Valentini Trebbiano 1993-2008

S

Saina Nieminen

Saina Nieminen
Valentini's Trebbiano is a legendary wine that I had never had the opportunity to try until yesterday. It's certainly an interesting wine (and I'll claim usage of interesting to mean what it really does instead of being used as a euphemism for something bad) but it is very difficult to describe it. It inhabits the same stylistic world as Musar's and Lopez de Heredia's whites: oxidative, rich but relatively low in alcohol, full of weird but pleasant aromas and full of personality and what the UC Davis school of wine un-appreciation would call faults (seriously, how can such wonderful-smelling aromas be faults???).

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Valentini Trebbiano d'Abruzzo 2008
This was pretty closed at first and completely in pieces. But it opens up to smell of apricots/pineapple or some such exotic fruit. Though fruity in aromas, it is also the sort of fruit aroma that promises good acidity instead of only monotonous sweetness on the palate. And this did have good acidity to counter the almost oily texture. Very young and obviously in need of age, but I think it is very good.

Valentini Trebbiano d'Abruzzo 2007
This was a bit of a difficult wine. Though it was some 4h open it was still aromatically shut down. With time it just begins to smell slightly of damp earth. A softer wine than the 2008, but persistent aftertaste. Difficult to say anything about this now.

Valentini Trebbiano d'Abruzzo 2002
My goodness what a gorgeous wine! The first sniff just after opening showed a much more open and mature wine (though absolutely no hurry with this wine). There is again that exotic apricot/pineapple aroma and a wonderful savoury, oolong tea perfume. Nice freshness and cut from the acidity. Though 2002 was supposedly difficult practically everywhere in Italy, I see no signs of weakness in this wine. On the contrary, it was one of my favourites of the evening.

Valentini Trebbiano d'Abruzzo 1999
A very intense, very spicy nose (not oak, though), waxy and savoury in addition to the exotic fruit. Rich and oily in texture but with plenty of acidic cut. I'd love some in my cellar to try in a decade.

Valentini Trebbiano d'Abruzzo 1998
A super-sweet aroma when compared to the others but still with the promise of acidity: honey, apricot jam, perhaps even botrytis? It is a bit strange how the palate is so different to what I expect from the scent: less oily in texture than the previous wines, brighter in acidity and, though all wines were focused and precise, this was extra-sharp in focus. Racy. I loved it though I did find the nose and palate a bit mismatched.

Valentini Trebbiano d'Abruzzo 1997
A very earthy and slightly dirty aroma but with plenty of ripe apricot fruit. Rich, relatively low in acid, but lively enough to be perfectly enjoyable.

Valentini Trebbiano d'Abruzzo 1996
Another very spicy and rich wine; more a ripe than racy style. Very good anyhow, but perhaps slightly outclassed by some others. I hate this sort of tastings because I know that I would be over the moon about this wine if it were the only wine of the evening.

Valentini Trebbiano d'Abruzzo 1995
An earthy, spicy, tropical nose; but the palate has once again the cut and precision that the 1996 slightly lacked. Bright and moreish. Wonderful.

Valentini Trebbiano d'Abruzzo 1993
Though the oldest wine in this tasting and now 20yo it still doesn't smell like "old wine". It is fresh and ripely citric with wonderful oolong tea perfume. Crunchy, relatively high acidity, intense and interminable. Wonderful. And it really seems like there is no hurry with even a 20yo example of this wine.

Valentini Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo 2010
A rosé from the Montepulciano -grape. It's quite a weird smell, but one that I eventually started to like: chilli peppers and tomato and blood/rust. Juicy and refreshing and palate-cleansing. Challenging but very rewarding.
 
Great line up, Otto. Thanks for the notes. I envy you getting to taste them all side by side. If you get the chance, definitely taste some of the Cerasuolos with some age on them. The a bottle of the 2000 a year ago was breath takingly good.
 
SFJoe, Not bought on release, but an Italophile friend has good connections to numerous wineries and shops in Italy amassed these in recent years and finally arranged this tasting now.

MarkS, definitely not gratis.

JeffG, good to see you're learning Finnish, but in such a statement the partitive is preferred, so "makeeta!"

Kirk, these have never been available here. It looks unlikely like I'll even see any again. But I'll keep that in mind just in case.
 
Otto, I understand, and that is a shame (although survivable I suppose). Do give a shout if you find yourself on the way to NYC.
 
Now there's a vertical you don't see every day. Well done.
I think the '99 is my personal favorite. It has a cut I haven't seen in other years.
 
originally posted by Keith Levenberg:
Now there's a vertical you don't see every day. Well done.
I think the '99 is my personal favorite. It has a cut I haven't seen in other years.
Click to expand...

You think the 2001 might trump this?
 
Dunno. I've had the '99 much more often and much more recently than the '01 (I backed up the truck on the '99 when Crush had it for $40...).
 
The 1986 remains my favorite Valentini trebbiano.. I was in the right place at the right time about ten years ago at a wine storage facility where someone had left without paying their bill. They left behind a bunch of wine that they reckoned had no value, mainly lots of old CA chardonnays and weird wines from Lodi. They were selling all that stuff pretty cheaply and in the back there were a couple of beat-up cases from Italy. Two cases of 86 Valentini Trebbiano to be exact. I convinced them that we should open a bottle to make sure it wasn't awful and it wasn't. They wanted $1 per bottle but I offered to take it off their hands for 50¢ each and, eager to clear out the locker, they accepted.

The wine has held up beautifully over the years, retaining acidity but showing a bit of waxy textural broadness that makes me think of ZH pinot gris, only without the sweetness. I haven't tasted it for a couple of years (down to just one or two bottles) but it's the sort of wine that I think is best enjoyed by just a few people so they can experience its changes as it opens up over the course of a meal.

-Eden (unlikely to ever stumble into a deal that good for wine that's that good that I'll ever appreciate as much again in my lifetime)
 
I second (or third) the 1999 being a truly special wine. Only have a couple remaining. From the note i sense no hurry on those. Cool lineup. Thanks for the writeup!
 
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