Some tasty 2003s

originally posted by lars makie:
Jura?How did other Jura wines fare in '03? I still stand by the '03 Puffeney Arbois VV as being excellent, but it's the only Jura '03 I've had.
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Puffeney was terrific, though I thought the 03 Berangres was a little tired recently.
 
What Rahsaan said, although I haven't had much from the southern regions.

Had some very good Valais recently, too. Maybe mountain wines are also worth looking for.
 
Sparkplug Luca Roagna was in town today, and co-hosted a tasting of various vineyard bottlings and vintages dating back to 1978. Two '03s were shown: the Rocca e la Pira Barolo and the Vigna Rionda Riserva Barolo. The first is in the market now, while the other will be released sometime in 2011. The Vigna Rionda Riserva showed some real promise, while the Rocca e la Pira was less convincing to my palate.

I find '03 Piemonte Nebbiolo to exhibit a simplicity at the heart of the fruit character oftentimes. A red fruit character that is not layered.

Luca repeated the explanation about evaporation of potential alcohol when fermenting in open vats, but on this day he said a degree and a half was lost in '03, not 2 degrees. Probably it varied for the wines for different bottlings.

I have served a lot of selectively chosen '03s from Piemonte in the restaurant because the pricing and drinkability have been often advantageous.
 
The Joguet 2003 Chinon "Cuve Terroir" (was that the name?) was appealing in case quantities at release. Haven't had it since, but I sure went through a lot of it at the time.
 
originally posted by Sharon Bowman:
I'm still looking for the elusive wine from that vintage unmarked by 2003itis.
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It seemed to me that French and German wines were REALLY affected and generally not in a good
or even interesting way, especially whites. But Italy not so much, many regions of Italy see hot
conditions regularly, no?
 
originally posted by Levi Dalton:
Sparkplug Luca Roagna was in town today, and co-hosted a tasting of various vineyard bottlings and vintages dating back to 1978. Two '03s were shown: the Rocca e la Pira Barolo and the Vigna Rionda Riserva Barolo. The first is in the market now, while the other will be released sometime in 2011. The Vigna Rionda Riserva showed some real promise, while the Rocca e la Pira was less convincing to my palate.

I find '03 Piemonte Nebbiolo to exhibit a simplicity at the heart of the fruit character oftentimes. A red fruit character that is not layered.

Luca repeated the explanation about evaporation of potential alcohol when fermenting in open vats, but on this day he said a degree and a half was lost in '03, not 2 degrees.

I have served a lot of selectively chosen '03s from Piemonte in the restaurant because the pricing and drinkability have been often advantageous.
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'
You know, it might have been the Rionda I had. I'm away from my notes.

I wouldn't throw anybody's good '96 under the bus for it, but it didn't have harsh tannins and wasn't pruny.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
originally posted by Levi Dalton:
Sparkplug Luca Roagna was in town today, and co-hosted a tasting of various vineyard bottlings and vintages dating back to 1978. Two '03s were shown: the Rocca e la Pira Barolo and the Vigna Rionda Riserva Barolo. The first is in the market now, while the other will be released sometime in 2011. The Vigna Rionda Riserva showed some real promise, while the Rocca e la Pira was less convincing to my palate.

I find '03 Piemonte Nebbiolo to exhibit a simplicity at the heart of the fruit character oftentimes. A red fruit character that is not layered.

Luca repeated the explanation about evaporation of potential alcohol when fermenting in open vats, but on this day he said a degree and a half was lost in '03, not 2 degrees.

I have served a lot of selectively chosen '03s from Piemonte in the restaurant because the pricing and drinkability have been often advantageous.
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'
You know, it might have been the Rionda I had. I'm away from my notes.

I wouldn't throw anybody's good '96 under the bus for it, but it didn't have harsh tannins and wasn't pruny.
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Well, I would be curious to know, if only because the Rionda fruit is purchased in, and they don't own their parcel.

I liked the '03 Vigna Rionda Riserva alright, and I appreciated that the Roagna family is devoting more cellar time to it, rather than treating it as something to consume early in its life and forget about subsequently.

The '96s we tried today weren't happy about the interruption to their beauty sleep.

Also to note, the Roagna Barolo Chinato in the market is not only single vintage (2001) it is also all Rocca e la Pira. Luca said that historically their chinato was made from Barbaresco grapes, but that there is no appellation for Barbaresco Chinato. He also said that the secret recipe consists of 33 various herbs, spices, and peels that have seen infusion with grappa.
 
Turns out that Roagna has some Pie Franco vines, btw. Luca said that when they layer the old Pie Franco to propogate a new vine, they don't cut the cordon linking old vine and new for 20 years or so. This means that the new vine uses the old vine's root system to some extent during that time.
 
If I recall, the Roagna Vigna Rionda comes from Aldo Canale's coveted holdings in Vigna Rionda, which was also the source for Giacosa's storied 'Collina Rionda'. In this case I believe the Roagna wine is vinified by Sre. Canale and then raised and bottled by Luca.

Quite recently I was told that Sre. Canale passed away last year and so it is unlikely we will see this bottling again from Roagna after '05 or '06.

I've since been unable to get any verification of this tale, however, so flimflam it may be.
 
originally posted by slaton:
If I recall, the Roagna Vigna Rionda comes from Aldo Canale's coveted holdings in Vigna Rionda, which was also the source for Giacosa's storied 'Collina Rionda'. In this case I believe the Roagna wine is vinified by Sre. Canale and then raised and bottled by Luca.

Quite recently I was told that Sre. Canale passed away last year and so it is unlikely we will see this bottling again from Roagna after '05 or '06.

I've since been unable to get any verification of this tale, however, so flimflam it may be.
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Regarding this, here is what I can add based on my understanding of Luca's comments yesterday. Some of what I am deducing and repeating here may not be 100% correct, Luca speaks quickly.

It was after tasting the Rionda of Giacosa that Luca decided that he wanted to make a wine from such a great terroir. He said that at the time, everybody said it would be impossible for Roagna to get the fruit to bottle a Rionda, "but we have." Luca said that he would in a similar vein like to bottle a wine from all the great terroirs of the area.

Luca said that he feels Mr. Canale's parcel of Rionda is the choicest parcel within Rionda, owing to exposure, and that this was proved by the great wines that have come from that parcel.

I tasted an '05 Roagna Vigna Rionda yesterday, so I know that at least through '05 they have made it.

Luca made no mention of Mr. Canale's death, or of there being a future end to the Roagna Rionda bottling.
 
OK, let's add Eric Texier's Improbable Bourboulenc to the list. Rich and full, but enough acid and just fabulous flavors. Maybe Eric will tell us how he did it.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
OK, let's add Eric Texier's Improbable Bourboulenc to the list. Rich and full, but enough acid and just fabulous flavors. Maybe Eric will tell us how he did it.
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Was he pouring this in Valaire in 2006?
 
originally posted by Scott Kraft:
originally posted by SFJoe:
OK, let's add Eric Texier's Improbable Bourboulenc to the list. Rich and full, but enough acid and just fabulous flavors. Maybe Eric will tell us how he did it.
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Was he pouring this in Valaire in 2006?
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I don't think I was in Valaire in 2006.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
originally posted by Scott Kraft:
originally posted by SFJoe:
OK, let's add Eric Texier's Improbable Bourboulenc to the list. Rich and full, but enough acid and just fabulous flavors. Maybe Eric will tell us how he did it.
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Was he pouring this in Valaire in 2006?
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I don't think I was in Valaire in 2006.
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I don't remember if I poured it in Valaire.
This wine was part of my "should I use SO2 or not at bottling, now that I choose hyperoxygenation - meaning very little fruit but no SO2 needed during elevage" program.
Harvested 27th of august. 22 brix. 10% of verjus juice (harvested mid July). Hyperoxygenation of the must,native yeasts, no SO2. 21 monthes on lees no battonage, no SO2. Bottled by hand in june 2005 from the barrel " la chvre 2 bec" before blending with Clairette for the VV bottling. 60 bottles made. 20 mg of SO2 added to 42 bottles (yours are with SO2, Joe). 18 Bottles without. Sealed with 49 x 26(!) mm natural artisanal cork from Sardinia.

I have tasted side by side with SO2 and without SO2 at least once a year since the bottling, twice this year. The NoSO2 was much better right after bottling. Not any more, and out of the last 4 bottles open in december with friends only one was good but not great. The other 3 were lacking precision and freshness (very premox style).

Viva el azufre!
 
Eric - what was the TA number? (Joe, in France they use tartaric, right?) Do you think it was lack of acid which contributed to the non SO2 bottling's deterioration, putting aside possible cork idiosyncracies?
 
originally posted by Yixin:
Eric - what was the TA number? (Joe, in France they use tartaric, right?) Do you think it was lack of acid which contributed to the non SO2 bottling's deterioration, putting aside possible cork idiosyncracies?
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4.8 g/l in tartaric eq., in france we use sulfuric eq. (3.2).
The corks were perfect and 26mm of diameter (usualy 24) so very tight in the bottle neck.
The pH are usually low in this wine (around 3.30).
IMHO, the premox is due to the fact that these wines, made without extended skin contact, are unable to age and express some finesse and complexity without SO2.
Note that the bottle variation is very small here, so I don't believe that cork quality is involved here.
 
originally posted by Brzme:
10% of verjus juice (harvested mid July).
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How often are you adding verjus? We discussed this as part of the regimen at Thevenet to give freshness to the botrytis chardonnay.
 
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