Ricossa Barolo 2004

I picked this up in another Tesco 50% off deal (£10 down from £20) a few months back. The exceptional vintage and the price made this an attractive buy.

This is my 3rd and final bottle of this wine. The other 2 were drunk in circumstances not conducive to blogging really - they were either not the only bottle of the night or we had a large group of guests over. In these situations I tend to forget about taking notes and just enjoy the atmosphere instead of worrying about what I am going to write.

The back label recommends decanting for at least 3 hours. When I first poured the wine into my decanter, it had quite a strong sulphur smell, which gave way after a few minutes to tar and sour cherries. The wine I suppose is elegant - Nebbiolo from Piedmont reminds me sometimes of red Burgundy - light in colour, medium in body with penetrating cherry aromatics. I think this particular one falls a bit short though. It took a couple of hours to open up, which is fine, but the palate is short on character and length.

If I had paid the full price of £20 I would be very disappointed. For a tenner though it's not bad, a step up from everyday wine, but not much more than that. A 3 on quality, but not good value.

MGM Mondo del Vino

Ricossa Barolo DOCG 2004

Piedmont, Italy

Tesco

£10 (£20)

3/5

Borgogno Barolo Classico Riserva 2001

(as part of a fine wine tasting)

This wine is causing me some confusion. According to the Borgogno website (see link below), "classico" Barolos are only released 10 years after the vintage. So here we are with a 2001 Barolo "Classico Riserva" and it's only 2009.

There is no mention on the website of "Classico Riserva", although there is something called "Barolo Storico Riserva", of which the latest vintage is 1990, so that can't be it.

I don't expect every producer to have every wine they ever produced on their website (although it would be nice). So either the website is just missing this product for some reason, or it's out of date. I've actually emailed them with my queries.

The wine itself was lovely though, all floral, perfumy, tar scents and flavours. Delicious.

UPDATE: I did indeed hear back from Borgogno. It was explained to me that the wine becomes a Riserva after 5 years from the harvest , and the policy of releasing it only after 10 years is an Italian national policy, so it doesn't apply here in the UK where the wines can be released earlier.

Borgogno
Barolo Classico Riserva 2001
Vinoteca
£38
4/5