Friday night, I tasted a bunch of Italian wine as a precursor to Golden Glass on Saturday... wines from Monchiero Carbone, Filippo Gallino, Cascina Val Del Prete, and Cascina Cà Rossa, all from Roero. I'm glad I went, since many of the wines poured were not poured at Golden Glass the next day, and some of those were my favorites.
It was a very good tasting, even though it was kind of crazy, too. The producers were there and everyone was playing the shell game with the bottles on the counter and debating the pouring order (and changing it, and debating, and changing, and debating some more) throughout the tasting. I think my clear winner for the night was the 2001 Cascina Val Del Prete "Carolina", although I liked several of the wines that night. My notes are not the best since there was a lot going on and talking to people and figuring out what I was supposed to taste next and if it was in the right order was pretty distracting. I also think that sometimes I just don't have the words to describe Italian wines well, yet. I am talking about them in the verbal equivalent on sticks and rocks, which you will see more when I write up Golden Glass.
I was perplexed by the nose on the "Monbirone", and thought it unusual, but then at Golden Glass I had about four or five wines that had similar notes, so it isn't all that strange after all, I guess. It's a funky sweet smell that I can't nail down exactly but is in the meat/tobacco/blood/manure part of the smelling world. And I of course mean that in the best meat/tobacco/blood/manure way.
Here is what I tasted, below, albeit reorganized by producer (we did them in the usual order, whites first, reds next, and that is where the big debate on order came in... flip between the same producer and stainless/oak to compare or do all the stainless wines to compare them first and then do all the oaked wines. This was mostly the issue with the Barberas since Nebbiolos came later, and finally, the Birbéts).
Birbét, by the way, is a semifizzy, light, sweet wine that is made from Brachetto but can't be called Brachetto d'Acqui because of laws governing the growing and region (Brachetto d'Aqui has DOC status, and the grapes must be grown in Asti or Alessandria), since it is grown in Roero. The people in Roero just decided to call it Birbét.
2003 Roero Arneis pale straw - nutty nose, floral when swirled - soft at first in mouth, then steely, lots of acid, grassy hard finish
+2003 Barbera d'Alba (stainless, no wood) pink-ruby - austere and dusty nose - pleasantly drying tannins with a little burst of fruit in the finish, maybe a little young, still
2000 Barbera d'Alba Superiore bloody red - dusty red fruit and spicebox smells - more tannin, acid, rigidity than the "Carolina", could use some aging
2004 "Luet" Arneis pale straw - superfruity peach and banana nose, not as steely as the Gallino in the mouth, still a lot of acid, but more honey tones, fuzzy fun finish, tingly
2003 Barbera d'Alba (stainless, no wood) pink-ruby - dried fruit raisin plum nose - very soft tannins, very pretty fruit in mouth, slight bitterness at finish
++2001 "Carolina" Barbera d'Alba Superiore (oak) blue-red, looks young - pretty pretty pretty nose of tobacco, flowers, and spice, nice nice acids and fruit, not much by way of tannins
+2003 "Recit" Arneis straw yellow - funky peachy nose - lemony in mouth, soft finish, did it see some wood?
+2001 "Monbirone" Barbera d'Alba (18 months in wood, ten percent Nebbiolo) opaque burgundy - very funky nose... ham? blood? cigar? manure? - nice acids in mouth, but I spent way too long trying to understand the nose and found it very intriguing
2003 "Regret" Nebbiolo light burgundy - cherry and violet soap, earth - slightly more fruit evident than the Cà Rossa Nebbiolo (which I had just before this), nice acids, fuzzy velvety tannins
2000 "Printi" Nebbiolo brown brick - on the dusty/austere side, both of these Nebbiolos could hang around for a while
NV Birbét light, sweet, sparkling red, strawberries and flowers, fun and fizzy
+2001 "Mulassa" Barbera d'Alba burgundy - first one corked - second one had a much cleaner cherry and earth nose, but was sort of closed - nice acid and tannin, leathery finish
2003 Nebbiolo color of dried blood - bitters, soap, dust, cherry - intensely tannic right from the start with some red fruit and iodine
NV Birbét fruit leaves on the nose, very interesting, I liked it better than the Monchiero Carbone
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