The old men drink 1996 Barolo

I haven’t posted very often recently as my wine drinking has been greatly reduced and with less attention paid to each wine, still thoroughly enjoyed, but far less of a focus on note taking and documenting things. This evening was no different but given the wines it seems worth commenting upon.

What should four old guys drink on a Wednesday night? Not much is the answer. I rarely drink more than half a bottle at on sitting these days, one bottle max, so after a little discussion these four old men decided to drink modestly but well.

It had been awhile since we took a look at 196 Barolo so the theme was established. 1996 is for me the last of the old school vintages. Some vintages since have been old school in style, but the hard tannins of not perfectly ripe fruit have always been on display here, as have the less then squeaky clean nature of the wines, which certainly has something to do with the winemaking, but also seems to be a slight trait of the vintage. The aromatics have generally seemed to be running ahead of the palate with the vintage, almost since it was bottled, but the odd thing is that the aromatics have not moved as much as the palate in the nearly 30 years since then. The palates are catching up! And saying that is says quite a bit as these wines are still on the young side of maturity. They drink well enough now with an extended decent but all of the wines sampled tonight will make it to age 50 with plenty of joy left in the bottle.

We actually had 5 wines, as I brought a blind wine, sort of literally. I have a case of Francesco Rinaldi Cannubi that has been labels for years. Someone at some point decided to be helpful and moved the bottles from their moldering case to a stir shipper, neglecting to grab the labels which had all slipped off.  So I thought this would be a fun way to start things off.


I only recall the decanting for the pair of wines I brought, but all were decanted well in advance.

1996 Francesco Rinaldi Cannubi
I double decanted this at 3pm, served at 6:30pm

Braised herbs and sandy soil tones greet the nose along with polleny flowers. This is lovely, quite pure and clean, in fact it turns out to be the cleanest nose of the night.  Almost a hint of  sweetness on entry, then elegant and refined with good length, lacks the power of the rest of the group but really offers lots of pleasure.  Lots of red fruit graces the palate, with fine tannins and succulent acidity, this is also closer to peak than the other wines, lovely and still youthful. 93pts

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​1996 Giuseppe Rinaldi Barolo Brunate - le Coste

Black fruit, leather, and earth are accented on the nose with notes  dirtiness and VA that are subtle and add to rather than obscure the perfumes.  Quite minty with a touch of old leather horse saddle early on the palate followed by notes of caraway.  Medium body. Taut, tannic texture yields to rich cherry fruit with a touch of spice segueing into a long, plummy, and quite juicy finish plummy finish. This showed the best integration on the palate for much of the night, it was a joy to drink, even if the nose was not quite where it could have been. 95pts.

​1996 Giuseppe Mascarello Ca d’Morrissio

Lots of bouillon pops on the nose along with a hint caraway. Still a little marked by oak.It smells dark, dense and brooding.  Bright and vibrant in the mouth, working its way towards silky, but still rather dense and stern. This is packed with deep fruit that is somehow both rustic and refined. Lots of tannin, which clips the finish, though the core of black cherry fruit is deep and quite plump. This moved the least during dinner Maybe it will be immortal.  94pts

​1996 Bruno Giacosa Barbaresco Asili Riserva

​This was supposed to to be the Barolo Falletto Riserva, but old men can't read the small print that well. It was still wonderful, but much more elegant, delicate, and red fruited than the Baroli. 

Light on the nose with barrel influence still noticeable, accenting the  lingonberry and cranberry fruit that gains a hint of iron with air. Rather precise and detailed in a pretty way.. Focused on entry,  lots of snap on the palate with good flesh and lots of sweet, ripe tannins. Long and lithe with a sharp though long and red fruited finish that features a nice return of candied cherry fruit and a hint of VA. Still young, but on the elegant and refined side with the perceived sweetness and detail typical of Giacosa. 96pts

​1996 Giacomo Conterno Barolo Monfortino Riserva

I double decanted this at 8am, at which point this was lean and shrill, just tart, astringent water. The nose showed slight bouillon notes and little else. The bouillon came and went throughout the day. This wine was mostly about unsynchronized sine wavs all day, though the truth is that at 3pm this was looking pretty grim, thus the grabbing of the F Rinaldi.

We got to this last, so it was probably served around 7:30PM.

At first the nose was rather brown, just a little muddiness, caraway, root beer aromas, though with huge floral aromas backing it. This gained a lot of weight since opening but was still acid driven. Sweet tannins  emerged on the palate and the finish began to show gorgeous finest with very powerful flavors of old age and youthful fruit combined. Given another hour things turned around as the tired, oxidative notes faded into the background, the iron laced, wild cherry and subtle black berry flavors gained both sweetness and depth. This really gained another gear as we finished the bottle, showing a gorgeous blend of fruit, minerality, and floral notes on the nose, with a complicating note of brown spice, and sweet, delicious fruit nicely covering the firm tannins on the palate. 97pts

It was a good night with Jamie, Tom, and Ben.