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Brunello in a Restaurant
On 25 May 2004 13:30:41 GMT, amnspam (Dale Williams)
wrote:
>>Is it me (Long Island, New York) or is pre 90 Brunello hard to find in
>>most restaurants?? In restaurants that are well stocked with Barolo
>>and Barberesco from this same period, I only find Brunello from maybe
>>90 or 93 almost definatly from 97. This a wine I would love to try
>>when it has had the chance to sit for twenty years or so. Is this
>>common in other parts of the U.S. or am I looking in the wrong
>>restaurants??
>>
>There are a few factors at play he
>1) With the exception of Biondi-Santi and maybe Soldera, not a lot of attention
>was paid to Brunello in US until the last 5-8 years. Many more labels are
>imported now than before.
>2) Before the explosion of regional Italian cooking over last decade, most
>restaurants were more or less generic "Italian". An upscale Italian place would
>put together a wine list with a few Chiantis, and a few Barolos - the most
>well-known names.
>3) Brunello is more accessible young than traditional Barolo, so more likely to
>have been drunk young.
>4) While good Brunello from a good vintage ages very well (in my limited
>experience), good Brunello for a mediocre or poor vintage doesn't. By contrast,
>Barolo from a mediocre vintage does ok. So I might buy a Barolo from a producer
>I liked 89, 88,87, 86, 85, 83, '82, '78, '71, etc. With Brunello I doubt I'd
>chance anything other than '88, '85, and '82.
>So less wines imported to start with, and less vintages still drinkable, means
>far fewer options.
>
>Dale
You point out a number of important issues. Certainly throughout much
of the US, the comment in para. 2 is the driving factor. Even in
upscale eateries, the focus was on French, California and occasionally
some German whites. In the last 10 years or so, there's been an
explosion of interest in the broad range of Italian wines, as well as
Australian, Oregon, Washington and many other regions.
One important factor is the ability of a restaurant to age wines.
Buying old wines isn't really cost-effective for a restaurant and
tying up capital in thousands of bottles being held for twenty years
in the basement in the hope that a.) the restaurant will survive that
long and b.) someone will want that particular wine in the long
distant future, isn't at all practical.
Dale's comments on the age-worthiness of Brunello' is enlightening. It
seems to track quite well with the experience I've had with a close
friend who spent 17 years in Europe and returned to the US in '95. He
brought back about 1500 bottles of Euro wines with a heavy
concentration of Alsatian whites and Brunellos in a addition to a
range of low-tier Bordeaux.
We've had the opportunity to share a number of the mid-'80s Brunellos
over dinners in the last four or five years and I must agree that the
drinkability has been only slightly above acceptable. Now, thanks to
Dale's input, I know why.
Older isn't always better.
Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
Smithsonian Institution Press
ISBN #1-58834-103-8
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