WTN: Should have done my homework (spoof alert for Barolo)

Pecchenino Barolo Le Coste 2004

Advisory: contains much ranting.

A new Barolo became available at our monopoly. Alko's description of it was promising so I decided to try a bottle: it speaks of Slavonian oak barrels instead of barriques so I thought, despite half of the wood being new, that it wouldn't really shine through in such big botti. So I opened it, stuck my nose in the glass and got a massive stench of toffee and overripe, raisiny fruit mixed with some banana aromas (did they use the infamous Lalvin yeast that Duboeuf used to use for Beaujolais?).

Thick, sweet (since when has young Barolo had sweet fruit sensations?), low in acidity (since when has young Barolo felt low in acidity?) and with rather too smooth tannins, so mouthcoating and velvety and powdery that I wonder if they really are tannins (since when...?). It left a strange taste in my mouth, so I went to a mirror and stuck out my tongue at my image. Much to my chagrin I found it laminated in oak. I should pour this wine on my floors as I'm tired of the material there.

So off I went a-Googling and I find out from the producer's website that it not only sees botti but barriques also.

Alko's description of the wine makes it seem like something more traditional with its mention of cherries and strong tannins. I'm assuming whoever made the descriptions for Alko wasn't being malicious in writing such misleading information - I am sure they were only utterly incompetent. Shame on you, Alko, for getting such incompetents who don't know what traditional Barolo tastes like to write up a spoofy example in such traditional terms, and for providing misleading information about the wine. And shame on me for actually trusting anything that was published on Alko's website.

Phew, that is a great rant Otto! What is the track record of this producer?

I did find this, some nice reviews there, grin wink>>>>

http://www.langhe.net/pecchenino/

(since when has young Barolo had sweet fruit sensations?.

Hmm, I've found sweet fruit in plenty of young (pre-shutdown) Nebbiolo, including traditional makers like Marcarini, Oddero, G. Conterno, etc.
Otherwise nice rant.

[David M. Bueker]

Seconding Dale's comments regardng Nebbiolo - I have had a lot of young, traditional Nebbiolo wines (e.g. Mascarello, Produttori del Barbaresco to name 2) where there was very pleasing fruit in the first year or so. They clamped down hard after that, but the fruit was there to start with.

If I spell it Froot, will you now I understand what I meant by my comment?

[David M. Bueker]

Ah, as in gloppy, sloppy fruit. Well, no, not that. It just gets a little confusing after your prior troll about why anyone would want something so blatant as fruit in their wine.

If I had spelled that as Froot, too, would you have understood my troll a bit better?

[David M. Bueker]

I suppose so Otto, but you are quite well known for liking very austere wines.

That might be a bit misleading way of putting it. I do like some very austere wines, but I also like MSR Rieslings, Vouvray with all sorts of RS figures, Musar... Austerity itself is not what I'm after. I think the word, imperfect though it might be to describe it, is purity. And some wines can be exuberant and easy to love with plenty of fruit (MSR, Vouvray, Musar) yet they will still have outstanding purity of expression. I'm sure there will be a better word or phrase than "purity" for expressing what I like in wine - but austerity is not it, even though if you draw a Venn diagram, there will be plenty of overlap.

[David M. Bueker]

I think purity makes sense to a degree. I love Riesling, so purity is important to me, but I am not so fond of the idea that a wine with oak is impure. It sounds so damning.

Clarity perhaps?

Otto -

Thanks for the note (warning?).

Anyway, although I generally lean toward the more traditionally made Barolo and Barbaresco, there are some less traditional examples that I have enjoyed. I do also agree with David and Dale about finding sweet fruit in some of the more traditionally made Nebbiolos of Piedmont, including Produttori (one of my absolute favorites) and G. Conterno.

It sounds so damning.

It is. In my book.

[David M. Bueker]

It sounds so damning.

It is. In my book.

Not everyone reads the same book.