MCF Rare Wine

Cascina Chicco Barolo Rocche 2013

Chris, Greg and I were tasting some wines last week, and we were blinded on today's offer.  We were all very intrigued by it, but none of us pegged it as what it actually was.

It was highly aromatic, light on its feet and very high-toned, and it finished with a very solid backbone of athletic tannin.  We were all pretty impressed and we guessed that it was Piedmont, but we pegged it as something from up North, in Alto-Piemonte.

When our rep pulled the foil off of the bottle, we were all pretty stunned to learn that it was a Barolo - the Cascina Chicco Rocche di Castelletto 2013 to be exact.

He then proceeded to pour us a few older vintages - 2010, 2008 and 2007 - and, as we went further back, you could see the way the wine puts on weight and becomes more recognizably-Barolo as it grows up.

(The 2008 was especially revelatory, as that's the vintage that shares the most in common with 2013.)

I asked him to leave me some, so that we could observe it with some air time, so he poured us a few glasses worth in a small decanter.

I came back to it after about an hour and the red Nebbiolo fruit had already beefed up.

I had another taste near closing time, though, and it was really starting to show exactly what the other vintages had.  With time, this old-school beauty blossoms and puts on significant breadth and depth. 

The deep, red, tarry Barolo character, one that had a distinctly mineral accent, was really beginning to come to the front.  

It's very Cappellano-esque in the way it plays things so close to the vest in the early going.

So here we are, at a place I didn't think I'd be, with a completely new (to my radar, at least) producer of top-quality Barolo being one of the ones I'm most excited about in a top-tier vintage.

No matter how much you think you know, there's always more to discover, and when you do, it's really exciting!

Cascina Chicco Barolo Rocche di Castelletto 2013

Matt Franco

MCF Rare Wine, Ltd
249 West 13th Street
New York 10011
mcf@mcf-rarewine.com
212.255.8870
www.mcf-rarewine.com