Piedmont wines at Mazaro

[barsacpinci]

Joel organized a wonderful dinner with old Piedmont wines at Mazaro restaurant in Arlington. The oldest Barolo I had was a 2006, but these folks had some real old bottles to open. It was a fun night with beautiful wines. A shame I didn't buy these heavily when I was young. Barolos obviously shine with age. This group is converting me to the wonders of old wine.

Some very brief tasting notes:

2007 Taittinger CdC Blanc de Blancs Brut - Since I had so few Piedmont wines, I brought this instead. A fresh and lovely wine. Had nice acid fruit and a brioche nose. Lots of pineapple and lemons on the palate with a very long finish. Drinking wonderfully right now. Yum!
2010 Jose Dhondt Grand Cru VV Blanc de Blancs. Interesting mashed grape nose, like what you smell when going into the crushing room of a winery and you know yellow jackets will be flying in. A sour mash note of apples on the palate. Oddly delicious!
2020 Massa Derthona - Another one I brought. A nice beautiful jasmine nose. Palate has lots of stone fruit and oak but needs time to integrate. I’m getting to be a fan of Timorasso - Vietti’s being my favorite. BTW, next day this opened up even more and was delicious - move over Chardonnay!
2006 Elvio Cogno Barolo Ravera. A tannic monster but tons of cherries. Needs at least three blanquitos
1964 Fontafredda La Delizia Barolo - So many tertiary notes. Still fresh and lovely. Old root cellar nose. Smoke and tea notes on palate
1967 Franco Fiorina Barolo. Camphor nose. Amazing that it still shows tannins at this age. Dried currants on palate. Amazing wine
1967 Luigi Calissano Barolo Riserva Speciale Smells like my grandfather’s old wine press in the basement of his house. Wood and moss. Delicious fruit showing plums and a little prune. Wonderful
1971 Luigi Einaudi Barolo - A beautiful nose of floral tea rose. Well integrated fruit showing lots of plums and cherries. Stunning wine!
1982 Produttori del Barbaresco - This was nice but a bit one dimensional compared to the others we had that night.
1964 Vallana Vino Spanna Campi Raudi - A stunning licorice nose that wafted from the glass. Palate was much lighter and did not show the licorice.
2011 Giacomo Conterno Barolo Francia - A very silky mouth feel to the wine. Way too young to evaluate - it just wasn't put together yet.
2001 Elio Altare Barolo Vigneto Arborina - A pepper nose but a bit unbalanced for me. Wasn’t showing well.
1997 Poderi Colla Dardi Le Rose Bussia Barolo Had an odd swimming pool nose. But showed a power punch of dark fruit. Could use at least 10 years
1964 Marchese Villadoria Barolo Riserva Had a dusty nose. On the palate, lots of dark fruit but with chalkboard notes. Still appealing to me.
1967 Cantina Terre Del Barolo Barolo Riserva Castiglione Falletto -Basically salad dressing at this point.

And for dessert we had two wines, neither of which I cared for - a 1997 Macalan Torcolato and a 2005 Bertani Recioto Valpellicello


Hard to say what my favorite was - so many of them I thoroughly enjoyed. A very special evening.

[Nicklasss]

Great stuff barsacpinci. Some almost 60 yo!

Lot of old Barolo wines, and while i don't drink Barolo often, i appreciate them. But don't have access to old stuff like that!

The 2006 Cogno still very young. I feel like i will never have enough patience (or lifetime) to wait my Barolo wines.

[Comte Flaneur]

Thanks for the notes. You were fortunate that so many of the old timers showed well.

[jckba]

Fully agree, when old nebbiolo is on they can be great but they are also generally way too variable for my liking.