Monthly Archives: September 2010

It’s always difficult to plan tastings here as timings are quite difficult to gauge. Take this morning for example, we had an appointment at Franco Rocca for 10.30 and left 4 hours or so later after an impromptu lunch prepared by his lovely wife Susan.

Franco & Susan

Susan off to cook the pasta

Franco opens the Barbaresco

For me the highlights of the wines were:

Barbera Bricco Sepone 2007 which comes from 60 year old vines and spends 20-22 months in Botticelli. Dark, full bodied, chewy liquorice. I bought it in magnums (only a few left) for those winter stews.

Albesani Barbaresco 2006, which although exhibiting the big tannins of the vintage, is an elegant wine with lots of fruit evident.

(more…)

For the past week we have been enjoying the company of some old friends Steve (aka “Raucus”) and his long suffering wife Moya, who were determined to leave with a carload of wine. We have visited, tasted and bought wine from Sarotto, Ressia, Saria, La Ganghija, Voghera, Produttori del Barbaresco and Lodali and seen them off with enough drinking until next year’s visit, possibly.

Welcome passengers

(more…)

50 producers, around 90 wines and tasting fatigue: (un)fortunately we only managed around 3/4 over 2 of the 3 days! What was very clear is that most producers made decent, but early maturing Barbaresco in 2007 with less aggressive tannins than 2006 . (more…)

A tasting at the impressive new cantina of Roberto Sarotto can turn into a  marathon affair with such a variety of wines to savour. The new cantina will incorporate various tasting rooms and offices and also a wineshop with tasting bar. I am not sure how successful the wineshop will be as the Cantina is not the easiest to find but the idea is great.There is almost a perfect set of wines to satisfy every mood and taste.

Sarotto - new tasting/reception room almost complete

(more…)

This is always a special weekend when Piacere Barbaresco takes place and today whilst running errands in Neive I had a blinding idea. I noticed that there was a free special bus service that runs between the villages so you don’ t have to drive to and from the tasting. There was a timetable in the square by the station so we decided to walk the 2 km from the house and take the 1pm bus: brilliant! Fortunately we arrived 10 minutes before the scheduled departure time  and left 8 minutes early to arrive in Treiso just 2 minutes after we should have left. (more…)