2007 Lodali Moscato d’Asti 5.5%
Pleasant, frothy fun, mixing red apple and pineapple, the CO2 playing the role of acidity with competence. Good balance.
2008 Bruno Giacosa Roero Arneis 12.5%
Lovely white flower and wet slate aromas promise more, alas, than they deliver. Good body but insufficient acid, so a certain saltiness and a light bitterness have to fend for themselves against the sweetness. Arneis, like other aromatic white grapes like Viognier, Torrontes, etc., can lack acidity, but I expected more magic from Giacosa.
2001 Foradori Granato Teroldego Rotaliano IGT 13.0%
Wow, great aromas, all seemingly secondary, like barnyard, mushrooms, leather, animal. Smells way older than 2001. Great mouth feel and body, very present and pleasant acidity, excellent acid/sweet balance. Other than some chin scratching because this tastes older than its years, I really liked this.
1997 Braida Barbera d’Alba Ai Suma 13.0%
The Ai Suma is made from late harvest Barbera, and it is a tribute to this grape’s naturally high acidity and the temperate Piedmont climate that this neither lacks acidity nor tastes jammy. Exotic aromas of plums, cherries, with some age appropriate mold. Velvety and sumptuous, good acid. An elegant wine, that tastes strangely younger than the Granato.
1993 Gaja Barolo Sperss 13.5%
Complex aromatics, with plum, sweat, truffles, tar, herbs, pine resin... Great acidity, tannins still alive and kicking. Not a blockbuster, but a demure beauty, with a good decade still ahead of it.
N.V. Maria Teresa Mascarello “Il Barolo Chinato di Maria Teresa”Brought back from Barolo, only 200 bottles made annually. Lovely, exotic, and delicate aromas of molasses, quinine, herbs, reeking of incense and churches. Superb velvety mouth feel. Like drinking Constantinople and Rome wrapped into one.
2003 Domaine de Baumard Quarts de Chaume 12.5%
Pulled this out of the cellar and served too warm at 60F. Aromas are elegant, with honey and white flowers. Unctuous but, without sufficient acidity, at this temperature the honey morphs into sickly sweet burnt sugar. Temperature no doubt made this show worse than it should have, but the acidity might have been lacking even at the right degree.
