It was Denise's birthday dinner and we were at Cafe Mingo, a local (and wonderful) Italian restaurant (on NW 21st). So when in Rome ... we ordered this Barolo. Besides, we don't drink all that much Italian wines generally, so it's fun to explore a bit. And Barolo is rarely disappointing (though the cost is correspondingly approriate, unfortunately).

This is an earthy and rustic wine -- and complex. The nose earthy: moss and peat -- sort of that walking-through-fresh-barkdust smell. Denise said the smell reminder her of walking through small alley-ways in Chateauneuf du Pape. It also smelled like grapes (funny to say, but true), and the fruit smelled like blueberry. And there was wood: it has that just-cut-2x4 smell. Yep, lots to smell there.

The flavors were also complex. Blackberry. Leaves. Wood (fir). Blueberry. Plum. Red grape skins. Apple skins. Dark berries. Raisin. And that blueberry was subtle and not at all sweet; this is not a sweet wine -- very dry. There's moss as you taste, and it comes back later in the finish. The finish had that sort of bitter (but not in a bad way) grape skins taste, along with Apple skins, and stems. There was also a lingering vegetable -- like artichoke. At the beginning it started with berry flavors, and ended with those apple skins.

Denise described this wine as being "Harvesty" -- she thought this would make a great accompaniment to a big Thanksgiving dinner.

This bottle had an intriguing "Albeisa" etched in the in glass towards the top of the base, right before the flute starts to tapper:



Apparently this started way back in the 1700s as a way for the winemakers in the Alba district to distinguish them from others made in Piedmont. The bottle was actually shaped a bit different so the wine was conspicious to someone in-the-know. Then, this practice died out for a long time, but was recently revived in the 1970s. Apparently the new designation defines wine from the Langa and Roero hills, including the following producers: Terre del Barolo, Marchesi di Barolo, Produttori del Barbaresco, Giacomo Borgogno, Ceretto, Gaja, Batasiolo, Bartolo Mascarello, Renato Ratti, Oddero, Francesco Rinaldi, Cavallotto, Elvio Cogno, Marchesi Fracassi, Mauro Mascarello and Calissano.

Just in case you were interested too ...

Cost:   

Rating:    9.0