Saturday we had out of town friends over for most of the day, but they were heading to relatives, so just us for dinner. Betsy made a dish of salmon atop a mushroom/asparagus/tomato* melange plus some quinoa, I opened a half-bottle the 2001 Paolo Scavino Barolo. OK, so Barolo and salmon isn't exactly classic, but I wanted to open a Piedmont wine to toast Joe "Beppe" Rosenberg. I remembered his opinion that Scavino was the best of the modernist "de Grazia gang. "
Just vanilla and a little black cherry -fairly mute. Into the decanter for a while till dinner time. Opened slightly, but still not very aromatic. Just tannins, a bit of acid, some dark fruit and vanilla. As we progress through dinner the vanilla fades, replaced by a harder more edgy toasted oak note. I leave one glass in the decanter, revisit hours later. Tannins have softened, but the oak is still aggressive. I didn't expect this much oak from the basic bottling. Maybe it will integrate with time, but I will pass on getting more. B-/ C+
- Betsy has been making recipes from the Sonoma Diet Cookbook. Surprisingly good for diet overall. This wasn't one of my favorites- every once in the while the author comes up with flavor combinations that seem not very thought through- "I like mushrooms, I like asparagus, so...." Still, it was ok, and salmon very good.
Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency