025)
Splash decantedā¦started out a little tight and dusty with crushed bricks and roasted coffeeā¦but with some air, this beauty BLOSSOMED into a gorgeous Barolo! The NOSE! OMGā¦dusty cherry wood, violets, sweet tobacco leaf, dried oranges, licoriceā¦LOVE LOVE the dusty spices in this! Not at all too tannicā¦itās showing āalmostā all the goods on the palateā¦crushed red berriesā¦wonderful licorice dryness, hay straw, dried rosesā¦there is an elegance to it, yet firm grip with structure to ageā¦some silkiness sneaks in at times, making you daydream of an Italian hillside vineyardā¦then a face smack of dusty dry tannins brings you back! This wine is gorgeousā¦a first for me, but definitely not the last! Will cellar more of these for sure! (95 points)
Posted from CellarTracker
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Two Giamello Barbarescos (Vicenziana) over the last two weeks; 2015 and 2010. Both were under $40. The 2015 was instructive and fine, but compared to the 2010 a serious disappointment. The 2010 still has life and legs and lift and sweet dried cherry fruit, complexity and length. Everything I didnāt expect from a not very expensive 15 year old.
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So are you suggesting the 2015 is not as good of a wine, or just needs more age to reach those heights?
I havenāt had the 2010 Giamello, but have drunk many bottles of the 2015. My most recent bottle of 2015 was in the spring and it was delicious for my tastes, but still showing riper fruit flavors than my ideal, even if the typical Giamello delicate structure was there. I have no idea what will win out in the long run!
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Two Bocas
2004 Vallana Boca - I am generally a fan of this producer and have consumed quite a few bottles over the last several years, but have found they can be inconsistent and prone to brett. I have a barn, but this was beyond barnyard and had to be put out to pasture.
2017 Davide Carlone Boca - This back up bottle was more than up to the task. Richly textured with dark cherries, plums, a bit of leather and a bit of iron. Very tasty with or without food. Great as a pnp, this will likely last another ten years without issue. Carlone is becoming my favorite Boca producer.
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