WTN: Assorted Four from Piedmont

2004 cascina ‘tavijn Ruché di Castagnole Monferrato (Piedmont) Good clean fun. Lots of fruit, some anise, some cinnamon, minerality, good acidity. Happy happy joy joy...and it was in the closeout bin to boot.

2004 Cascina Ballarin Langhe Rosso Cino (Piedmont) Bright, fresh fruit, great depth, violets, earth, good acid. Wonderful oak-free fun for <$10. Blend of barbera, nebbiolo and dolcetto.

2005 Giacomo Ascheri Dolcetto d’Alba Nirane (Piedmont) This wine needs time but has good structure. Right now it’s really tightly wound up with gripping tannins. Softens with a couple of hours of air time and some really nice fruit and depth emerges.

2001 Ballarin Barolo Tre Ciabot (Piedmont) Excellent value, traditionally made La Morra barolo. Lovely primary nose blending ripe fruit and sweet spice with truly griping tannins. Drinking this barolo so young is definitely a guilty pleasure.

Bill,
We had this on Friday night. Really interesting nose and only slightly less interesting palate. Othrs were drinking other things---mango margaritas and such, so I unfortunately drank most of the bottle. All in the name of science.
Charles

And mine came from undoubtedly the same closeout opportunity, less 20%, for $12/bottle. Life can be good.

The things we do for research.
Ya, we've gone through a half dozen of these, Charles, and they have been just as fun each time. Of the three or four different ruche producers I've tried, tavijn has been my favorite by a long shot.

Bill, you are the king of Piedmont!! Keep`em coming.

I am another fan of that 04 Tavijn Ruche, but I drank mine up early as I thought they would be best young. I loved the pretty nose of violets with the fruit and other things you mentioned. I wonder if there is any potential for improvement with aging these?

At a tasting last October I tried 2 barolos from Cascina Ballarin and they were remarkable for the differences in their style. One was very forward and almost sweet and I thought very "modern" and the other one seemed more old school, with some VA but lots of grip and flavor. I can't recall the name of the modern barolo, but I'm pretty sure the one I liked was the Tre Ciabot.

Thanks for the Piemontese notes.

Marc

I wonder if there is any potential for improvement with aging these?

The only posts I've found on aged ruche have been from Hoke and it sounded quite interesting. I'd love to try aging a few but, like you, find them pretty irresistable when young.

I can't recall the name of the modern barolo,

Ballarin makes a Bricco Rocca and a Bussia, neither of which I've tried. The Tre Ciabot, at this early age, is certainly more fruit forward compared to say a Mascarello but I dont sense any new oakiness.