Barolo and barbaresco at Kittle House

[Comte Flaneur]

Jacques organised a dinner at Kittle House last night with the theme of ‘barolo/barbaresco from the 20th century.’ The chef designed a special menu for us and it worked brilliantly.

Flight 1 (king salmon and mustard greens)

1971 Ceretto "Montefico" Barbaresco
You could tell this was healthy by the pure maroon translucent colour, and the nose and palate were even better; a nuanced wine with floral notes, cherry, tar and earth, a smooth mid palate and a lingering finish. Brilliant mature barbaresco *****
1971 Pio Cesare Barolo
Completely shot, replaced by…
1978 Pio Cesare Barolo Riserva
This was a bigger wine with a darker colour and had a delicatessen nose of cured meats and bacon and slight pruniness. It opened up well and was a solid wine with burly tannins, but not particularly elegant. Still, most enjoyable. ****
1974 Produttori del Barbaresco "Moccagatta" Barbaresco
The lack of any discernible nose on pouring suggested this might be flawed, but it settled down and began to open with hints of barnyard, tobacco and brett. Food absolutely transformed this wine which was otherwise tough to drink on its own. *** on its own **** with food.

Flight 2 (great duck breast, with farro, black radishes, cherry sauce)

1990 Aldo Conterno Barolo Bussia Soprana
Much younger colour, cherry with dollops of somewhat confected fruit, round and delicious – divided opinions between those who thought it needed more time and those who thought it had crested. I thought it was a delicious wine for quaffing but not profound; the 1996 is much better. ****
1979 Cappellano Barolo
Nice pure orangey colour and exciting nose of herbs, earth and citrus zest. On the palate it was lean but not thin, serious and structured, fine poise and equilibrium, long languid finish. A wine from the master. *****
1982 Ceretto "Bricco Rocche Brunate" Barolo
This had a cloudy brown colour but wasn’t flawed. Very extrovert nose and a lot going on with gamey/live animal nuances, it opened and improved. Excellent mature Barolo. *****

Flight 3 (Venison with coriander, with butternut squash puree, Brussels sprouts, and "huckleberry port jus")

1998 Giacosa Falletto Barbaresco
Low key sensuous and sexual, silky and diaphanous, this is slowly cranking up and will be a beauty in ten years. Wine of the flight. ***(**)
1998 Giacosa Barbaresco (normale)
Good ingredients but marred by Brett, which became increasingly hard to ignore and blighted the drinking experience. **(*)
1999 Giacosa "Santo Stefano" Barbaresco
This had quite a lot of VA which didn’t really blow off. Underneath is a profound wine – an iron fist in a velvet glove, which still won’t be ready to drink in 2020. **(***)

Flight 4 (short ribs with polenta and spinach)

1999 Bussia Soprana Barolo
The name of the grower was nowhere to be found – no mention of Conterno anywhere and the label was very different. Quite young and oaky, but will turn into a nice wine when it grows up. ***(*)
1996 Giuseppe Mascarello "Bricco" Barolo
This is a brooding wine showing very little right now, but will probably has a lot of potential. **(***?)
1997 Sandrone "Cannubi" Barolo
An overtly modern style; tasted blind it would be impossible to tell which country, which hemisphere, which grape; I would have guessed it is Ornellaia. Ostensibly very different from any other wine last night; ripe, slutty and low in acidity; silky and seamless; easy and fun to drink but not particularly cerebral. Not in the same league as the 1996. ***

As usual we voted for our top three wines, three points for our favourite, two for the second and one for our third. This was the result:

Ceretto Montefico 16
Cappellano 10
Giacosa Rabaja 4
Ceretto Bricco Rocche 3
Giacosa Santo Stefano 2

I think this voting was an accurate reflection of the relative merits of the wines.
It was a great fun with nice people.

Thanks to Jacques for organising and to Dale, who’s notes I used as a template for this.

[Blanquito]

Sounds great. Especially a few wines from my birthyear (1971)!

I see the 1971 Ceretto "Montefico" Barbaresco for $130 locally. They claim the wine is direct imported from dungeon in a Swiss castle or something where the wine spent 35+ years maturing.

[jal]

That was the most fun tasting I've had at the Kittle House for years, the wines were delicious, the food was fantastic and paired very well with the theme, the company was especially boisterous with a lot of back and forth banter, and we had the restaurant all to ourselves for the last two hours on a quiet night so even the service was excellent.

On to the wines:

FIRST FLIGHT:

1971 Ceretto "Montefico" Barbaresco: Vibrant color, gorgeous nose, and delicious on the palate. We were talking about how often the first wine of the first flight gets ignored, and the last wine of the last flight wins the wotn because everyone is too smashed by then, but this was from the get go a favorite of the participants.

1974 Produttori del Barbaresco "Moccagatta" Barbaresco: The wine gives me nothing and I am afraid it's shot, but it slowly revives and opens into a very nice mature nebbiolo.

1971 Pio Cesare Barolo: Oxidized, madeirized, looks like diluted tea. Smells horrible.

1978 Pio Cesare Barolo Riserva: backup bottle. Good wine, I liked it but the first two blow it away

SECOND FLIGHT:

1990 Aldo Conterno Barolo Bussia Soprana: Controversial, I like it but Dale finds it monolithic and boring, other people at the table love it.

1979 Cappellano Barolo: Delicious and complex with a nose that doesn't end and keeps evolving. I loved it.

1985 Ceretto "Bricco Rocche Brunate" Barolo: Corked, badly corked

1982 Ceretto "Bricco Rocche Brunate" Barolo: Backup bottle. Starts slowly but turns into a compelling gorgeous wine, beautiful nose and delicious on the palate. I bought this bottle a week ago and it flew from the West Coast on Thursday, it was probably shell shocked but still showed very well.

THIRD FLIGHT:

1998 Giacosa Falletto Barbaresco: One guy calls it "Sex in a bottle", when I tell him I have another two bottles, he says I should use them to my advantage. It is, as Ian says, very sensuous. Flowery nose and delicious on the palate but tannic and young still.

1998 Giacosa Barbaresco (normale): This smells like an outhouse without the blue chemical goo. I can't get past the smell, others cannot detect brett and like the nose and taste. No way I'm drinking this.

1999 Giacosa "Santo Stefano" Barbaresco: Power and structure but so young and tannic. This needs years/decades.

FOURTH FLIGHT:

1999 Bussia Soprana Barolo: From an Azienda Agricola, so basically a negociant wine? It's ok, nice and open, good for quaffing.

1996 Giuseppe Mascarello "Bricco" Barolo : A little bretty but I can handle this, very young despite being double decanted that morning and decanted throughout the evening. The power and structure are there but the fruit isn't. Revisit at the end of the century.

1997 Sandrone "Cannubi" Barolo: Sweet, low acid, I am not a big Sandrone fan, I thought it was overly sweet and could have been anything from anywhere. Dale said Claude Dugat, but I was even going to Australia (ok, it was the last wine of a long evening). Did I say it was sweet? Do not have with food.

I really loved the old ones, and even though the Montefico and Cappellano were my top two wines, I am easily seduced by the more elegant lower key wines - the Mocaggata and the Ceretto.

What a fun night!

[jal]

I see the 1971 Ceretto "Montefico" Barbaresco for $130 locally. They claim the wine is direct imported from dungeon in a Swiss castle or something where the wine spent 35+ years maturing.

Dale bought this great bottle recently at Chambers and I see they still have some in stock.

[Ramon_NYC]

Thanks for the notes. Sounds like a great night of good food with nicely-aged Piedmonts.
My up-and-down experiences with the 1990 Conterno Bussia Soprana ended unceremoniously with my last bottle being corked just this last summer.
Thanks for the tip in the 1971 Ceretto Montefico Barbaresco.

[Tom In DC]

Thanks for the notes, gents. It is indeed a rare Barolo & Barbaresco event when that many wines are well into or at least approaching their respective windows of maturity. Some will inevitably have pulled an Elvis -- "Elvis has left the building" -- but that risk is acceptable relative to the rewards of a great old bottle.

And the food matches sound sublime - duck, venison or short ribs would pretty much be my short list for mature B&B's.

[jal]

Tom, when I said to the maitre d' the week before we were doing Barolos, he said the chef would create a special tasting menu. No input from me at all but I think he hit it just right. Even the seafood dish wash perfect with the wine.

We were lucky, only one wine was over the hill, the 1971 Pio Cesare, and one other was corked. We were all a little apprehensive so there were a few backup bottles to choose from.

[Blanquito]

I just grabbed two of the Ceretto 1971s from Chambers. Birth year and all. I'll save 'em for my fortieth next year!

[alchemeus]

Interesting. But upon reading, it doesn't matter the vintner nor the year, it's the vintner AND the year. I've enjoyed that grape from many a place and many a year and many a vintner. Nebbiolo is a fine grape for wine.