On Jan 28, 6:53*am, "Bi!!" > wrote:
> On Jan 27, 3:21 pm, DaleW > wrote:
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> > On Jan 27, 9:50 am, "Bi!!" > wrote:
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> > > 1997 Luigi Einaudi Barolo. I've posted notes on this before but it's
> > > been a while. I still have a few left from a case purchased on
> > > release. I opened last night with grilled veal chops and creamy
> > > polenta with white truffle butter. Dark red in the glass with just a
> > > faint hint of brick (I think many Barolos are normally a bit brickish
> > > in color) Typical Barolo nose of roses, tar, a bit of black tea and
> > > ripe black plums. Fairly ripe on the palate showing dense black
> > > cherry, plums, a bit of espresso and leather. Interesting sweet ripe
> > > fruit notes at the front with a fairly high toned acidity on the
> > > finish and fairly aggressive tannins. The wine could still use a few
> > > more years. "B+"
>
> > this is the normale? I drank my last bottle I think last year, thought
> > it reasonably mature with mostly resolved tannins. Bottle variation,
> > or maybe storage (I have good passive storage, but maybe tad warmer in
> > summer than ideal).
>
> I bought it directly from the distributor on release. *My cellar is a
> constant 55F (measured with a bottle probe not the air temp) *with 70%
> humidity. *I find that many of my wines are drinking "younger" than
> many of their counterparts from different cellars. *Before building
> the cellar 15 years or so ago, I found that my basement was actually
> cooler in the summer than in the winter since I air-conditioned the
> house in the summer the cool air would sink to the lower level and
> keep the cellar quite cool yet in the winter the heat from the furnace
> would actually increase the temp in the basement storage area to
> higher than the 62F that it was in the summer.

my range is basically 50-65 F, with very slow changes. Small
reasonably efficient furnace is not next to cellar, but even right
next to furnace it doesn't warm much. I probably bought this at retail
a year or two after release, so that might be another possibility. In
general my wines seem to age fairly gracefully, and this was fine,
just sounded a touch more mature than yours. In general I don't think
97s are real long term wines, though they've generally been tasty.