WTN: 2004 Moccagatta Barbaresco Bric Balin

2004 Moccagatta Barbaresco Bric Balin 14.5%
Alluring cherry, rose petals (old lady perfume) and lots of vanilla. Before food, very tannic and acidic, with a pleasant saltiness. Fruit is powerful, and holds its own against this trio, generating excellent balance. Alcohol very well integrated. Good body and mouth feel. After food, tannins become pure structure. Vivacious and very modern, but very fine. Marcia loved it because the oak didn't bother her. I would have liked it more if the oak hadn't been so overt. Should be a gift once the oak integrates.

I looked all over for this in Piedmont after a very positive note from Anders (he didn't mention the oak, but mentioned cookie dough, so I'm wondering if one man's oak is another man's dough) and only found it in one place, in Torino, but it seems well distributed on Wine-Searcher. Maybe we'll try the 2001 of the same tonight, in the name of pleasure science, though it's likely to be closed. If anyone thinks I'm being rash, please shout.

(he didn't mention the oak, but mentioned cookie dough, so I'm wondering if one man's oak is another man's dough)

I can't speak for Anders but that certainly makes sense. Especially a sweet cookie dough.

(he didn't mention the oak, but mentioned cookie dough, so I'm wondering if one man's oak is another man's dough)

I can't speak for Anders but that certainly makes sense. Especially a sweet cookie dough.

Maybe so, but my associations with oak in wine is more often toasty aromas than cookie dough. The puzzle why there is so much cookie dough in Aldo Conterno's non-barrique aged Baroli remains, or did you, Oswaldo, get any clue to this during your trip?
Cheers,
Anders
PS. Great report, Oswaldo. I haven't really had time to read it all yet, though.

Hi Oswaldo,

Thanks for the note.

One of my favorite producer, whom I always visit when I am in Piemonte.

One of my favorite photos



Ciao
Birger

Nice picture, Birger, may I ask who's the dude?

Anders, I did/do suspect that you mean something else by cookie dough, and that's not a note I am particularly attuned to, so will try to become more alert to it.

I am, however, a little puzzled because I think of both Otto and you as more quercophobic than I, yet neither of you mentioned oak in your respective bottles of 2001 Massolino Vigna Rionda and 2004 Moccagatta Bric Balin, while it seemed very present in mine. Maybe just bottle variation, the usual mystery when dealing with wine comparisons...

As for Conterno, your suspicions feel intuitively right to me. While they claim to be traditionalist in their Barolos, they are all for new barriques everywhere else and love new oak (the fact that DRC uses 100% new oak every year is surely not lost on them; DRC (and Burgundy in general) are role models there). So, it's not preposterous to suggest that the use of botti comes more from alignment (which is good marketing) than conviction, and when they change their botti every 7 years they may very well not subject them to the stringent stripping and cleaning with steam and salt water that the traditionalists adopt. The traditionalists also don't toast the wood, which Conterno may. So, even with botti, one could get a batch of wine brimming with new vanilla, and if your palate is vanilla friendly from all your other wines, you may not object...

Birger:

That's an interesting photo, which reminds me of my visit with another "Langaiolo" Giovanni Conterno (back in 1982); Conterno's bottle cellar had all the wines stored vertically (as in the picture you posted). When I commented, Giovanni told me that this was the proper way to store his wines; he said his corks were aged prior to bottling, and thus extremely resilient to shrinkage, and that with a properly humidified cellar they would neither fail nor allow air in. Incidentally, I observed this manner of storing bottled wines in more than a few other Langhe cellars.

Looks like some of the bottles behind Signor' Minuto are quite old! 1971 Barbaresco?

marco

Nice picture, Birger, may I ask who's the dude?

...

Hi Oswaldo,

It is Sergio Minuto, one of the two brothers who own Moccagatta

Ciao
Birger

Birger:

That's an interesting photo, which reminds me of my visit with another "Langaiolo" Giovanni Conterno (back in 1982); Conterno's bottle cellar had all the wines stored vertically (as in the picture you posted). When I commented, Giovanni told me that this was the proper way to store his wines; he said his corks were aged prior to bottling, and thus extremely resilient to shrinkage, and that with a properly humidified cellar they would neither fail nor allow air in. Incidentally, I observed this manner of storing bottled wines in more than a few other Langhe cellars.

Looks like some of the bottles behind Signor' Minuto are quite old! 1971 Barbaresco?

marco

Hi Marco,

Interesting, I would have thought that the corks would dry out, also my question to Sergio

At Moccagatta there was 3-4 rooms with old bottles, not for sale though

Ciao
Birger