Truffle Dinner in D.C. - Piedmont vs Tuscany

[barsacpinci]

Eric and Janet hosted a wonder truffle dinner for us to showcase wines from both Piedmont and Tuscany. This group likes their bottles really mature! I think I had the youngest bottles. It certainly opened my eyes to some things: I like Barolo old too! I still like my Brunello's young. I should be buying more Barolos than Brunellos. I hope it's ok to post tasting notes other than Bordeaux

Some whites that weren't from either region - but they were Italian
2007 Paolo Bea Sant Chiara. It looks like a rose. Definitely a bit oxidized with those Sherry notes. You can still pick up the sauvignon grass notes over the oxidation - old lawn, not freshly mown.
1995 Borgo Tocai Friulano - Light straw color. Nose like a chardonnay. Beautiful wine. Covers the palate with tons of fruit. Very broad and full bodied white. I'm not ashamed to say it was the WOTN for me even though this was a red wine tasting.

1964 Produttori del Barbaresco - amazing very light red almost pink color. Just a little bricking. Cherries with a little funk but drinks much younger. A bit of an oddity that did wane over the night.
1964 Ceretto Riserva Barolo. To me, this was over the hill and a little corked. Everyone kept telling me it was the brett (it was a little corked).
1964 Produttori del Barbaresco. This was my number one red. Just beautiful. Drinks 20 years younger. Had an interesting camphor nose with hints of licorice. Lots of bright bramble fruit.
1967 Produttori del Barbaresco. Unfortunately not as good as the 64. Surprisingly hot. With a suppressed nose and palate. Too advanced
1975 Altesino Montosoli My least favorite brunello. Very light compared to the other two. Funk on nose and lots of brett poopy palate.
1977 San Giorgio Lungarotti (Umbria) - this was served blind. a little faded with some bricking. But showed nice leather and dried cherries
1982 Luigi Bianco Barbaresco Rabaja - This was a very big wine. I quite enjoyed. Light in color but a very bold palate with more cherries and currants. Maybe my number 3 red
1991 Ciacci Piccolimini Pianrosso - Very smooth with lots of red fruits but kind of one dimensional. (I brought this - usually one of my favs)
1995 Lisini Ugolaia - A medium garnet with a very interesting nose of the seashore and seaweed. Much lighter than the Nebbiolos but quite beautiful and my favorite Tuscany
1995 Mascarello Monprivato Ca Morrisio Riserva. Oh My! A wine in my style. Big bold lots of fruit that punches you. You need to clear the palate after this one. Reminds me of the effect those big Aussie Shiraz do to you. My #2 red.
1999 Rancia Riserva Sweet fruits. Very nice but compared to the big boys it pales a bit.
2001 Montevertine Le Pergole Torte - Very good comparable to the rancia and the brunellos. THey said it was a Chianti but not a Chianti.
2001 E Pira & Figli Barolo Cannubi Chiara Boschis - young compared to the other wines nose showing a little iodine, odd. Did have a nice forest floor palate but not up to the other Piedmont wines. (I brought this one)

Dessert (with a peach pie and a wonderful chocolate mousse cake that Eric made!)
2012 Chapoutier Banyuls - blueberry nose. But a bit plebian on the palate. Actually this is first time I've had Banyuls.
2004 Cantine Briamara Caluso Passito Riserva - Golden color. Pure dried apricots. Not as complex as a sauternes but nice to drink.

Very fun night.

[JimHow]

Wow! Great report, BP.
I've never dined on much truffles, I don't think, but I do vote for Nick Cage for best actor if you haven't seen "Pig."
Thanks for a great report.

[Blanquito]

Great line up. A bottle of the 95 Lisini Ugolaia 8-9 years ago was one of the greatest Italian wines I’ve had. Glad to see it is still drinking well.

[Claret]

A 95 Friulano WOTN, rather interesting. I like Friulano but never had one remotely that old.

[Nicklasss]

Thank you barsacpinci for that very informative post on old italian wines.

I don't know how long i will wait the few Barolo i have... but surely not 50 years.

[ericindc]

Totally missed this post. Thanks Brian! Its funny, we had pretty much opposite opinions in the reds. My top was the '75 Altesino Brunello, with the '82 Barbaresco as my #2, and my #3 wine was the Borgo Tocai Friulano. Its interesting, Dallas said that almost all the other bottles of this Tocai were off, but this one rocked. I do love those wines, but they need time, and I've also had alot of bottle variation from wines in that region.

My biggest surprise was how well the '77 San Giorgio Lungarotti wine showed. Also that no one guessed a cab/sangiovese blend and most people guessed some sort of Nebbiolo. Oh well.

As for the Lisini, I think this bottle was off a bit. The other bottles I've had were much better. I was disappointed in the Banyuls as well. It and Maury vin doux naturels are generally my goto wine for chocolate desserts, but this bottle wasnt very good (maybe heat damaged based upon the thin red fruit profile... is it possible to heat damage these?). I'm beginning to think the Chapoutier Banyuls are best upon release.

Anyways, Janet and I enjoyed having everyone over!! I think next week for the NYE dinner, it will be mostly catered. lol

[AKR]

I had a 13 Chapoutier Banyuls a couple of days ago - it was very good - rich and chocolatey. I'm not sure how 2014 as a vintage was, but usually these kinds of fortified wines aren't going to be show huge divergence with vintage quality at such a young age. Maybe 30 years later they might....

Nice notes, thanks for sharing. Always a pleasure to have old wines show interesting facets and flavors.

[Musigny 151]

Excellent and thanks for sharing

[JoelD]

I forgot to respond to this as well. Thanks for posting your thoughts, Brian. And thanks for hosting/cooking, Eric/Janet.

My tastes much aligned with Eric. We actually had the same 3 wines of the night.

-The 82 Bianco Barbaresco was my wine of the night, big and brooding but opened up nicely with PNP bottle air.
-The 75 Brunello was fantastic, awesome complexity.
-The 95 Borgo white, as it warmed and opened up with air became sublime. Like a great, aged white burgundy. Just beautiful

-I also enjoyed a trying a few others. The 64 Produttori Normale was really good early, but fell off by the middle of the night.
-I agree that the 95 lisini brunello had something a little off about it, maybe a bit cooked but was nonetheless good at times.
-The 95 Monprivato will be an amazing wine in about 4-5 blanquitos i'd say. Too young for me to properly assess now.
-The magnum of 01 Monvertine was very pretty and tasty while still having a great rustic taste to it, needs a few years but I see why people pay
-the 77 blind tasting was really fun, and great early. But did fall off by end of the night.

The rest were fun to try but either had some issues or I found a bit boring.

Old Italy nights are always bunch of fun for when i'm craving older wines at much more reasonable costs comparatively to other regions.