March Wine Focus: Back to Basics with Nebbiolo

Haven't been able to find any Washington nebbiolos; I've had several but they're just not in the marketplace locally at the moment.

Speaking of the devil...

Morrison Lane 2009 Walla Walla Valley Nebbiolo
This is my third vintage of the wine and each time it was terrific. This one has a wonderful nose of red fruit, spice, tar, minerals and earth, followed by great flavors of deep red fruit, minerals, spice, chocolate and earth. It's smooth and balanced, with great acidity and structure, and lots of complexity. It's a bit more fruit forward than most Piedmont nebbioli, but it's not overextracted, there's no evident oak, and it's still very true to type. This is a small, family-run winery in Walla Walla that specializes in offbeat (for the area) grapes and I think they do a very nice job.

2013 Matteo Correggia La Val dei Preti Roero
Easy bright fragrant and crisp, but with enough substance and flavor in the middle to satisfy a range of drinking preferences. Was recommended by the waitstaff as a light red wine that would go well with fish dishes, and I think most people in our party were satisfied. Not a wine to ponder but at the table it was a Job Well Done.

[David M. Bueker]

$25 ish?

$25 ish?

For the 2013 Correggia La Val dei Preti? Sounds about right. Restaurant price was $50 off the list. Their last bottle and the server was happy to give it to me.

Bruno Rocca Barbaresco Coparossa 2008. Beauty in a bottle! Purchased at the winery during a visit in autumn 2011, and the last bottle remaining from that trip. High time to return...

...the oh-so-easy 2017 Giamello Langhe Nebbiolo 'Villa Gentiana'. Dark firm fruit but in a fresh and accessible structure. Perfect wine for opening right at the dinner table and pouring to enjoyment...

Very different experience last night with the 2017 Barale Langhe Nebbiolo, which was much more like a 'baby Barolo' in the tight firm structure. Nice gentle floral aromatics and there was some fun to be had with food. But not at all an experience of pour-and-enjoy so will see what I do with the next bottle.

So the consensus is drink the 2011's if, as usual, my fridge is overloaded?

[David M. Bueker]

Unless you also have 2009s, then drink those first.

I have a Vietti Castiglione, uh, somewhere.

[David M. Bueker]

I know that feeling! On a similar note, I am trying to find a couple of opportunities to open mags of the regular 2009 Produttori Barbaresco. I just don't see them as long term bets.

[David M. Bueker]

1996 Poderi Colla Barbaresco Roncaglie - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco (3/30/2019)
Finally developing near 23 years past the vintage, this is still marked by very high acidity, but it at least now has some pretty aromatics. It definitely needs food to soften its stern personality. I would drink soon, lest the remaining fruit dry out, leaving a very harsh shell.

I don't have stocks of mature (or even adolescent Nebbiolos), so I opened a 2011 Barbaresco, since some people here convinced me it was a ready vintage. I was worried I may have picked the wrong cru, although I have to admit I don't mind the tannic grunge of young Barolos and Barbarescos as long as I can get a good read on complexity, potential or actual.

Produttori del Barbaresco, Barbaresco Riserva, Montestefano, 2011

35 euros. In Milan. Which answers the prime question, who the fuck is Milan?

Sometimes old school Barolos and Barbarescos have a whiff of old wood. Which is something distinct from new wood. New wood is the smell of a busy wood shop, which time and again has proven to overwhelm fruit. Old wood is that lovely scent that warms your heart when you open the drawer of your grandmother's antique bureau. Makes me think of Dickens and Balzac. I get that here, wrapped around deep and complex aromas of spices and dried flowers. The palate has the typical rusty, tannic texture and penetrating acidity of the best of the old school Nebbiolos, as well as the depth and persistence of a great vineyard. 2011 has been labeled as mediocre and it shows in the way even those rusty tannins can't firm up or focus the diffuse finish. I love it, anyway, because character does go a long way. (Apr. 9, 2019)