BARBARESCO 1994 – Azienda Agricola GASTALDI
Having recently sampled and bought a few bottles of discounted Gattinara 1993 and also had a good experience with Romagnano 1993 from Colacicchi , I searched my cellar for other ageing bottles in need of urgent drinking. With this one, a vintage supposedly even weaker than 1993, I was expecting a browning and drying liquid with perhaps enough residual aromas to be worth drinking.
The perfect cork (only about 1mm of stain at the bottom) was a good omen but nevertheless I was quite surprised by the vigour and depth of the wine.
C : Quite deep garnet with only slight hints of amber coming through. N: Subdued at first but developing tar laced with violet and raspberry. P: Medium weight with good freshness,breadth and length showing lovely discreet fruit and aromas of violet, raspberry and cherry with tar building of towards the finish. A harmonious wine at its peak but still promising a few more years of life and much better than the drying Rosso Gastaldi 1993 opened some weeks ago.
This is another graceful bottle to add to a growing list of lovely wines from off vintages. Other examples which spring to mind are some Médocs from 1993 and 1999 and Barbaresco La Spinetta and Cornas Clape from 2002. Indeed I think that that 2002 in Italy may repay further investigation; there was a nice Brunello from, I think, Oliveto at a recent tasting.