November 7, 2008
Modern Barbaresco & Traditional Barolo: La Spinetta and Giacomo Conterno
In This Issue
A Note
from Sergio
Ella Fitzgerald and Alicia Keys. Both
talented, incandescent singers with voices
that can stop you dead in your tracks, even
if just for a second. Both women with
hard-scrabble beginnings who made it big
because of their determination, their hard
work, and their breath-taking vocal range.
But though both Ella and Alicia share the
kind of control that gives them the protean
ability to change the timbre, the quality,
the sound palate of their voices at will,
they’re not the same.
Ella, for all her vocal acrobatics, had this
lean, pulled in, taut, complex
quality—an aspect that sometimes verged
on flinty. Ella had this thing where she
kind of held the listener at a distance. You
didn’t always know what angle she was
playing, but you knew you wanted to be along
for the ride. But if Ella seemed a bit
reserved, Alicia almost never is. All bright
white smiles and glowing All-American looks,
Alicia seems immediately approachable,
understandable, even a bit obvious. Her voice
hits you like a bolt of sunshine and makes
you feel warmer on the inside.
I bring up these singers because they keenly
illustrate the qualities of the wines
we’re featuring this week. These are
wines—and producers—who could not
be much more different, even though they,
like Ella and Alicia, share some essential
qualities. One wine, a Barolo from Giacomo
Conterno, is the Ella. It’s a
traditional Barolo that teases, withholding
its promise until times allows it to open,
but when it does, it’s nothing short of
genius. The other, a Barbaresco from La
Spinetta, is the Alicia. It excites and
electrifies right off the bat and it does so
with a showy, pretty, easygoing pleasure.
As with these singers, these wines seem to
invite comparison. Both of these wines come
from Piemonte, both exemplify their
individual styles, and both work within
iconic types. Paired together, they almost
give you the opposite sides of the same
coin. They have an inextricable history that
begs the wine lover to think about them side
by side. And yet, like Ella and Alicia, they
are not the same.
If you grew up listening to Ella, you
can’t hear Alicia’s voice without
remembering Ella’s. But you are also
reminded that there will only be one Ella
Fitzgerald. It’s all a matter of the
kind of experience you want to create. So too
with these wines. Some nights, some meals,
some gatherings, some celebrations demand the
beautiful gravity of a Conterno Barolo.
Other moments, other meals, other
experiences call out for the nonchalant
elegance of a La Spinetta Barbaresco.
It’s a lush life that offers you the
opportunity of both.
My Best,
Sergio
For more accounts of Italian wine, food, and life reserve
my new book:
Passion
on the Vine: A Memoir of Food, Wine, and Family in the Heart
of Italy.
La Spinetta Cru Barbaresco Sampler
La Spinetta Cru Barbaresco
Sampler (one of
each):
La
Spinetta 2004 Barbaresco 'Vigneto
Gallina'…$126.99**
La
Spinetta 2005 Barbaresco 'Vigneto
Gallina'…$126.99**
La
Spinetta 2004 Barbaresco 'Vigneto
Starderi'…$126.99**
La
Spinetta 2005 Barbaresco 'Vigneto
Starderi'…$126.99**
La
Spinetta 2004 Barbaresco 'Vigneto
Valeirano'…$126.99**
La
Spinetta 2005 Barbaresco 'Vigneto
Valeirano'…$126.99**
La Spinetta Barbaresco
Sampler…$761.94**‡
Place and time: Piemonte, 1985. Setting:
Guido Restaurant.
Scene: A group of Piemonte’s
most promising winemakers gather for a wine
tasting.
It began as a simple comparative tasting.
When it was finished, the winemakers left behind
the open bottles but closed the door on the
traditions they had brought with them.
Piemonte’s modern era had
begun.
The signs had been there, of
course—barrique, reduced macerations,
green harvesting—but this event
formally recognized what had been happening.
Domenico Clerico was there. So was Luciano
Sandrone, Roberto Voerzio, and Enrico
Scavino. Any one of them could have
organized the tasting. But it was a winemaker
by the name of Giorgio Rivetti who led what
became a defining moment in Italian wine
history. It was a bold move for a winemaker
who only had a Moscati d’Asti to his
name, albeit one that had essentially
launched the career of the now famous DOC.
But Rivetti was just getting started: The
tasting wasn’t his only politically
charged maneuver of 1985. He also led by
provocative example, producing one of
Piemonte’s first 100 percent barrique-aged
reds, Barbera Ca’di Pian. However, he
wasn’t quite finished with Barbera. A
few years later he added Pin—named in
honor of his father—a wine that joined
the controversial short list of
Nebbiolo–Barbera blends like
Contero-Fantino’s Monprà and Domenico
Clerico’s Arte. And, last but not
least Barbera, he took this everyday, plain
Jane
grape and gave it more than just a taste of
the glamorous life. He modeled a contemporary
character with his 1996 launch of the
posh Barbera Gallina, which joined a small
clique of fashionable Barberas, including
Bricco dell’ Uccellone and Segreto.
But that Barbera was a mere warm-up to
Rivetti’s most transformative and
provocative project—Barbaresco. While
Angelo Gaja’s work with Barbaresco had
been
shocking, Rivetti’s was incendiary,
sacrilegious and, ultimately, the stuff of a
cult sensation. La Spinetta’s cru
Barbarescos belong to an elite and very
small Barbaresco niche (Gaja, Giacosa,
Vietti, Marchesi di Grèsy) on the
collector’s market. They got there
through a methodology that took every tool
reviled by the
traditionalists—intensive pruning,
rotofermenters, refinement in 100 percent new
barrique—and delivered a Barbaresco
that did the inconceivable
pre-Rivetti: they offered approachability
upon release. But this wasn’t merely
any kind
of approachability; this was an immediately
drinkable, intense, ultraripe, hedonistic
Barbaresco.
Piemonte
might have been enraged, but wine drinkers
in the larger universe were enthralled. And
Rivetti knew they would be, commenting,
“What’s the point of offering the
consumer a wine when it’s not ready to
drink? Sure, if a wine has the ability to
age for 20 years, that’s great, but
it’s not the real point of the
wine.” While La Spinetta’s
official motto is “making wines with
passion,” it could just as easily be
“drink sooner than later.”
Indeed, that was one of the main subjects at
that 1985 tasting. It’s a quality most
apparent
in Gallina, the first of the crus, but its
follow-up, Starderi, is the one that La
Spinetta devotees seek out for its opulence Then
there’s Valeirano—Rivetti’s
answer, perhaps, to those who fault the
hedonistic lifestyle of his wines. Yes,
it’s the one that defers to the cellar,
but not so much that you have to hold out for
long. Life’s too short to put a La
Spinetta Barbaresco down.
** Indicates Prearrival
‡ Free Delivery in Manhattan
La Spinetta Cru Barberesco
La
Spinetta 2004 Barbaresco 'Vigneto
Gallina'…$126.99**
La
Spinetta 2005 Barbaresco 'Vigneto
Gallina'…$126.99**
Vigneto Gallina, as aforementioned,
characteristically delivers the earliest
approachability of the crus. Just because
it’s highly stylized, though,
doesn’t mean that the terroir
isn’t palpable. In fact, the estate is
known for the balance it is able to achieve
between a wine’s concentration and its
structure. Indeed, in the 2004 vintage
Rivetti afforded terroir greater primacy by
reducing the aging period from 18 to 12
months and employing barriques with lower
toast levels than those used previously,
though he continues to employ only new
barrique. In addition to privileging the
transparency of the site, these modifications
brought Nebbiolo into greater relief. And in
the 2004 vintage, that fruit revels in its
newly acquired license to wax effusive,
delivering a heady, sensuous, Spinetta
perfume of dark fruit, spice, floral
nuances, and tar. On the palate, the
structure accommodates the fruit’s
expression, but it does so as its equal,
striking what seems an almost impossible
balance. You’d think that the 2005
would have had a hard time following such a
career performance. But it more than holds
its own, going so far as to deliver an
even finer structure, though the flavors of
super-ripe red cherry, plum, roses, and
truffle put things back in
perspective—this is La Spinetta after
all, so Gallina’s ready for you, though
not for long, with only 950 cases available.
Ditto for the ’04 at 960 cases.
La
Spinetta 2004 Barbaresco 'Vigneto
Starderi'…$126.99**
La
Spinetta 2005 Barbaresco 'Vigneto
Starderi'…$126.99**
Starderi followed Gallina’s debut the
vintage thereafter (1996), a premiere that
coincided with the start of Piemonte’s
Vintage Streak. It was an auspicious start
and quite appropriate for a personality like
Staderi. In fact, if you’re looking for
one to designate as the estate’s
unwritten Barbaresco flagship,
Starderi’s your cru, and you get the
sense that Rivetti and consulting French
enologist Stephano Mazzetta regard it as
such. If the name La Spinetta elicits a
thesaurus of synonyms for opulence, Staderi
is the tangible evocation of that compendium.
In vintage after vintage, it is the most
dramatically concentrated of the trio,
oftentimes entering the realm of the
exhibitionist with an abandon that seems to
take it out of the Barbaresco
appellation.
In the 2004 vintage, however, it handles its
provocative ways in a far more complex manner
than it is wont to do. It’s not that
the fruit isn’t super-concentrated, it
is—it’s just that there’s a
studied, sensitive air about this one that
seems to pull Starderi back from its usual
Dionysian fervor. The initial restraint soon
gives way to a profusion of rose, truffle,
and spice that overrides its Apollonian
temperament.
It’s quite possibly a benchmark in the
estate’s history. The 2005 is still
clearly
a Starderi production, and it celebrates its
trademark
persona through an evocative display of
berry fruit, autumnal spice, herbal notes,
and hints of tar and truffle.
La
Spinetta 2004 Barbaresco 'Vigneto
Valeirano'…$126.99**
La
Spinetta 2005 Barbaresco 'Vigneto
Valeirano'…$126.99**
Though restraint isn’t the
first—or even the last word—that
comes to mind when La Spinetta’s the
subject, the third cru in the La Spinetta
timeline (1997) is routinely noted for its
structure and austerity. Now
austerity’s a relative term at La
Spinetta, of course, for the fruit is still
quite ample and dense. Valeirano, however,
doesn’t go in for the kind of immediate
gratification that Gallina and Starderi
favor. It prefers to work itself out for
a while, allowing its
intensive,
almost pensive brooding to gradually abate and
moving away from introspection to express
the intricate amalgam of flavors that
it’s holding close.
While Valeirano holds true to form in this
respect in 2004, the vintage and
aforementioned changes in production
technique have worked in concert to make
apparent the incipient beauty this wine
will become. Even now, the strawberry, spice,
coffee, and plum flavors are beyond mere
suggestion: They’re on the threshold of
their awakening, requiring a briefer period
of aging in order to be experienced. In 2005,
Valeirano returns to its reserved state, but
even so, the process of integration has
already begun. In the glass, its dynamic
persona reveals the various facets of its
composition over several hours’
aeration, providing insight into the spectrum
of flavor—black cherry, blackberry,
menthol, tar, and truffle—that
maturation will realize. Only 580 cases of
both were crafted, rendering it the most
limited of the crus.
** Indicates Prearrival
La Spinetta Barolo Campè
La
Spinetta 2004 Barolo
Campe…$139.99**
It was only
a matter of time, of course, before Rivetti
took on Barolo with his provocative style.
Indeed, a principal source of inspiration for
the wine was Angelo Gaja, who had made his
move into Barolo back in 1988. Rivetti
followed Gaja’s lead once again in
2001, when he opened a Tuscan outpost for La
Spinetta—La Spinetta Casanova. Having
taken Gaja’s modern definition of
Barbaresco and rewriting it for La
Spinetta’s purposes, Rivetti had
essentially set up his estate to make its
mark on Piemonte’s most hallowed wine.
And, of course, he did things his way. Gaja
had strong family ties to Sperrs, the
vineyard he purchased; moreover, its
excellence had long been established. In
contrast to Gaja, Rivetti bought a vineyard,
Vigneto Campè, that not only lacked
Barolo credentials, but it also wasn’t
considered to be an area inherently suited
to Barolo production. It would be just like
Rivetti to do that, though, to set up an
unremarkable scene and then turn out another
La Spinetta stunner.
The 2004 continues Campè’s
streak, delivering La Spinetta’s
decadent style in an almost subversive form.
It’s almost as if Rivetti’s
outdone himself with Campè; so dense,
so overwhelming, so utterly La Spinetta is
the wine. If you’re a member of the La
Spinetta cult, though, you can handle it.
Rivetti would be proud.
Giacomo Conterno: Barolo Monfortino Riserva
Giacomo Conterno 2001 Barolo
Monfortino Riserva…$495.00**
There’s a lot going on in the
collector’s market: speculations
are already being made for Toscana and Piemonte
2007, and Bordeaux and Burgundy from the 2005
vintage have sent the futures market
into a frenzy. In short, the wine auction
market continues to outperform most financial
investments. The 2005 vintages of Château
Margaux and Château Lafite-Rothschild, for
example, are easily garnering $1,500 a
bottle, despite the fact
that each is part of a 20,000-plus case
production. Rather than looking forward
and getting caught up in the media activity,
we are
looking back to
Piemonte’s structured vintage of
2001 and the artisanal craftsmanship of that
vintage’s most important release,
Giacomo Conterno Barolo Monfortino
Riserva.
Barolo Monfortino is crafted exclusively in
vintages of the highest caliber.
Between the years of 1959 and 2001, it has
made
only 23 out of a possible 42
appearances, averaging fewer than 600 cases in
each vintage. Regarded as the
most significant Barolo on the
collector’s
market, Monfortino undergoes
longer maceration (an average of 35 days,
in contrast
to the typical 14-day provision) and
maturation periods
than
those of any other Barolo. While
it typically sees six or seven years in
Slavonian oak
(DOCG regulations require
only two years), certain vintages have
matured for ten
years in oak. (FYI: We are particularly
interested to see how the estate will handle
its most recent acquisition, the
Ceretto
Vineyard in Serralunga [3 hectares].
We’ll keep you posted on any
developments.)
The 2001 vintage marks the grand finale to the
five-year vintage streak that graced the
Langhe Hills.
A wine of
superior structure and
ethereal qualities, Monfortino is the most
tannic and
longest-lived of all
Piemonte’s Barolos. Favorable weather
in 2001 produced
wines of impeccable structure and powerful
aromatics. Conterno’s ’01
Monfortino is in keeping with this profile,
displaying a
significant backbone and substantive tannins.
While
the fruit
appears prominently, the wine's maturation
has modified its extravagance,
offering enhanced complexity and an earthy
quality.
Also Available:
Giacomo Conterno 2001 Barolo
Monfortino Riserva…$1,050.00 (1.5L)**
Giacomo Conterno 2000 Barolo
Monfortino Riserva…$371.25
Giacomo Conterno 2000 Barolo Monfortino
Riserva…
$799.95 (1.5L)
Giacomo Conterno 1999 Barolo Monfortino
Riserva…$1,650.00 (3.0L)
In addition to the Monfortino Riserva, the
Conterno
estate released a Barolo Riserva
from select vintages, a practice that
occurred
up until 1980. It is of note that during the
estate’s eight-plus decades
of winemaking, a separate riserva
bottling
was
produced in only in a handful of vintages,
making these true collector's gems.
Giacomo Conterno 1958 Barolo Riserva…
$629.95**^
**Indicates prearrival.
^Limited quantities available.
Giacomo Conterno: Barolo Cascina Francia
Giacomo Conterno 2004 Barolo Cascina
Francia…$165.00**
The distinction between Monfortino and
Cascina Francia, the
second Barolo from the Giacomo Conterno
estate, is not
rooted in
the vineyard but, rather,
in the vinification process, with
the main
differences deriving from
the length of the maceration and maturation
periods. While
Cascina
Francia’s maceration
period is three to four weeks, the
Monfortino’s may extend over a five-week
period. Moreover,
in the case of the latter, there is no
attempt made to
control temperature—a
weighty risk that carries the potential of
sacrificing the
entire production.
Cascina Francia represents classic Barolo,
an expression that presents “good body,
alcohol,
and tannins, plus that certain something
that gives
longevity,” elements
that represent the pillars of a noble wine
in the
philosophy of Giacomo Conterno.
The maturation period typically sees four
years of oak
aging; good vintages yield
only 1,500 cases. The ’04 release
showcases exquisite balance and offers Cascina
Francia’s trademark structure and
complexity, along with ample fruit. Given this
provision, the wine will benefit
from cellar maturation.
Also Available
Giacomo Conterno 2004 Barolo Cascina
Francia…$359.00 (1.5L) **
Giacomo Conterno 2003 Barolo Cascina
Francia…$110.00
Giacomo Conterno 2003 Barolo Cascina
Francia…$249.95 (1.5L)
**Indicates prearrival.
Giacomo Conterno: Barbera Cascina Francia
Giacomo
Conterno 2006 Barbera Cascina
Francia…$52.25**
It’s not always the case that
opposites attract. Conterno’s Barbera
Cascina Francia is the philosophical and
stylistic antithesis of that La Spinetta
Gallina Barbera. The differences are extreme
and irreconcilable, and each house
acknowledges only its own expression of
Barbera as the grape’s true form."
To us, however, this divergence is what
Piemonte is about. Both producers have a
place, and the conviction behind each is the
kind of passion that makes for equally
compelling wines. The 2006 Barbera Cascina
Francia is a testament to why you
shouldn’t, or to be more accurate,
can’t choose between
Piemonte’s coexisting wine cultures.
From the initial stirring perfume, the wine
has you—it’s a gentle embrace at
first, as the alluring and precisely
delineated scents of dark fruit, anise, tar,
and smoke evoke increasing clarity and
dimension. But the hold soon intensifies,
becoming a firm grasp as the wine’s
formidable character evolves, delivering
Cascina Francia’s hallmark tar, smoke,
and minerality. Then you realize that it has
taken the best of the preceding three
vintages—’03’s
concentration, ’04’s classicism,
and ’05’s modesty—and
integrated them in a singular production.
Also Available:
Giacomo Conterno 2005 Barbera Cascina
Francia…$88.00 (1.5L)
**Indicates prearrival.
November Tasting Events
Tastings to Consider for Early-Fall
A Taste of Thanksgiving Wines
Saturday, November 15, 1:00-3:00 p.m., $65.00
A Taste of Italy's Rising Stars
Saturday, November 22, 1:00-3:00 p.m., $65.00
To learn more about IWM’s Studio Regionale
Saturday Tasting Series, or to make
a reservation over the phone, contact Maryellen
Philipps at 212.473.2323, x129.
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