Based on only a bottle or three and some encouraging reviews, it looks like the big cooperative, Cantina Terre del Barolo, is just getting more and more convincingly quality conscious. It’s fascinating to visit the cellar door, sprawled at the foot of Castiglione Falletto’s big hill. The name Arnaldo Rivera is celebrated by a range of wine produced from the Cantina’s members’ best grapes. Seeing as this extraordinary man was many things, school teacher, mayor of Castiglione and founder of the Cantina, it seems more than an appropriate memorial. Imagine trying to persuade over five hundred very individual growers to trust each other enough and band together in the late 1950s. Particularly at a time when the grape market was loaded firmly in favour of the big negotiants. The model apparently was a school project raising hens and selling eggs. If the kids can work together? Sixty years later and there’s a lovely Dolcetto on the table. Just over medium weight, fat juicy cherries, an undercurrent of liquorice and earthy spice and those soft but furry Dolcetto tannins, all freshened up with food friendly acidity; this is Piemonte after all.
14% alcohol. Cork. An extremely lucky win at auction for $9, helps knowing your obscure Piemonte denominazioni.
92 points.
Cognitive Bottle Therapy 