WTN: Northern Italy

An evening of Northern Italian wines

2005 Marchesi de Gresi Moscato d’Asti ‘La Serra’ – a 5.5% alcohol slightly sweet bubbly that was a nice start to this event. Hint of veggie in the nose was the only weakness, otherwise copybook moscato.

2001 Inama ‘Vigneti di Foscarino’ Soave Classico Superiore – not you average Soave by any means. Lots of mineral, fruit and a slight hit of wood in nose, clean and balanced and very dry finish. The nose added a nuttiness with time.

2000 Fontanafredda Barbaresco – this producer’s wines tend to drink well early and in good vintages age with grace. The wine was light in colour, with bright cherry fruit that later picked up some smoke and blood. Lots of acidity needed some food to tame it.

2000 Prod. del Barbaresco Rabaja – love these single vineyard offerings – even the regular wine is always dependable. This one was also lighter in colour than the wines in the 1996 vertical I did recently. The nose was earthier than the Fontanafredda and it had lower acidity. Nice wine, but I doubt it will have the longevity usually expected of this vineyard.

1990 Batasiolo Vigneto Bofani – the tasting was blind and the person putting the wines in order would have made the right call on this one, had it been a recent vintage, as this producer hasn’t been performing as well recently, but the 1990 Bofani is a heavy hitter, and as I had intended, a fairly traditional style of Barolo. Just wonderful aromatics in the nose, with tar, licorice and fruit nicely melded together. Smooth on palate with soft tannin and good length. The nose became significantly riper as it opened in the glass.

2000 Castello di Verduno Barbaresco Faset – doon’t know this one. Good colour, sweeter but less traditional nose, turning more mineral later. Medium body, decent length.

2001 Cantina del Pino Barbaresco Ovello – another modern wine with a perfumed nose and lots of oak. Still quite tannic but with good length, it needs time.

1988 Ceretto Barbaresco Asij – finally another traditional nose! Not a big wine, rather an elegant style, with some tar and cherry in the nose, and quite good flavour concentration on palate, ending smoothly. I love this old style of wine that takes years to smooth out, and regret the modern tendency to make earlier maturing wines with lots of new oak. The ‘Californication’ of Piemonte?

2001 Vignalta Gemola – an IGT blend of cab (possibly franc) and merlot (30/70) this shouted out California in the nose with the cab more immediately evident than the merlot. Dark, with lots of wood, and long smooth finish, this wine would be a perfect ringer in a blind tasting of meritage wines.

2001 l’Arco Valpolicella Classico – no idea how the waiter lucked into putting this last as a Valpolicella isn’t my first bet for a finishing wine. It worked because this was a ripasso style with more than the usual amount of stuffing, made by an associate of Quintarelli. Fairly dark, with a ripe sweet nose with chocolate (I thought I detected a hint of nutmeg), the wine was fresh and lively and complemented the cheese very nicely.

[Jenise]

My impressions:

Loved the de Gresi Moscato; it was a more concentrated and intense Moscato than I've ever had before. I got loquat, grapefruit, red apple, white flowers and spice. Lovely.

The Inama (my bottle) was a surprise. It's been a year or two since I opened it's sister bottle, and it had changed much more than I expected. The pineapple I remember is just gone, and it's picked up a lot of fino sherry-like almond flavor which is staging toward petrol notes. Glad we brought it, I wouldn't want to cellar it any longer.

The Fontanafredda was a pleasant wine with a very pinot-like cherry nose. I had a hard time coaxing more flavor out of it. I preferred it's flight mate, the Produittori, once the bandaid notes in the nose integrated into fruit and some wood.

Your Bofani was a treat. Rarely get to drink older Baroli and this was showing so well--can't improve on your description. I regretted the pairing, however, with the Verduno (our wine), because the old tar and earthy qualities of the Bofani made the young Verduno wrongly seem more international than traditional. You could see that if you compared it to Tony's very modern Barbaresco in the next flight. I loved the Verduno, it was everything I hoped for and I'm real happy to have three more bottles.

Loved Rasoul's Ceretto. It was the most elegant wine of the night, and had it been paired with your Bofani they'd have been like a married couple. She so feminine and elegant with a quiet force, and he so gruff and handsome in his burly way.

Tony's Ovello was quite interesting. Excellent qualities and potential but a wine that will divide the modernists from the traditionalists.

The Gemola was pretty cool. An excellent right bank style wine (it's proprietor dreamed of making an Italian Pomerol) in it's own right but so unexpectedly un-Italian. Many thanks to John Tomasso for a tasting note that intrigued me into buying this wine. By the way, must mention that when I got home I saw there were some dregs in the glass I'd poured this wine in to test it earlier in the day, and I drank that. All by itself, and perhaps with a lot more time to resolve, it actually tasted very Italian. Wish I had more.

Loved the L'Arcos: this wine finally showed me what I was hoping to find in a good Valpolicella. A high quality wine with excellent concentration but not sweet. And I agree with your comments about our waiter, Brian: daring and bold, it was, to save this wine for the cheese course. Counter-intuitive, but the perfect choice. We need to take Brian with us everywhere we go.

Loved Rasoul's Ceretto. It was the most elegant wine of the night, and had it been paired with your Bofani they'd have been like a married couple. She so feminine and elegant with a quiet force, and he so gruff and handsome in his burly way.

Ah - I sense some allegro con fuoco in the offing here......

Cool - We picked up some of the Cantina del Pino Riserva 1998 from auction recently. All in £112 for 23 bottles . When I heard the price (it was a commission bid) I was beaming.
We'd picked up a bottle of the 1999 in Torino as it tasted great in a little wine bar on the other side of the Po (on via Monferrato I think).

Funny, I don't particularly like modern style Barolo, but am much more tolerant of the style in Barbaresco.

Produttori are very good value, though I'd steer people away from the 2003 Normale Barbaresco - very poor IMO. I'm sure the 2004 will be back on form.

Fontanafredda lost their way badly a few years ago by all accounts, but I'm hoping a 1958 Barolo I have lined up for a tasting the weekend after next will be ok.

Incidentally, OMBP (Open Mike Bob Parsons ) and I are mulling over an open mike on aged nebbiolo for that weekend, so if any of you were looking for an excuse to open some cherished old bottles, perhaps we might tempt you...?

regards

Ian