Craig gave us an education on wines from the Piedmont region of Italy for this Thursday night’s tasting. Piedmont is in the northern part of Italy surrounded by mountains. The most well known grapes in Piedmont are Dolcetto, Nebbiolo and Barbera. The most famous (and expensive) wines from this region are Barolo and Barbaresco. We tried five different wines from the region tonight.
2008 Renato Ratti Colombe Dolcetto d’Alba – Light ruby color, delicious, ripe, complex dark fruit and spice nose. Complex dark fruit and vegetal flavors. Moderate amount of tannin and good acid and a light body. The moderate length finish is slightly bitter. Overall a very pleasant wine. This was the group’s favorite wine.
2007 Giacosa Fratelli Barbera dAlba – Dark ruby color, red fruit and licorice on the nose. Tart cherries and herbal flavors. Much bigger tannins than the previous wine. This wine is more flavorful and has a heavier body than the previous wine and a moderate length finish. Pete describes this as what he thinks a typical Italian wine tastes like. This was the group’s second favorite wine.
2006 Antiche Catine dei Marchesi di Barolo – Medium garnet color. Olives, licorice, cedar nose. Dried fruit and raisin flavors. Big tannins, lots of acid and a heavier body. Tastes more like an older wine. Has a moderate length finish.
2001 Beni di Batasiolo Vigneto Cerequio (Barolo) – Very garnet, bricky color. Musty nose, dead fruit flavors, very heavy grippy tannings, good acid. Many of the tasters thought this wine was corked so we really did not taste this critically. We thought the wine was ok but the nose and flavor was just different enough that others thought there was a problem with it.
2004 Torraccia Piantavigna Ramale Nebbiolo – A very light garnet color, almost see through. Minimal toasty nose with very light fruit flavors. A moderate amount of tannins with good acid. Finishes with tannins. This wine got more flavorful the longer it was in the glass. We probably underrated this wine after the bigger wines that had preceded it. This should have been the first wine poured.
