Currently at Dan’s for about $25 and as good an intro to the savoury delight of Piemontese Nebbiolo as you can get for the money. Spotlessly clean bright red cherry, that almond paste again and a touch of tarry earth. Only just medium weight but carries well and finishes with a satisfying chomp. A simple pasta took it up a notch, no surprise there!
13.50% alcohol. Screwcap! $25.
91 points.
Two halves and one full bottle made for a tasty and almost moderate dinner, sort of…
NV Louis Roederer Champagne Brut Premier.
Delicious from the gentle phttt of the cork. Rich but fresh. Older honeyed pastry and hazelnuts mixed perfectly with crystalline candied citrus and pale red fruit. Mouthwatering and appetite whetting likes no other drink. If NV’s job is to be full of delicious impact from the perfumed start, then this is the bee’s knees.
12.50% alcohol. Cork I think, maybe Diam, failing memory. Another generous share.
94 points.
2013 Comm. G B Burlotto Barolo.
Clean, expressive and so savoury from the start. Perfect cherry red fruit, almond paste and stones. Just got fresher and deeper. Not the deep dark of Serralunga or Monforte but all the drive, brightness and perfume of the more north westerly bits of Barolo land. Somehow seemed much smaller than 375 mls. Alarmingly quick disappearance.
14% alcohol. Cork. Thanks for sharing.
95 points.
1999 Domaine Tollot Beaut Corton Bressandes.
Dark, extractive and still a bit oaky. Got a bit fresher and deeper fruited as it came up for air. Rich red fruit conserve and darker clay and chalky earth. The rear end filled out well with dark cane fruit depth. Still some life in the tannin texture of both skin and cocoa oak buoyed by a gentle acid rasp. Shame the remains tired so quickly the next day.
14% alcohol. Cork. About $100 on release.
93 points.
Another holiday treat, this time from a kind friend who’s a bit of a Barolo expert. Drink and learn. Opened a bit caramel brown and perhaps more developed than expected. However, Nebbiolo being its contrary self, it sort of gained a bit of freshness with air and was still very drinkable. Aside from some balsamic tiredness, all the usual dark tarry flavours and cherry notes galore and a tickle of fading dried roses. Cocoa oak too. Burly haunting purple jam fruit at the end still.
14.50% alcohol. Cork. A spoil at today’s Voerzio prices.
94 points.
A favourite for many years, it’s always been so well made from what tastes like beautifully tended fruit. This is no exception albeit at the very ripe, tannic end of the San Giusto scale. Very clean dark cherry fruit buried in deep dark Valrhona chocolate tannins and firm acidity. Dusty herb gardens. Muscular but poised. Sort of like one of those uncompromising but sure of touch Italian defenders, Georgio Chiellini or Leonardo Bonucci in a bottle. Delicioso with food but a well defended scoreless draw without.
14.50% alcohol. Cork. 20 euros.
93 points
From a cooperative that’s said to produce 40% of Barolo’s output, this is bright, sparklingly clean and extremely hard to stop drinking. After some more vaunted DOCGs that have been spoilt by dirty wood and bitter sulphides, it’s good to be reminded that the Langhe’s fruit quality is simply as good as any. Fresh red cherry, rose oil, and tarry road stones finish with a crispy smack that begs eggy spaghetti. No great depth but for the price tag it’s brilliant. Why can’t Australian supermercati import this?
14% alcohol. Didn’t see the stopper. 15 euros on a Torino osteria list!
90 points.
That odd looking blob in the photo is a black truffle from Alba’s frenzied, annual fungal excess. This year the small white versions were even more expensive than a bottle of Barolo. Moderation being a virtue, a small tartufo nero, a basic risotto and a regional Nebb were a paragon of restraint. This Vajra Nebbiolo is better than many a Barolo and the fungus was fresh and very smelly, heaven on a budget indeed. 2016 looks like a blessing and the Vajras are really on form. Forward, crunchy, perfumed fruit and immediately delicious, things only got better and deeper over three days. Beautifully judged extraction brought the fruit centre stage but the tannins are just so perfectly ripe and deep that the thought of a longer stewed 2016 Barolo is just toe curling. Great cherry flavour, florals, Piemonte stones, perfectly sanitary acidity and those tannins.
14.00% alcohol. Diam I think, pay attention at the back. 19.90 euros.
93 punti but extra for sheer stylee.
Ah, Pe Pe. A post through Rosso tinted glasses. Mountain fresh red fruits of the cherry persuasion, mouthwatering ripe acidity and the finest tannin like licking a lump of granite if you were silly enough to do so. Alpine strawberries and herbs on fine porcelain bones. Delicate but haunting. So pure and goes a notch up in deliciousness with a bowl of Valtellina pizzoccheri. Buckwheat pasta with more butter and cheese than you may care to know. Not going to argue with the local opinion that this fine Nebbiolo helps the fat go down.
A visit to this fiercely intelligent and proud producer was a rare joy. Such poise and light handed precision in vineyard detail was a treat all the way up to the top of the crus. Infernally tasty. Sondrio’s a beautiful Alpine town even in a freezing autumn deluge. Badly smitten.
13.50% alcohol I think, tastes less. Cork. 20 euros on the list.
91 points but preferred to many mega point pan galactic gargle blasters.
A second bottle at home in Melbourne was equally delicious. Better the third day, clean, exquisitely perfumed mountain Nebbiolo. Geologists forgive me but it’s seriously rocky. If it were possible to lick an Alp, then perhaps it would be thus?
92 punti but what a wine of place.
Impeccable Vietti again. Sweetly ripe enough for immediate appeal but still plenty of geological Piemontese..er…rocks, minerals. Poised acidity and a perfect tweak of very tasteful oak flavour and tannin. Fruit flavours are dark cherry and sort of red plum. Really would normally go for Dolcetto but Vietti put such care into Barbera it’s hard to say no when a Conad supermercato has just one bottle left.
14.00% alcohol. Diam. 12.50 euros believe it or not.
92 points.
The full Monty of low fi wine production and a very successful one. All the bramble fruit, briar and deep extract of Abruzzo’s own great value but fresh, juicy and pure fruited too. Little bit of that low sulphur yeasty breath but clean gorgeous fruit charges forth and finishes with a dark summer pudding burst of fresh acidity and grainy, firm Monty tannin. None of the variety’s volcanic reductiveness either. Really good grapes and hands off in such a good way.
13.50% alcohol. Cork. 15 euros.
94 points.
Lambrusco is about to become as fashionable as skin contact, no sulphur, bottled on a full moon straight from the amphora drinks, really. Well, this is organic, low intervention, single vineyard and only 6000 bottles this year. Tart, sweetly austere dark cherries, yeast and something dark and earthy. Seems a bit wound up in its own spritz and didn’t budge much over two days. Of the two most important Lambrusci varieties it’s accepted that Grasperossa is the dark, tannic assertive one and this sure bears that out. A couple of aperitivi Sorbaras have really looked a completely different grape. Pale, strawberries and like a rosé fizz. This was scrumptious with local piggy bits and cheese. Great cut with full but not sour acid and tannin. So unhip it’s a super bargain. Lucky Modenese, food from heaven and this.
12% alcohol. Cork. 8.90 euros!
91 points.
