Cavallotto Piedmont Vigna Scot Dolcetto d'Alba 2012

The Cavallotto Piedmont Vigna Scot Dolcetto d'Alba 2012. The 2011 made my best of last year. This one will also and is my new Clubhouse leader.

I do love Dolcetto. This wine is just soooo beautiful and balanced and sexyasnuts and all the stuff that makes the wine drinker swoon. Full of roasted brown spices on the nose - cardamon, cinnamon and cassia bark. After a while in the glass the wine evolves with subtle scorched earth and prickly dark fruit. The palate is more spice and dark fruit with hints of salty fish sauce all held together perfectly with tight and fine tannins and acid. Superb. Just superb.

Drink till 2017
Drink with Guinness braised beef pie
97
Quality cork 13.5%v/v $36-$39

Girabaldi Piedmont Nebbiolo 2011

Ripe and juicy and stuck in a room with what seems to be a low ceiling. The Girabaldi Piedmont Conca d'Oro Nebbiolo 2011 is a wine that needs some air; either a good decanting or double decanting. A good decanting will do. After all of this you get a youthful Nebbiolo soaking in slick layers of bitter chocolate, dried flowers and herbs, tar, and what was a warmer than usual winter, a lick of warming alcohol - 14%v/v. A great little Nebbiolo and only $26. Bargain!!!

Drink with lamb shanks
Drink till 2018
93
Quality cork 14%v/v $26 Seddon Wine Store

Renato Ratti Piedmont Dolcetto D'Alba Colombe DOCG 2010

Ernest Hemingway wrote the classic WWI novel, 'A Farewell to Arms' where he chronicled his time as an ambulance driver in the Italian army. It is one of my favourite books. Early in the book Hemingway, in great, detail describes and then mocks the many beautiful army uniforms that the Italians were famous for, but not their fighting. If only Hemingway got a load of the is.

The Renato Ratti Piedmont Dolcetto D'Alba Colombe DOCG 2010, with the splendid army uniform circa the Napoleonic War, is all finesse and style but still has the mongrel and grunt to hold it s own on any front. Dusty garnet in the glass, the nose throws up earth and spice, tart dark fruit with as hint of bitter chocolate. The palate is pretty much more of the nose with tart dark fruit - think prickly plums, spice and earth all kept in tune with seamless acid and tannin balance. I love it!!!

Drink with bloody lamb
Drink till 2018
97
Quality cork 13%v/v $35 Seddon Wine Store

Ettore Germano Piedmont Dolcetto d'Alba 2009

Its turning out to be a Dolcetto year I reckon.

The Ettore Germano Piedmont Dolcetto d'Alba 2009 has had a very good run here in Brunswick this year, and without prejudice will continue to find its way in to our recycling bin. Bright and tart cherry aromas flow primary on the nose with a lick of nougat at the back of the nose. The palate opens up with fine chalky tannins and persistent acid and more cherry flavours flowing from tart to prickly ripe as the bottle develops over the night.

This is a wine for all you Pinot Noir drinkers who are eagerly waiting for the cracking 2012 wines to develop just a little bit more.

Drink with spicy pork sausage
Drink till 2016
96
Quality cork 13% $29 Seddon Wine Store

Cavallotto Piedmont Dolcetto d'Alba 2011

“If it is true that there is no greater sorrow than to remember a
happy time in a state of misery, it is just as true that calling up a
moment of anguish in a tranquil mood, seated quietly at one's desk, is
a source of profound satisfaction.” Primo Levi, The Periodic Table

All things beautiful do not always come from a happy place.


The Cavallotto Piedmont Dolcetto d'Alba 2011, like Primo Levi from near Turin, is a seductive work of tart red cherries and chalky fine tannins that flows in layers and just keeps giving. A beautiful work of art. Yes art. A stunning wine indeed.

Drink with osso bucco
Drink till 2024
98
Quality cork 13.5%v/v $33 Gertrude Street Enoteca, Fitzroy

Luigi Scavino Piedmont Azelia Dolcetto d'Alba 2010

The club house leader for 2013. The Luigi Scavino Piedmont Azelia Dolcetto d'Alba 2010 may not be sweet, but by golly packs a sweetasanut punch. Very dark in the glass, the wine gives lifting notes of tart cheery, brown spice and dusty tones that sort of gives the palate away. The mouth is full of direct tart fruit; raspberry and plum to the fore, with tight and checked tannins and acid working in perfect unison. If you like your red wine in summer, this has it in spades and then some. Just go and get it.

Drink with grilled eggplant and lamb back strap

Drink till 2019

96

Quality cork 13%v/v $30 Seddon Wine Store

Prunotto Ochetti Piedmont Nebbiolo d'Alba 2008

My lament is that only one glass gets washed around here these days; Erin only having wine a few days a week, which is cool though. Pitiful lament I know. But its the case so half bottle season it is! The Prunotto Occhetti Piedmont Nebbiolo d'Alba 2008 is all bells and whistles; its really everyhting you love about Nebbiolo, or Barolo for that matter, only its in a little bottle and perfect for one glass - 2 1/2 really. Chicken or the egg meets tomato/potato kind a thing if you get my drift.

Drink with juicy lamb chops
Drink till 2020
96
Quality cork 13.5%v/v $40ish Albert Street Food & Wine, Brunswick