Prodittori Barbaresco 1989 Montestefano TN

"Katherine Wolfe" skrev i meddelandet news: snipped-for-privacy@enews2.newsguy.com...

Great TN! Must be wonderful to have near-15 year old bottles lying about in the cellar, singing siren´s songs for the unwary sailor ... ;) How do you do Chicken cacciatore?

Nils Gustaf

I'm not surprised the Montestefano could use more time. My notes from earlier this year on the regular (not single vineyard) 1989 Produttori del Barbaresco Barbaresco: Nose of tar, flowers, and red fruit. Sweet raspberry fruit on the palate, some old leather, eath, and light cigarbox aromas gradually waft from the glass. Good acidity, and a surprising dose of tannins still present for a 14 yr old co-op Barbaresco.

I'd rank the Produttori del Barbaresco as one of the great co-ops of the world.

Dale

Dale Williams Drop "damnspam" to reply

I have the 89 Rabaja and the Asili in the cellar, and as you say, they are still tannic. With extended airing and with food, they do show well now, but there is no rush.

Heh, well, the Barbaresco has been singing siren's songs to me almost since I put it in the cellar, so I think I did well to leave it as long as I did! ;-)

How I did it yesterday was:

Dice one medium onion, a cup of celery, and of carrots. Saute that and a cut up chicken in olive oil in a Dutch Oven. Leave saute'ing while you bang around in the basement for 10 minutes or so, clambering over to the wine rack, and then extricating the bottle of wine.

Come back upstairs to the smell of browning vegetables and chicken, and urgently call your partner over to stir things while you wash the dust off the bottle and your hands. Add a few cloves of crushed garlic, saute for maybe half a minute, then add a can of tomato paste, and saute that until it just starts to cling to the bottom of the pan. I added two chopped zucchini (courgettes) here, I know that isn't canon, but they needed to be used, and they went fine.

Add a large can of chopped tomatoes. Add perhaps a half teaspoon of dried sage, bring everything to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer slowly for an hour or more uncovered, until very thick. Alternately, put the Dutch Oven into a moderate oven, covered loosely, for about the same amount of time.

Cube potatoes, toss with olive oil, sage, thyme, paprika, and garlic powder, and roast these at 400 degrees F for about a half hour, to serve with the chicken. Serve with a simple insalata mista with balsalmic vinegar and olive oil to round out the meal, with coffee and biscotti for dessert.

Still later, pat the empty-but-for-the-lees bottle of Barbaresco, and tell it that while it might have gone to fancier tables, there was no one who would have appreciated it any more - and post some tasting notes.

Katherine

It was a wonderful wine. What consistently surprises me about the Nebiollo wines I've had is how expressive of terroir they are, but in a very subtle, restrained way. I had a '96 Nebiollo Langhe a few years ago, and as it happens I had been driving around the hills of that area the autumn the grapes were picked. When I tasted the wine, just at the end of the finish, on the exhale, I could smell the same unique, almost smoky smell that those hills had at that time. The Barbaresco last night was the same way, but even more restrained, with just a faint echo of forest, earth, truffles, and nebbia.

Katherine