VinItaly Day 2…Part 2: Busy, busy busy.
So after working our way through a serious batch of Chianti Classico wines followed by some 5 minute Panini (Jarvis had to eat…) it was off to our next stop. We wanted to get a read on a couple of up and coming producers we had heard about so it was off to do some Piedmont wine spelunking if you will. The Piedmont hall at VinItaly is HUGE, massive actually, with so many producers that one can’t really get a grip on the situation without doing some perusing of the booths first. A bit of walking, a bit of mapping and we found our first stop, Fratelli Mossio. Two brothers working in the tiny village just to the east of Barolo, with a little help from top gun consultant Beppe Caviola, are crafting some pretty interesting Dolcetto from a single vineyard, Bricco Caramelli, planted in the early 50′s. Liked the wine…hope they sell us some.
Next, we were off to another insider winery, Osvaldo Barberis, located in the commune of Dogliani. For folks that may not know, Dogliani is the spot for growing Dolcetto in Piedmont. Here, the Dolcetto vine gets the same respect, terroir-wise, that the Nebbiolo achieves in Barolo and Barbaresco. Super nice guy and a very impressive line-up here, with two different Dolcetti, one from older vines, one younger, that really shined, as well as a stunner of an old vine Barbera. More amazing was that many of these wines had just been bottled. Crazy! Look for the wines on our shores hopefully by fall.
After desperately seeking our next appointment (they were not listed in the catalog the way we thought they would be…don’t get me started on the multiple ways a winery can label itself) we finally decided to skip and heads straight to Mecca, that being an appointment with Luciano and Barbara Sandrone. A quick, brisk walk just off the fairgrounds and we were at the Ramada down the street where Sandrone, as well as world class white wine producer Schiopetto, set up shot so they wouldn’t have to pour off cases of $150 Barolo to a bunch of 25 year old ragazzi. We started with the Schiopetto wines, which we have really grown to love over the last several years. The winery was a groundbreaker in the Collio area when many producers were not focusing on quality and now the current crop of Schiopettos are handling their business in much the same way. Super low yields, ripe fruit, minimal futzing in the cellar, the wines showed richness and intense minerality, and proved quite capable of aging as a mini-vertical of their flagship Bianco showed us. Great show!
But hey, we were here to pay homage to one of Piedmont’s big dogs, Sandrone. Hoping for a great tasting, we were not disappointed. The big dog ate! Dolcetto 2008 was delish, bursting with berries, spice, nuts…and reasonably priced. Barbera 2007 was, as my notes would attest, “too good”, classy wine with intoxicating black fruit aromas and flavors. Dad gum it was tasty! Nebbiolo Valmaggiore 2007 was fantastic, this was a swallower, full of dried cherry/strawberry fruit, Barolo-esque in its stature, but not its price. For kicks they were also pouring a 2004 Nebbiolo Valmaggiore (Valmaggiore is an area north of Barolo in the Roero commune) that could actually shame many a Barolo. That also went down the old piehole.
The Sandrone Baroli were, as usual, like going to church. We tasted 2005 Cannubi Boschis and Le Vigne for starters and were impressed by the power and structure Sandrone elicited from this potentially hazard-filled vintage. I remember Sandrone telling me when I visited the cellar in 2006 that it was certainly a growers vintage and that one could realize outstanding potential if they did the necessary work in the vineyard when the earlier rains came. He was right, these wines were packed with dried cherry and floral characters, substantial, powerful in their presence and, as with 2004, the Cannubi was the pick of this litter as opposed to 2003 when the blended Le Vigne shone brighter. Then we finished off with a tasting of their newly released library offerings from the 2000 harvest. This vintage has always been on the fast track, a warm year that produced very friendly, palate coating Nebbiolos that, to us, seemed on a fast evolutionary path than even the ultra-ripe 1997′s. So we weren’t surprised to see both of these Baroli showing sweet, tender, evolved. Oh so juicy, they were both in a great place! Funny, we noticed the same thing with some 2000 Bordeaux from earlier in our trip. How long will these wines last? Who knows? But they’re good to go now… Check out the Sandrone wines we have in stock.
