I bought this bottle at a tasting 2-3 years ago as the "big" bottle in a mixed case of much more inexpensive selections. My wife and I had a quiet couple of days planned and we wanted to have a special wine. I searched for tasting notes on line and found one from 2003 that said "drink in the next few years". So we chose this one, wondering if it was too late. Dinner was a mixed bag - salmon mousse, shrimp cocktail, potato latkes, roast chicken. Not the ideal match for Barolo, I thought, but we should drink it anyway. I decanted it and left it for an hour.
Not to fear. This is an extravagant wine. Ruby color, not too deep. Intense aromas of cherrys and licorice. Full, mouthwatering taste - a deep flavor of cherrys at first. After about a half-hour more, it started to taste like chocolate-covered cherrys - intense but not sweet. I should have left it for after the salmon and shrimp - certainly not the best pairing. But the wine was so much fun it didn't matter what else was going on. A great pleasure to drink.