Cellar Report: 1999 Produttori "Rabaja" Barbaresco; 2003 Patricia Green Pinot Noir

Two recent drinking excursions are all the proof I need (as if after all this time I needed ANY) that wine with time well spent in my basement is one of my life's great rewards.....
1999 PRODUTTORI DEL BARBARESCO Barbaresco "Rabaja" 1.5ltr
Drinking this was like being a homerun hitter and having the pitcher groove one right down the middle of the plate. Can you say "sweet spot"? My long held belief is that most great Barbaresco and Barolo, the two noble wines of Italy's Piedmont region and surely the reason the nebbiolo grape was "invented", start showing their stuff...really showing it...at about 10 years of age. Assuming a good vintage of course, and '99 was very, very good. Oh, and a good producer as well, of which the Produttori del Barbaresco is undoubtedly one of the world's great wine houses. I took this big bottle of deliciousness to dinner out with the VINO gang recently and from the first sniff to the last slurp it was glorious. The Rabaja is one of nine single vineyard "Riserva" bottlings the Produttori does in the very best vintages. Young, the 1999s really didn't show much of themselves, all closed up on the nose and tannic with that hard body that only softens up over time (an uncomfortable allusion to my own self, I realize...*sigh*). Anyway, back to this bottle. First off, there isn't anything much better, wine-wise, than popping the cork on the large format bottle. Just lugging it into the restaurant, you know good times are ahead! After pouring it around, the nose throughout dinner just kept opening and revealing more and more nuance. Sure, all the classic Piedmontese earth and cherry fruit was there, but also creeping in and out of the picture were rose petals, wisps of smoke, road tar (which in this case is a good thing), and ripe plums. On the palate the fruit was velvety smooth, melding with those hard tannins over time to become something pretty profound. The same aromas were echoed on the palate, with cherries and spice more in abundance. It had a pitch perfect acid balance, which is one of the reasons this was so good after ten years. It's acid that holds everything together in a wine, and a reason I fear for so many of the new world fruit bombs that are all blowsy alcohol and high extraction that sacrifices that acidity. This was simply an impeccable wine, drinking at its apogee, that enhanced each bite of food. Wow, if only it was like this every time!
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2003 PATRICIA GREEN CELLARS
Pinot Noir "Dollar Bills Only"
Patty Green, along with her winemaking partner Jim Anderson, are two of the nicest, and most talented people going in the Oregon wine business. They make incredible single vineyard pinot noir under their Patricia Green Cellars label, and a few years ago started selling this "Dollar Bills Only" bottling as a way to access a new, and more value conscious consuming public. I think this '03 on release was selling for $13-$15 a pop, which for better or worse in the Oregon wine world is a stellar price. 2003 was a searingly hot vintage, where whether you liked it or not as a winemaker you were going to be dealing with very ripe fruit and unheard of sugar levels (which translates into high alcohol) for pinot noir. There were a slew of out of balance wines released that were all fruit and not much else. Winemaking chops were of paramount importance and not many are better than Patty & Jim. The DBO was released as more of drink now pinot, but I managed to cache a few bottles away. This was my last bottle of the 2003, and I pulled it out the other night with not too many hopes for anything interesting. But man, did this surprise! There wasn't much if any tannin left, and just a hint of acidity, but the fruit was absolutely luscious. Darkly colored, with mouthcoating purple plums and ripe, sugary strawberries, with a bit of earth and light pepper sprinkled on top. A long, lush, almost decadent finish completed this very happy picture. This was wine that was just out for a good time. It only serves to remind that I don't need...or want...a Nobel prize laureate every time I pull a wine from the basement!

Cellar Report: 1997 and 2001 Brezza Barolos

I could just bottom line both of these and say they are really freaking good. In fact, maybe those nose-in-the-air...or in this case in-the-glass....publications like the Wine Spectator would probably be well-served if they started saying things like that. But god forbid they appeal to anyone but boring wine dorks. Editorial rants aside, I found myself fortunate enough in the last week to have both of these pinnacles of Italian winemaking art.

A quick lesson that will leave you as smart as 98% of wine geeks: Barolo is a small appellation in northwestern Italy's Piedmont region (the orange blotch on Italy in the map at right). It is made from 100% nebbiolo grapes and along with it's more feminine styled fraternal twin from the Barbaresco region (also made from 100% nebbiolo) are two of the greatest Italian red wines. In fact two of the greatest wines in the world. The Brezzas I was loving come from the small family firm Giacomo Brezza, an old school producer located in the town of Barolo in the Barolo appellation. Follow me so far? Yeah, right!

Okay then, two Barolos from two vintages considered well above average. I found the 2001 Brezza on a local wine distributors price list at a crazy price and brought it into the wine shack. In a great act of altruism I took one home and opened it to be sure it would be acceptable to my valued clientele. The 2001 was, in a word, young. A baby. An infant that has barely learned to vocalize and will need years to be able to communicate all it has to share with the world. Tight, tannic, with cherry, floral notes, and earthy, tarry aromas and flavors barely....just barely....starting to peek out. 2001 was a CLASSIC vintage, with fruit, tannins, and acidity in perfect balance, destined to sing like ABBA at the height of their powers. Oh, wait, bad analogy. ABBA sucks. But you know what I mean. These reds, especially the Barolos and Barbarescos, will need a minimum of ten years to really start throwing their weight around the wine world. The Brezza 2001 is all about potential, and it has boatloads!

The 1997 was another beast all together. It was a single vineyard wine from their Sarmassa vineyard. The 1997 vintage, not quite as good as 2001, was known for a lot of heat, which led to a lot of ripe fruit. These '97s are more near term wines (I know, calling any ten year old wine "near term" is kind of stupid), but they don't have the potential to go 15-20 years like the 2001s. We shared this bottle at dinner wth friends the other night, and it was nebbiolo nirvana at it finest. Drinking perfectly right now, with most of its hard edges whittled away leaving behind beautiful, heady aromas and flavors....first off a leathery earthiness, followed by mellow cherry, blackberry fruit, hints of that same tar that nebbiolo is known for (sounds weird, I know, but it is amazing), followed by rose petals and spice. On the palate this was intense, mouthfilling, the kind of wine that is the reason I have all those bottles laying around the basement. So smooth, with a long, luscious finish that echoed all of the pleasures listed above. A perfectly delicious wine, so good, so ITALIAN! One of those wines that when you taste it you know it could come from nowhere else (when wine doofuses talk about terroir, that is what they mean). It really won't get any better, so if you have any 1997s hanging around, you'd best be popping corks!

Cellar report: 1990 Produttori del Barbaresco "Rabaja" Barbaresco

"Just because one is out in the wild doesn't mean one has to act wild."

Truer words were never spoken, especially since I was the one who spoke them. Which is why when I find myself on a camping trip, there are certain amenities I feel must come along. For our last car camping trip, two of those necessities were the makings for Campground Carbonara and a bottle of 1990 Produttori del Barbaresco "Rabaja" Barbaresco. Oh, and a couple of Stolzle burgundy wine glasses to make sure the wine had every chance to show its stuff!

I knew the carbonara would be stellar, as I was using Marcella's perfect recipe and had everything pre-prepped and in the cooler (btw- if you've never eaten spaghetti with a "spork", you're in for a treat!). The '90 Barbaresco was another matter. 1990 was a stellar year in Italy's Piedmont, the nebbiolo grapes achieving near perfect ripeness levels. But still, I hadn't had a bottle of '90 for years and years, so was hoping for the best. As it turned out, I shouldn't have worried. This was an absolutely awesome bottle of vino rosso. Pouring it into the glasses I could already get whiffs of ripe blackberries, and when I really got my nose into it that scent and more...earth, spice, smoke, tar...all came rushing out. With the first sip I knew we were in for a treat. This had that perfectly aged taste, but didn't taste old at all. Hard to describe, but you know it when you taste it. All the sensations from the nose came through, but with even more intensity. This was so complete, the beginning, middle, and long, long finish meshing perfectly. The tannins weren't tired at all, and the acidity was still fresh and vibrant. And it all just got better and better as the wine sat open. Barbaresco at its absolute peak, what all wines wish they could grow up to be! If you ever have a chance to try a well-stored 15 or 20 year old bottle of Barbaresco or Barolo, promise me you won't say no. After about two hours we finished it while sitting around our campfire, listening to the river rush by. Roughing it, indeed!