We had a garden tasting and dinner last night, featuring wines from Piemonte. All wines were Barolos except where noted.
1967 Luigi Calissano Reserva Speciale - browning edges, and with a typical tarry pruny nose. A bit of sweetness up front, and acid combined with tannin at the end. The wine opened up and lasted about an hour before crashing - not bad for the age.
1978 Pio Cesare Barolo - the regular bottling and the last bottle of a case I have slowly gone through, all enjoyably. Quite a deep red colour with browning at the edges. Bigger tar nose than the previous wine, and very good concentration, though undoubtedly less fruit than 5 years ago. Soft, and not too much acidity left.
1982 Marchesi di Barolo - again, the regular bottling and this one showed a lighter colour with similar typical nose, but was noticeably sweeter in the mouth and smooth with very soft tannin.
1990 Giacomo Fennochio Barolo Bussia - a sort of transitional wine in that it was the first to lack the tar and fruit nose of the others. Instead, a different sort of fruit driven nose, lots of acidity and not very Barolo-like, but by the same token, very pleasant.
1985 Franco Serra Reserva - again, a traditional style with typical nose. We felt that of them all, this one defined the plateau of drinkability, with ample fruit, soft tannins moderate acidity, and it kept getting better with time in the glass.
1996 Poderi Roset di Alessandro Brero - new age Barolo! Lighter in colour than some of the old boys, and a really non-traditional but quite delicious black cherry nose. Sweet and smooth, with good length, this one was still excellent the next morning, although the sight of me checking out the wines while typing after breakfast caused some raised eyebrows! A long life ahead, though I wouldn't expect quite so long as the traditional style, and it drinks so very well right now that it would be hard to keep it for long anyway. Absolutely delighted to find I have 3 in the cellar, and disappointed it wasn't more!
1997 Rocca Albino Vigneto Brich Ronchi Barbaresco - a good choice to save for cheese. Biggest wine of the evening. Slightly hot nose (14%!) with tar and cherries. A chalky, full feel to the wine on palate, with very good purity of flavours, good length, and admirable weight!