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Monday, February 28, 2011

2006 Pio Cesare Barolo (Piemonte, Italy)



Sticking my nose into this wine instantly took me back to my visit to Barolo. It had a classic nose of roses and cherry, with some lovely earthiness and notes of polished wood. Unfortunately I don’t get to stick my nose into enough Barolo. While it’s reasonably priced when you’re in Italy (this wine would roughly be $50 when there), once it gets to Australia it pretty much doubles in price thanks to the costs in bringing it out here (understandable), but also because of the taxes on imported wines (protectionist and ultimately counterproductive). I decided to open, however, one of the 3 bottles I had bought for the Open That Bottle Night - http://www.openthatbottle.net/ -
an event that gives me the excuse to open an expensive bottle of wine without the requisite special occasion!

The wine smelled beautiful, as Barolo is wont to do, but then the palate was all class as well. In Barolo terms, it is medium-bodied and not overly tannic, and in that regard it is quite approachable now. However, to be drinking it now is to be drinking it years before its peak. It is a superbly balanced and structured wine with everything in its right place. It’s predominantly savoury, with drying tannins, but also has some lovely cherry fruit and that beautiful lick of liquorice that is Barolo to a tee. It’s all underpinned by a fine acidity. It’s a wine that feels like the complete package and just needs to be given a numbers of years in a cool cellar to express itself.

I was initially 4 stars with a “+” sign for the future on this wine, but as I had the last few mouthfuls on the second day of it being opened, it delivered that intensity and persistence that mark it out as something a bit special, so I decided to give it a nudge.
4.5 stars.

Rated:


RRP: $100
ABV: 14.5%



Red


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