Joel Stewart
Joel Stewart
Impulse buy, with a back story.
In NW Portland, there is a grocery store called City Market...if I remember correctly. I shop there on lunch breaks whenever in town working with a local master printer. Decent wine selection, cheese, meat, bread, etc. That's where I discovered PdB wines 10 or so yrs ago...and at the time, they were going for mid 20's. At the end of the day, I'd buy a bottle, some bread and a hunk of cheese, maybe a piece of roast chicken and head back to the hotel and gnosh while looking at the day's proofs pinned on the wall. Get up the next day and go to work, and pick up another bottle. I got a sense of the wines within a week and liked them a lot. Last year I came across a 6 cru set of 2000's in a wooden box here in Japan. I bit.
If you look at the technical sheets on the website, you'll see the elevage is the same for all the crus, which makes it easy to consider simply the exposure and terroirs involved. But in fact, it also appears the soils are mainly the same, exposure nearly the same as well...just the physical land and grapes themselves are what sit there, somehow being different, on each parcel, with a cru name attached. Despite such even seeming controls, the bottles we've had show easily detectable differences, making one ponder just what accounts for that, both in obvious and less so factors.
I know little about Barbaresco in general, though I have enjoyed nebbiolos along the way...just haven't geeked on them. I also lack knowledge regarding 2000 in Barbaresco, but judging from the wines, it seems it was a warm year, as the wines we've had so far (4) all show ripeness in varying degrees. We still have 2 more bottles to go. All of them, excepting Moccagatta, seem on the cusp of shifting from primary to secondary, but easily more the former than latter. 15 yrs would not seem outlandish to expect further development in a good way...maybe conservative. 20 for the right bottle....such as Rio Sordo...but I suspect these are comments for neb freaks, the rest could easily enjoy these wines now.
Round 1 (Tasted a month ago)
2000 Ovello - Off to a good start eh? Do not open a previously untasted wine while already intoxicated. Palate must have been extrememly skewed, but twist my arm, we opened this anyway. This was so bad I left it around for 3 days. It finally turned around, but still not very attractive. Saccharine sweetness overrode all else. Baked fruit notes...so I worried that my shallow passive cellar in this unusually hot summer killed the wine. Tannins still young, decent acidity, watery middle, some thin cherry, smoke and that unattractive sweetness. Not a great first bottle out of my 6 btl. cru set. So, out of both fear, intrigue and what-the-fuckedness, a week later I popped the Moccagatta...
2000 Moccagatta. No decanting, cellar chilled, zero air time in glass this is unbelievably balanced. Depth in the right places, just the right retention of fruit as if it was a memory of the original fruit, slightly dried pomegranate, some compote, spice and superb mouthfeel. Might go longer, but why wait. A shame without food, but easily marveled at alone. This is Barbaresco the way I like it. With air, tannins grow, but there is nothing really nothing to - (Dylan line?). Salty citric-ness of a small ripened tomato left for a day on a sunny windowsill. Perfect.
Round 2 (Last night)
2000 Paje - This started out like a nebbiolo that's been spiked with sweetness. Similar to the Ovello experience, but less pronounced thankfully. For the first hour the Rio Sordo was (much like the Moccogatta) showing restraint, balance if even yet underdeveloped. As time passed though, the Paje's excess sweetness (I wouldn't call it fruit, it seems to be just that - sweetness) diminished, while a rich jacket of acidity, meaty tones, iron etc. expanded around the core. By the night's end, this was my wine of the night. Flavors all in balance, reminding one of food-like depths. Not rich, but not light and full of nuance. Hard to say whether waiting much longer is worth it. Buy, decant, eat food with it.
2000 Rio Sordo - At first sip, this was the winner of the 2 last night, or so I thought. Classic, still young PdB neb. Sturdy frame of acidity, dusty, peppery tannins on the back end, mouthful is (like all of the wines) light, austere, slightly velvety. Flavors of smoky, dried cherry with a bit of savory beef drizzled with small ripe tomatos. This pretty much held it's position all night long, though both wines seemed to merge toward each other as the night went on....meaning here that the upright structure remained and a hint of Paje's fruit emerged towards the end.
Overall, I enjoyed these 4 and a nice diversion from all the vin naturels we've been consuming. These are wines from another approach, and have merits on their own...though a living brightness one finds in vin naturels is not found here, nor expected. I think overall these bottles, with the exception of the Moccagatta, still have a ways to go, but easily drinkable now.
In NW Portland, there is a grocery store called City Market...if I remember correctly. I shop there on lunch breaks whenever in town working with a local master printer. Decent wine selection, cheese, meat, bread, etc. That's where I discovered PdB wines 10 or so yrs ago...and at the time, they were going for mid 20's. At the end of the day, I'd buy a bottle, some bread and a hunk of cheese, maybe a piece of roast chicken and head back to the hotel and gnosh while looking at the day's proofs pinned on the wall. Get up the next day and go to work, and pick up another bottle. I got a sense of the wines within a week and liked them a lot. Last year I came across a 6 cru set of 2000's in a wooden box here in Japan. I bit.
If you look at the technical sheets on the website, you'll see the elevage is the same for all the crus, which makes it easy to consider simply the exposure and terroirs involved. But in fact, it also appears the soils are mainly the same, exposure nearly the same as well...just the physical land and grapes themselves are what sit there, somehow being different, on each parcel, with a cru name attached. Despite such even seeming controls, the bottles we've had show easily detectable differences, making one ponder just what accounts for that, both in obvious and less so factors.
I know little about Barbaresco in general, though I have enjoyed nebbiolos along the way...just haven't geeked on them. I also lack knowledge regarding 2000 in Barbaresco, but judging from the wines, it seems it was a warm year, as the wines we've had so far (4) all show ripeness in varying degrees. We still have 2 more bottles to go. All of them, excepting Moccagatta, seem on the cusp of shifting from primary to secondary, but easily more the former than latter. 15 yrs would not seem outlandish to expect further development in a good way...maybe conservative. 20 for the right bottle....such as Rio Sordo...but I suspect these are comments for neb freaks, the rest could easily enjoy these wines now.
Round 1 (Tasted a month ago)
2000 Ovello - Off to a good start eh? Do not open a previously untasted wine while already intoxicated. Palate must have been extrememly skewed, but twist my arm, we opened this anyway. This was so bad I left it around for 3 days. It finally turned around, but still not very attractive. Saccharine sweetness overrode all else. Baked fruit notes...so I worried that my shallow passive cellar in this unusually hot summer killed the wine. Tannins still young, decent acidity, watery middle, some thin cherry, smoke and that unattractive sweetness. Not a great first bottle out of my 6 btl. cru set. So, out of both fear, intrigue and what-the-fuckedness, a week later I popped the Moccagatta...
2000 Moccagatta. No decanting, cellar chilled, zero air time in glass this is unbelievably balanced. Depth in the right places, just the right retention of fruit as if it was a memory of the original fruit, slightly dried pomegranate, some compote, spice and superb mouthfeel. Might go longer, but why wait. A shame without food, but easily marveled at alone. This is Barbaresco the way I like it. With air, tannins grow, but there is nothing really nothing to - (Dylan line?). Salty citric-ness of a small ripened tomato left for a day on a sunny windowsill. Perfect.
Round 2 (Last night)
2000 Paje - This started out like a nebbiolo that's been spiked with sweetness. Similar to the Ovello experience, but less pronounced thankfully. For the first hour the Rio Sordo was (much like the Moccogatta) showing restraint, balance if even yet underdeveloped. As time passed though, the Paje's excess sweetness (I wouldn't call it fruit, it seems to be just that - sweetness) diminished, while a rich jacket of acidity, meaty tones, iron etc. expanded around the core. By the night's end, this was my wine of the night. Flavors all in balance, reminding one of food-like depths. Not rich, but not light and full of nuance. Hard to say whether waiting much longer is worth it. Buy, decant, eat food with it.
2000 Rio Sordo - At first sip, this was the winner of the 2 last night, or so I thought. Classic, still young PdB neb. Sturdy frame of acidity, dusty, peppery tannins on the back end, mouthful is (like all of the wines) light, austere, slightly velvety. Flavors of smoky, dried cherry with a bit of savory beef drizzled with small ripe tomatos. This pretty much held it's position all night long, though both wines seemed to merge toward each other as the night went on....meaning here that the upright structure remained and a hint of Paje's fruit emerged towards the end.
Overall, I enjoyed these 4 and a nice diversion from all the vin naturels we've been consuming. These are wines from another approach, and have merits on their own...though a living brightness one finds in vin naturels is not found here, nor expected. I think overall these bottles, with the exception of the Moccagatta, still have a ways to go, but easily drinkable now.