Wow! This is delicious. If you’re not sure you are into Barolo aged in small barrels, check this out. The 2004 vintage in Piedmont was excellent — initially overshadowed by the very warm 2003 vintage, 2004 will go all the way down the line. The wine shows beautifully integrated, if not intense, wood notes, with plenty of sour cherry to carry the anise, dried herb and tobacco. This is deeply colored nebbiolo, with lovely texture for such a young Barolo, and tannins that will keep this wine alive and well for years.
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We drank this with cured meats at 11am this morning. Barolo for breakfast? Disclaimer: we start tasting wines as early as 9am, when our palates are fresh, so 11am is technically lunchtime (afternoon on the east coast) — don’t worry, mom, your son has committed no crime against the dictates of law or fashion. The fat in the cured meats helped to regulate the youthful tannins, and made this wine more drinkable than if we’d had it by itself, or with OJ and pancakes.
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Renato Ratti gained international fame when he mapped out the great vineyard sites of Barolo in the 1980’s. His son, Pietro, took over after Ratti’s death in 1988. Generally speaking, the Ratti style broaches both the “new” and the “old”; wines from the best vineyards are aged in new barriques and small Slovenian casks (tradition dictates the use of large botti) though the wine’s source, the Marcensasco vineyard outside the town of La Morra, is said to have been planted in the 12th C.
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Wines from La Morra tend to be more approachable in their youth (and consequently, not as long-lived as those from, say, Serralunga or Monforte), and this wine is showing nicely at only 5 years of age. Some of this approachability is due to the winemaking, some of it is due to the vineyard. This is, no doubt, a big wine at this point in its life. Will it be better in 15 years? Sure. Was it very good today? Indubitably. Hold onto it if ya got the patience, but if you find yourself eating salumi in the morning and need a wine to match on the spot, this ain’t bad.