| 2009-01-27 20:09 |
IWC: Professional Tasting History (private)
By Stephen Tanzer
Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar, November/December 2007, Issue #135
(La Spinetta/Giorgio Rivetti Barolo Vigneto Campe) ($125) Good full medium red. Explosive aromas of strawberry, mocha, dried flowers, minerals and caramel. Powerful and tight-gained, with terrific concentration and grip. This very backward, minty wine comes across as cooler than the 2004 Barbarescos and all the better for it. A wine with outstanding depth of texture and big, building, thoroughly ripe tannins. This spent its first 18 months in new barriques and then was moved into stainless steel tank, from which it was to have been bottled the week after I tasted it. (An earlier sample, which had been taken from tank longer before I tried it, was wilder and more truffley, with sexy flavors of plum sauce, strawberry and beefsteak tomato, a more voluptuous texture and more extravagant sweetness. I had scored this sample about a point lower.) (93-95) points |
| 2009-01-27 20:10 |
WA: The 2004 Barolo Campe has put on quite a bit of weight since it was bottled. This massive, powerful Barolo flows from the glass with its signature over-ripe aromatics and masses of dark fruit, tobacco, leather and spices. The tannins build impressively on the long finish. Buckle your chinstraps, this is not a wine for the timid. Ultimately, I am not sure there is enough fruit to stand up to the wine’s structural components over the long-term. In choosing to bottle riservas from his best vines (see below) Rivetti is running the risk of compromising his non-riserva bottlings. Anticipated maturity: 2014-2024.
Giorgio Rivetti has another set of very solid wines on his hands with his 2005 Barbarescos. The wines have always shown terrific balance and are just a notch or two below his 2004s.
Importer: Indigenous Selection, Fort Lauderdale FL; tel. (954) 963-6251 |