Five on Thursday

originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
Luigi Ferrando was the consummate gentleman the only time I had contact with him. We had spent the morning at the Castelo di Rivoli in Turin when our subsequent appointment at a nearby winery was cancelled. I tried to salvage the afternoon by calling the Ferrando Wine Farm in Ivrea, an hour’s drive away. Luigi himself picked up the phone. I apologized for calling at such short notice and said I had read Neal Rosenthal’s book and loved the descriptions of Ferrando and his wines. I had also greatly enjoyed an 05 Ettichetta Bianca just a few weeks prior. Luigi was warm and enthusiastic, and I could sense his frustration at not being able to receive us because his son Roberto had gone out and he was by himself. "If only you had called as late as this morning, we could have arranged it..." I thanked him and asked if there was anywhere in Turin where I might find his hard-to-find late harvest Erbaluce. He said he'd look into it, wrote down my number, and called within minutes with the name of a wine store. He said they were expecting our visit, and apologized again for not being able to receive us. We drove to the store and the proprietor opened bottles of both the dry and late harvest Ferrando Erbaluces. Though our suitcases were already overloaded, I couldn't resist some token bottles, but when I went to the register to pay, the proprietor said they could not charge us because we were Ferrando's guests. Later I called Ferrando to complain about setting impossibly high standards of courtesy. Because of this incident, I intend to drink his Caremas to perpetuity, baked or not.
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Wish you'd mentioned the Late Harvest sweet Erbaluce love to me earlier. I had it with age at A., and would have shared during your last visit.
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:

2005 Ferrando Carema Ettichetta Bianca 13.5%
All three reds were opened a few hours ahead of serving, poured through an aerator and put back in bottle. This smelled fine on opening but was oxidized by the time it was poured some four hours later. Bummer.
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really? that's weird. any thoughts as to why? poor handling?

This was the first from a recently acquired sixpack, so will have to open another soon to find out if it was a freak bottle or the entire sixpack is baked. But the next will be, for obvious reasons, pop n' drink, so if it turns out to be as good as usual, I won't know how it would have fared if subjected to the same treatement as this one...[/quote]

I opened a bottle of the '06 Ettchieta Bianca recently just to see, and found it was a big mistake. It was as aromatically closed as any wine in recent memory. It starting showing a little bit on day three, but that is one wine that is best left alone for a while.

The 2005 Sella Lessona OTOH is drinking beautifully at the moment.
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
originally posted by Bill Lundstrom:
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
2005 Ferrando Carema Ettichetta Bianca 13.5%
All three reds were opened a few hours ahead of serving, poured through an aerator and put back in bottle. This smelled fine on opening but was oxidized by the time it was poured some four hours later. Bummer.
Click to expand...

really? that's weird. any thoughts as to why? poor handling?
Click to expand...

This was the first from a recently acquired sixpack, so will have to open another soon to find out if it was a freak bottle or the entire sixpack is baked. But the next will be, for obvious reasons, pop n' drink, so if it turns out to be as good as usual, I won't know how it would have fared if subjected to the same treatement as this one...
Click to expand...

I opened a bottle of the '06 Ettchieta Bianca recently just to see, and found it was a big mistake. It was as aromatically closed as any wine in recent memory. It starting showing a little bit on day three, but that is one wine that is best left alone for a while.

The 2005 Sella Lessona OTOH is drinking beautifully at the moment.
 
Disturbed by the previous showing, last night I popped and poured another bottle of 2005 Ferrando Carema and am glad to report that this one was fine. Lovely feral leather notes. Luigi rocks!
 
Another lovely bottle last night, zinging with gastronomic acidity, demurely elegant fruit, chock-a-block with church spices that sent me Sailing to Byzantium in the manner of Chauvet's chilluns. I snicker when I meet Bojos that wannabe Burgs but this maritime (rather than riverine) Loire pinot that wants to be Morgon elicited admiration. A case of chirality, no doubt. So, my way of awarding this a wallop of points was to send Thierry Michon a friend request. We live in strange times.
 
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