2015 Produttori del Barbaresco

[JimHow]

Gerry, i bought a few bottles of this on your recommendation and really liked the one I tried, nicely ripe but balanced and smooth for such a young Italian wine.
I don't know much about Barbaresco, can you tell me more about this wine and what else I should be looking for?

[AKR]

They have quite a few bottlings. I assume you had their normale?

[JimHow]

Yes, AKR, I believe it is the most basic bottling, I paid like $32 in NH.

[Tom In DC]

One of the best if not the best wine co-op in the world. It won't have the classic bouquet of roses and tar yet (and it may never get the tar due to changes in winemaking) but a floral nose followed by dark fruits (cherries and plums) would be my expectation at this point. Barolo and Barbaresco seemed to have changed from the old days even more than Bordeaux - very few tannic monsters are made anymore. I need to be on the lookout for this.

Any ideas on who else might be considered on a list of great wine co-ops? La Chablisienne would be my other candidate, but I guess there are others.

[JimHow]

Good stuff!

[BordeauxNut]

I had a lot of Nebbiolo over the weekend. A highlight, among a lot of great wines, was the 2013 Vajra Bricco della Viole. That's going to be really nice in a few years.

Tasted the 2000 PdB Montestefano (from mag) with the 2013 Montestefano. There actually was a resemblance between the two wines. The 2000 was perfectly à point. I'm looking forward to another 2013 in a few years.

[Blanquito]

The 1971 PdB Ovello Riserva was one of the greatest wines ever to pass my lips.

[AKR]

Any ideas on who else might be considered on a list of great wine co-ops? La Chablisienne would be my other candidate, but I guess there are others.

Cave de Tain up in Hermitage ought to be on that list too.

Unf finding the full spectrum of the wines here is hard.

[SF Ed]

The Champagne coop in Mesnil is really good (the generic stuff Rare Wine Co. brings in under their label).

But PdB is the best. The top stuff ages well (I had a 1967 PdB Pora that was great last year) while the base wine is great value and drinks fine fresh off the boat.

SF Ed

[Tom In DC]

Thanks for the other co-op tips!

[Racer Chris]

I've never had Barbaresco but just found that my favorite local wine store has good inventory of the 2015 PdB for $29.99.
I may pick up a bottle or two next time I shop there.

[JimHow]

It was a favorite at our recent Thanksgiving dinner.

[JCNorthway]

Racer Chris, that is a great price for the 2015.

[Nicklasss]

It was a favorite at our recent Thanksgiving dinner.

You mean favorite overall, or favorite "non Bordeaux" wine?

Nic

[Gerry M.]

Jim, I'm glad you like it! Others can be more informative than I on the qualities of Nebbiolo since I'm only beginning my journey in understanding it. On my first sip of the 2015 I really dug the earthy, rustic quality of it. I also opened a bottle at Thanksgiving and it was a great match with dinner.

[AKR]

I was just reading a Wine Spectator this evening, and they were quite high on the 2015 PdB - giving it some kind of special box and discussion. However they seem to think it should be drunk in the future, all the way up to 2040.

[BordeauxNut]

Jim, I'm glad you like it! Others can be more informative than I on the qualities of Nebbiolo since I'm only beginning my journey in understanding it. On my first sip of the 2015 I really dug the earthy, rustic quality of it. I also opened a bottle at Thanksgiving and it was a great match with dinner.

It really shouldn't be that earthy or that rustic. I haven't had the 2015 (or any other solar vintage of it) -- it must get more feral in the warm years?

[Tom In DC]

It probably isn't that earthy or rustic in absolute terms, BordeauxNut, but relative to Bordeaux, to an all Bordeaux all the time palate, I can easily see the perspective.

By the way, what do you mean by solar vintage? That's not a term I've encountered before.

[Tom In DC]

Arv, the normale (i.e., non cru) bottling is usually quite delicious and approachable on release but ages very well. Without tasting the 2015 I'd still expect it to last many years.

[BordeauxNut]

Solar = warm/hot/ripe.

Think 1990, 2003, 2009, 2015

[Tom In DC]

Thanks. I previously thought the sun came out at least a little every year.

[BordeauxNut]

Yeah -- I've read reference to the term many times in the past few years. It's not something I'm originating. I believe the origin is translation from either French or Italian wine circles. It's easy to relate to though -- it's the outlier heat years. 2013 in Piedmont is not 2015 or or 2003 or 2009 for that matter.

[Tom In DC]

Understood. Some searching does indeed make the origin look like bad translation on French and Italian winery websites, probably intended to mean sunny. The hipster wine writers seemed to have picked it up, as you said in the last couple of years. Seriously though, any of the words you suggested above - warm. hot, or ripe - would have been clearer.

[BordeauxNut]

Understood. Some searching does indeed make the origin look like bad translation on French and Italian winery websites, probably intended to mean sunny. The hipster wine writers seemed to have picked it up, as you said in the last couple of years. Seriously though, any of the words you suggested above - warm. hot, or ripe - would have been clearer.

Not to pick nits with you, but I disagree -- which is why I used the term.

2013 and 2015 are both ripe years in Piedmont. Very different kind of ripeness though.
Vintages can be warm without without reaching that threshold.
Hot might have been an apt description. Though -- many vintages have pronounced hot spells without fitting into the category. For example -- if July and August are torrid and the weather fully breaks into a prolonged cool wind-down of the growing season, that's something different.

Anyway, language benefits from precision and I find the term to be a little more precise than just saying it was a warm, ripe, or hot year. Different strokes... )