Julia Indik

9.0

This is a wine from the Pelaverga grape, which I learned was almost extinct decades ago. Reminiscent of Pinot noir with bold contrasts of strawberries and floral notes and an edge of acid and bitters. Level and elegant and also easy to drink. — 12 days ago

with Robert

Doug Powers

9.6

Beautiful redfruit and floral aromas and flavors, faint road tar, actually still quite youthful in its flavor and structure, super long, lingering finish, incredible for a 43-year-old non-Cru Barbaresco!! — 4 days ago

with Jim

Ron Siegel

9.3

Love this producer from top to bottom. This was elegant & finessed showing bright cherry, berry with spice, rose petal & tobacco — 10 days ago

Jarrod McCann

9.3

Nice Barolo with lots of limestone showing minerality and brightness. Still a little tight after 11 years, but it’s fantastic with a nice piece of beef. Floral on the nose with juicy choke cherry, leather, unsweetened coco, tobacco, raspberry preserves, and crushed blueberries on the palate. — 16 days ago

Pranay Das

9.0

Flavourful easy — 13 days ago

Jay Kline

9.1

Double-decanted several hours prior to dinner and subsequently enjoyed over the course of a few hours. The 2012 Classico pours a deep garnet color with a transparent core; medium+ viscosity with no staining of the tears. On the nose, the wine is developing with ripe notes of red fruit: cherry cordial, candied nuts, red flowers, some leather, rich wood and some warm spices. On the palate, the wine is dry with high tannins and high acid. Confirming the notes from the nose. The finish is medium+. A very good, albeit modern expression of Barolo from a solar vintage. Personally, I find pre-modernist Pio Cesare more exciting. Thanks Andy! Drink now with patience and through 2042. — 14 days ago

Ceccherini Cristiano

9.3

Marcenasco is the first site where Ratti started to make Barolo. When he was stull in Brasil working for Cinzano a certain Bruno Giacosa selected the location for him.
Renato Ratti is arguably the most important person for the development of the reputation of Barolo the way it is now.
He was the first to map the vineyards, pointing out the best crus; he spread the use of the Albeisa bottle in the consortium after studies on old book. He made Barolo become a DOCG.
He just saw and achieved what others could only smell.
He is the most highly regarded innovator of the area and everyone looks up to his memory.
Disappeared to earlyin 1988, he left to his son Pietro an incredible legacy.

The winery is located in La Morra, nonetheless their wines age fantastically spcially the Marcenasco that drinks quite well early, like this example from 2020, but will only benefit from 10 + year in the bottle.
Tannin is smooth, fruit is there and we see some balsamic and floral already.
Only at the beginning of the journey. — 13 hours ago

Pinotman /// Andreas

9.0

Plenty of tannins left. 25bucks. Those were the days! 14%| Quite classic. Browne tinge. Needs at least 2-3 hours of air. Quite harsh and astringent. Roses, earthy and dusty, very dry. Hint of truffles. - Not super exciting at first (15min) so wait. Will last another 10 years - but i do worry about the fruit component if you need space in your cellar - i would suggest drink up. I will. Some folks tend to hype these wines i don’t - after all this is their most basic version with a large production volume. Total volume is 500,000 bottles a year at this cooperative. My guess they to make a lot of this one. — 2 days ago

Jay Kline

9.2

Presented double-blind at Tasting Group. The wine pours a slightly hazy garnet color with a translucent core and some rim variation; medium+ viscosity with no staining of the tears and light signs of sediment. On the nose, the wine is vinous, with notes of ripe and desiccated red fruit: Morello cherry, dried roses, tar, tobacco, leather, gravelly earth, and exotic spices. On the palate, the wine is bone dry with high tannin and medium+ acid. Confirming the notes from the nose where the fruit showed quite a bit of power. The finish is long. Alcohol is elevated but calling it medium+. This is delicious.

Initial conclusion: this could be Nebbiolo, Sangiovese, Granache or Pinot Noir from Italy, France or Spain. Because the tannins were absolutely ripping, and there was no staining, I was leaning Nebbiolo. Additionally, the secondary characteristics along with a strong core of fruit had me thinking this was close to 30 years old from a solar vintage. So I called Nebbiolo, from Italy, from Piemonte, Barolo from a traditional-leaning producer, 1997. Well, I can’t get too upset with my call! Really tasty stuff. Drink now through 2032. — a month ago

Ron Siegel

9.3

Needed some air showing red cherry, berry, spice, orange peel, rose petal & tobacco notes — 6 days ago