Sad and sickening spectacle

Hello Uranium!

You will be pleased to know (I hope) that I went to Barolo this summer and got some eXCellent BArolos not to mention a Barbera Superior worth living for ...

As for Sicily, yes, they do some really good ones down there - their Nero d'Avola just to mention one on random. Also paradoxically some nice whites from those autochtonous [1] varieties like Grechetto, Cataratto, and Chardonnay ;)

Cheers

Nils Gustaf

P.S. Sorry for bringing out your nick, never did mind you, only did not agree with some of your opinions. OTOH, you have never appeared to be bothered by sticking out a bit, as it were ... enjoy the summer.

Was it "Bricco dell'Uccellone" from Braida, by any chance?

It was not - it was by one of the scions of the Borgogno family (I think) - VIRNA Lodovico Borgogno, though the person handling the production was a lady of about 35 - 40 years? Her doting father invited us to the cantina and led us around it, telling us about the production (we found out from the daughter that not all his info was quite correct) and treating us to prosciutto, the salumino being already eaten. The Barbera was from 40+ years old vines, matured on barrique ?12 months?, very good, did everything you could ask from a Barbera - zip, zing, fruit, fresh acidity, not killed by the oak (they tend to use large barriques, 550 l) and will be excellent with a risotto w wood mushrooms, or a pasta with a tomato sauce ... The b arolo was good, in a slightly modern, i e early accessible, style. We had other experiences, which I hope yto get back to given time. 'Cheers'

Nils Gustaf

Nils, I thought that the term "barrique" only applied to one size of barrel (225 L). Wouldn't this barrel be more properly termed a "foudre"? (IIRC, foudre must be 500+ L).

Mark Lipton

Barbera is among the most under-appreciated wines.

Try Avulisi, by Santa Tresa.

Grillo and Insolia, too.

z "Mark Lipton" skrev i meddelandet news:e9lih1$84m$ snipped-for-privacy@mailhub227.itcs.purdue.edu...

I stand corrected. However, in our discussions with the Borgognos, they used the term barrique about their larger barrels too (discussions otherwise taking place in Italian, or broken Italian ...). But you are no doubt correct - a barrique is 225 l. As it were, the smaller barrels were discussed as opposed to the really large ones - oak barrels typically with a volume of 5-6000 l, or even larger. In the case of the Borgognos, they matured their Barolos 50 % on these large vessels, and 50 % in the 550 l barrels. This apparently regardless of the provenance of the grapes - they had several vineyards, including a part of Cannubis, one of Cannubis Boschis, Sarmassa, and they were only owners of a small plot the grapes of which they mixed with the Sarmassa - P- something, Preti? Predi? The other producer we met, the daughter of Mascarello Bartolo, was a self-confessed traditionalist, who would under no circumstances use anything but the large barrels, definitely not any barriques or similar. She was also opposed to controlled temperature during fermentation - she would, grudgingly, admit a gas heater if the weather was extremely cold. Slightly paradoxically, she used remontage in her fermentation tanks. Her stated opinion was otherwise not to interfere with neither the wine nor the vines - no desherbement, for instance, no cultured yeasts, wine to ferment at ambient temperature. HEr wines, as opposed to those of the Borgognos, were slightly majestic, wines for the long haul, not to open for 3-4 years - but most likely to sleep much longer in the cellar. While full of substance, they were closed, tannic, while at the same time appearing very clean - hence in contrast to the REALLY traditional Barolo which as everyone knows was made in open, dirty barrels, full of VA, bacterial overgrowths, oxidation ... Not all tradtions are necessarily a good thing.

Cheers

Nils Gustaf

"UC" skrev i meddelandet news: snipped-for-privacy@h48g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...

Not for long. Interest in the variety is increasing, not only in Barolo. Let's just hope it does not get overexploited, overoaked, and over-Parkerised ... oh look, a pig just flew past my window!

Cheers

Nils GUstaf

Did someone say PARKER?

WHERE'S MY AXE????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!