The Perfect Wine: Colombera & Garella Bramaterra

[Rahsaan]

Of course not in the absolute sense. But coming home late for dinner after hanging too long and drinking too much Glühwein at a friend's holiday fest, the dinner wine needed to be delicious and unfussy.

Up steps the 2011 Colombera & Garella Bramaterra Cascina Cottignano. With a very little bit of air it quickly rounds into form and shows enough character to keep me interested but also enough frank fruit personality that I could see popping this with ease for non-geek guests. (At least those who can handle a touch of structure) Regardless, that is a perfect wine.

No surprise it was a splendid match for the roasted oyster mushroom and radicchio pizza. Dark tart bitter and linear but also not afraid to throw soft generosity into the mid-palate from time to time. Not a bad blend. Savory, sweet, floral and mineral. What a lovely combination!

 

[Bill Lundstrom]

that wine and producer are indeed very good.

 

[VLM]

We drink more of this wine (Colombera & Garella Bramaterra) than any other individual wine. Had the last 2010 a couple of weeks ago but still have some 2013. We downed the 2011 a while ago. The Alto Piedmont is our go to in general these days. I've also been back on the Cantalupo train. These wines just really do well with the type of food we make at home.

Every time we've opened this for guests, they've loved it.

 

[Rahsaan]

originally posted by VLM:
We drink more of this wine (Colombera & Garella Bramaterra) than any other individual wine.

Strong advocacy.

These wines just really do well with the type of food we make at home...Every time we've opened this for guests, they've loved it.

Exactly my thinking.

(I don't really cook Burgundy cuisine. Yet somehow I still manage to enjoy the wines, so I'm not complaining. But still, one notices the difference.)

 

[mark e]

originally posted by VLM:
We drink more of this wine (Colombera & Garella Bramaterra) than any other individual wine. Had the last 2010 a couple of weeks ago but still have some 2013. We downed the 2011 a while ago. The Alto Piedmont is our go to in general these days. I've also been back on the Cantalupo train. These wines just really do well with the type of food we make at home.

Every time we've opened this for guests, they've loved it.

Just opened a bottle of the 2013. Lovely. Very aromatic with tar and violet notes. Surprisingly low in hard tannins, in fact, not particularly tannic and ready to drink.

The same appellation in the 70s and several decades later produced some pretty tough customers that were not all that pleasant for quite a few years.

 

[VLM]

originally posted by mark e:

originally posted by VLM:
We drink more of this wine (Colombera & Garella Bramaterra) than any other individual wine. Had the last 2010 a couple of weeks ago but still have some 2013. We downed the 2011 a while ago. The Alto Piedmont is our go to in general these days. I've also been back on the Cantalupo train. These wines just really do well with the type of food we make at home.

Every time we've opened this for guests, they've loved it.

Just opened a bottle of the 2013. Lovely. Very aromatic with tar and violet notes. Surprisingly low in hard tannins, in fact, not particularly tannic and ready to drink.

The same appellation in the 70s and several decades later produced some pretty tough customers that were not all that pleasant for quite a few years.

Cool, glad you liked it. I think that Cristiano Garella is trying to ease the tannic burden without sacrificing all of the rusticity.

If you haven't checked out his podcast with Levi, please do. Seems like a heck of a young guy.

 

[Levi Dalton]

Bramaterra is a huge appellation by Alto Piemonte standards (it is the largest), and encompasses multiple soil types and exposures. Just from a terroir standpoint, there is room for a lot of divergence, aside from winemaking or vine material.

The main parcel for Colombera & Garella Bramaterra is on a deep red colored soil. There are other soil types in the same appellation.

That said, Cristiano is pretty clear that he is trying to avoid rustic tannins and oxidative flavors in his winemaking. He just got some large, used wooden botti into the C&G cellar. We will see how they affect things going forward. They literally just arrived.

 

[Jeff Grossman]

originally posted by Levi Dalton:
That said, Cristiano is pretty clear that he is trying to avoid rustic tannins and oxidative flavors in his winemaking. He just got some large, used wooden botti into the C&G cellar. We will see how they affect things going forward. They literally just arrived.

Thanks for the update, Levi.

How do larger, used botti help him to reduce or minimize rusticity and oxidative flavors? (I can imagine some answers to the latter but not the former... but I'll ask rather than guess.)

 

[mark e]

originally posted by Jeff Grossman:

originally posted by Levi Dalton:
That said, Cristiano is pretty clear that he is trying to avoid rustic tannins and oxidative flavors in his winemaking. He just got some large, used wooden botti into the C&G cellar. We will see how they affect things going forward. They literally just arrived.

Thanks for the update, Levi.

How do larger, used botti help him to reduce or minimize rusticity and oxidative flavors? (I can imagine some answers to the latter but not the former... but I'll ask rather than guess.)

I'm going to take a stab at this having been in Piemonte from the late 70s to the early 90s. My perspective reflects the kind of wines I got to taste when I first arrived (Baroli and Barbareschi from the 50s and 60s) and then the revolution in the late 80s with a change in cultural practices and the massive push from De Grazia to have all "his" growers use new wood. I defer to Levi for all of the more recent changes, about which he has a depth of knowledge I don't think any of us here can claim.

Just to put things into further focus, the area, as I have mentioned above, produced many thin, sometimes oxidized and certainly tannic wines during the time I was there. Alto Piemonte was considered a backwater of little interest. Oh, how that has changed.

Climate change plays a major role, but before that, the realization that overcropping was the root of many problems already brought about significant change. Nebbiolo ripens late, so the lower crop levels both allowed earlier harvesting, thus avoiding damage from fall rains and better physiological ripeness, which when not achieved caused the wines to have very hard, green tannins; this was exacerbated by the cellar practices of the day involving long macerations (often on unripe skins).

So the reduction in rusticity (is) was a multi-pronged affair involving ripeness (including skins and seeds) at lower crop levels, less post-fermentation maceration, a better understanding of oxidative processes and their prevention and less time in wood. That's not all, but perhaps Levi can tell us more about the vineyard and cellar practices in Alto Piemonte that keep those issues at bay (and yes, I did hear the great interview with Cristiano Garella).

 

[Levi Dalton]

originally posted by Jeff Grossman:

originally posted by Levi Dalton:
That said, Cristiano is pretty clear that he is trying to avoid rustic tannins and oxidative flavors in his winemaking. He just got some large, used wooden botti into the C&G cellar. We will see how they affect things going forward. They literally just arrived.

Thanks for the update, Levi.

How do larger, used botti help him to reduce or minimize rusticity and oxidative flavors? (I can imagine some answers to the latter but not the former... but I'll ask rather than guess.)

I didn't write the sentences clearly enough to indicate that the addition of the botti is a new thing, and it remains to be seen (from my perspective) how they will play into Cristiano's established aesthetic of less rustic and more reductive winemaking. I was trying to say that 1) Cristiano has put a style of winemaking in place and 2) we'll see how this change, which he has wanted to make for awhile, acts as a refinement or alteration of that profile. He does already work with some medium sized botti at Le Pianelle. To good results, I think.

 

[Bill Lundstrom]

Levi, or anyone else , do you know if Cristiano is consulting at La Prevostura? a recent Bramaterra was quite enjoyable.

 

[Levi Dalton]

originally posted by Bill Lundstrom:
Levi, or anyone else , do you know if Cristiano is consulting at La Prevostura? a recent Bramaterra was quite enjoyable.

Yes, that is one of Cristiano's consultancies. I visited a La Prevostura vineyard with him.

 

[Bill Lundstrom]

originally posted by Levi Dalton:

originally posted by Bill Lundstrom:
Levi, or anyone else , do you know if Cristiano is consulting at La Prevostura? a recent Bramaterra was quite enjoyable.

Yes, that is one of Cristiano's consultancies. I visited a La Prevostura vineyard with him.

thank you!