Nova

Bianco Aldo 2008 Langhe Nebbiolo (Piedmont) – Dark fruit, with tannin and some acidity in place, but also with a sticky, coffee-like residue that detracts. Awkward and generally insignificant. (7/11)

Tori aimless

Produttori del Barbaresco 2008 Langhe Nebbiolo (Piedmont) – Corked. (2/11)

Don't it make you wanna Colla?

Poderi Colla 2006 Langhe Pinot Noir “Campo Romano” (Piedmont) – A recent closeout, purchased for very few dollars due to the retailer’s belief that it was of dubious quality. Dubious is not inaccurate, but I’m not quite sure how to characterize the qualitative state of the wine as it is now. First, I’m not sure whether or not I’d peg this as pinot noir without knowing same…smelling it while looking at the label, there are some obvious signs in the form of gentle, sweetish-berry and leaf aromatics, but the color (despite a quick fade at the rim) is a bit darker than the already-progressing nose would indicate, and there’s a spiky, very slightly volatile stridency to the aroma that elevates a pineapple-ish stowaway as it evaporates. Structurally – and again, knowing what the wine is when I say this – it speaks more of the Langhe than the grape, with a not-green-but-far-from-soft tannin more reminiscent of dolcetto, or even nebbiolo in its simplest forms, than of pinot noir. There’s no lack of acidity, either...one’s palate is awash in reactive liquids from the first moment this wine is sipped. I can’t say I have much confidence in this bottle’s future, though of course as a closeout its provenance has not been assured, but I don’t know how much I embrace its present, either. Since I didn’t have it at release, it’s hard to say much about it’s trajectory, either. As it stands: a zippy mouthful of conflicted influences, recognizable as what it is and where it’s from, but also challenging those notions, and while tasty enough in need of a calming and/or masking food companion to tame its more brazen inconsistencies. (10/10)

Colla cab

Poderi Colla 2007 Langhe Freisa (Piedmont) – Freisa comes in a fair range of styles, though it’s almost never clear which one is going to get without actually opening the bottle. Here’s one of the tight-frothed, almost slushy versions, reminiscent of its spiritual (if not actually related) peers among the lambrusco set. The vibrancy and intense pong of the violent purple churn – as intense as any fruit bomb but with light and verve rather than weight and tedium – is astew with violets and exotic pepper dust. Really, really fun. (9/10)

Jra-jra

Vajra 2008 Langhe Bianco (Piedmont) – No surprise, I suppose, that one of the most terroir-evocative grapes (in this case, riesling) shows something in equal parts unexpected and familiar in the soils of the Langhe. The familiar structure of crisp acid and steel-pole texture is there, with a little more generosity and openness, but there’s also a soft, almost mushroomy earth quality, and a slowly-rolling stew of clarified fruit chugging alongside. Really, really nice. (8/10)

A rosso is a rosso

Vajra 2006 Langhe Rosso (Piedmont) – Very pretty. Crushed, partially dried old roses, dark and a little dusty, but still pure. Soft earth. Gorgeous texture. And all for an absurdly low price. Hard to beat, really. (5/10)

Re of sunlight

Bologna “Serra dei Fiore” 2008 Langhe Riesling Renano “Re di Fiore” (Piedmont) – Very ferric, austere, and long. One must like drinking both iron and steel, though. Interesting. (3/10)

Don't be an Asso

Bologna “Serra dei Fiore” 2008 Langhe Chardonnay “Asso di Fiore” (Piedmont) – Peach and citrus rinds. Straightforward. Nice. Hey, it’s only chardonnay, what more do you want? (3/10)

Ed Fiore

Bologna “Serra dei Fiore” 2009 Langhe “Il Fiore” (Piedmont) – Chardonnay and nascetta. Possibly some other grapes; it’s a little unclear amidst the din of a crowded room. Very aromatic – citrus flowers, apples (with skin intact) – and a pleasant hint of fatness. Well-formed. (3/10)

Making a Liste, checking it twic

Damilano 2005 Barolo Liste (Piedmont) – Roses – a surplus of them – with absolutely brutal tannin. There’s fruit, too: red cherry and strawberry. Also, bark and a cheese rind texture (not the spoilage or refermentation aroma, just a texture). Probably balanced in its idiom, but the twenty or so years likely required to bring the tannin down to something manageable…I just don’t know. I doubt there’s the complexity or fruit persistence to sustain that sort of timeframe. I guess we’ll see. (3/10)

Tippe Cannubi (and Tyler too)

Damilano 2005 Barolo Brunate Cannubi (Piedmont) – Even more muscular than the Cannubi, with a wallop of angular tannin, but better-balanced. Yet again there’s some syrup marking the midpalate, after which it finishes hard. Steroidal, and then dressed in designer duds. Will this ever be drinkable? And why the sheen in the meantime? (3/10)

Cannubi any more annoying?

Damilano 2005 Barolo Cannubi (Piedmont) – Laughing roses and the expected mass of structural tannin. Underneath, however, there’s a swell of New Worldish concentration that pretties this wine up a little more than is good for it. The finish returns to the hard, hard road Barolo often travels. There’s a good wine in here somewhere, but I don’t think it’s been dealt with as well as it might have been. (3/10)

Autumn neighborhood

Il Falchetto 2009 Langhe Arneis (Piedmont) – Very lush fruit in the banana realm, but there’s an edge to it that’s more plantain-like…something greener and less ripe, combined with a textural ripeness that suggests, but does not deliver, an element of tropicality; a sort of Musa equipoise, if you will. Crystalline minerality coalesces over the course of a fairly long finish. Balanced and quite nice, perhaps with the potential to be even more than that. (3/10)

Serra smile

Bologna “Serra dei Fiori” 2005 Langhe “Il Fiore” (Piedmont) – 70% chardonnay, 30% riesling. This would, under normal circumstances, be a blend from hell. Here it sorta works, but only sorta. Bright, sunny fruit – fuller than riesling would be able to provide – is sharpened and cut by riesling, and there’s a little minerality in evidence. The problem, as I see it, is that while the riesling is transparent to whatever its grown in, weak-willed chardonnay is here transparent only to the riesling with which it’s blended. This works better than I would have guessed, and it’s a nice, drinkable wine, but I just don’t see the point. (9/09)

Two of grapes

Bruno Rivetti “Cascina Vano” 1998 Langhe “Duetto” (Piedmont) – While there’s a hard-edge crust of probably-unresolvable tannin, I think the rest of the elements are fully mature. Fine-particulate flower petals, dusty (and old) reddish-black fruit, walnut shells, some earth, and a fair murmur of acidity linger. A nice wine, albeit probably one without a “peak” as such. (9/09)

Sorriso sausage

Scavino 2001 Langhe “Sorriso” (Piedmont) – The must that overwhelms this wine is not that of cork contamination, but rather the stale aroma that seems common to overaged whites that were never meant to age in the first place. (4/09)

Just a Secca

Brovia 2006 Langhe Freisa “La Villerina Secca” (Piedmont) – Corked. (2/09)

Langhe than any bird ever flew

Vajra 2006 Langhe Rosso (Piedmont) – Fuzzy and a bit fusty, with the soft particulate texture one might expect, but brooding in the darkness of a troubled adolescence more than usual. Vintage effect? Bad bottle? There’s usually more appeal here. (2/09)

Ascheri, I'm in love

Ascheri 2004 Langhe Montalupa Viognier (Piedmont) – Already fraying at the edges a bit. It’s varietally true, in that there’s sticky-floral apricot with hints of dry honey, but with more clay-like minerality showing through than this heady, often lurid grape will usually allow. But it’s a bit gauzy, and you’ll want to drink it a few months ago. (12/08)

Ascheri before dinner

Ascheri 2005 Langhe Arneis (Piedmont) – The expected chalk soda texture is here, but what dominates is whitewashed minerality and semi-desiccated apple; it’s a striking expression of grape and place that simply won’t be ignored. Delicious. (10/08)