MCF Rare Wine
Full Steam Barolo
Okay, I know that, just two days ago, in my last newsletter, I said that a cold weekend afternoon with a bottle of Burgundy is just about perfect...
...but...Barolo...
Cold, lazy afternoons with Barolo is perfect...no offense, but Barolo will always stand on my top step.
It's just a thing.
So, as many of you have walked into the store have discovered - usually by sense of smell - we cook a lot here at the shop, usually lunch, and often in a 'family meal' kind of setting, where one of us makes lunch for the whole team.
Well, just the other week, Raphael took the reigns and treated me and Ray to a wonderfully flavorful, comforting and coma-inducing lunch of Algerian style Couscous. I'll just say this, there was a lot of satisfied 'Mmmms' happening.
Rather fortuitously, I had just received a sample bottle of Luigi Oddero's 2015 Barolo Tradizionale, that I'd opened and decanted a couple hours earlier.
Rest assured, the yawning that began after lunch was finished wasn't only due to the food. The wine was fantastic - a classic, classic Barolo that blended the muscular richness of the 2015 vintage with the aromatic, rosy, earthy and mineral elements you expect from a traditionally styled Barolo.
It was one of those wines you couldn't stop sipping, just a juggernaut of full-steam-ahead Barolo appeal, made all the better by the bold, pungent flavors of the various stewed meats (including some impeccable Merguez sausages courtesy of our customer/friend Rich).
It would be remiss of me not to point out that the Luigi Oddero estate has been taken to its current level of brilliance by Dante Scaglioni, the longtime genius winemaker of the famed Bruno Giacosa estate.
Now, unless you've experienced great bottles of Giacosa from the Scaglione era of the '90s, a statement like this will likely not help all that much, but I have to say it anyway - every element of Dante's handiwork is apparent in these wines, not the least of which is the near perfect balance between power and finesse, a hallmark of classic Giacosa.
The only knock on this wine, if I had to point one out, would perhaps be the fact that it's soooo good already, and soooo reasonably priced for the quality, that very few people will hold onto any bottles for the next 5-10 years, which will certainly make it all the better.
Forget all you know, or think you know, about the 2015 vintage...
...and forget all you know drinking young Barolo.
Or, even better, forget all of your worries for a few hours and slowly take down a bottle of this...
...preferably with some appropriately comforting food...
...even better by the fireplace...
...maybe with a hockey game on in the background...
(Okay, that last part is just what I would do...)
FIGLI LUIGI ODDERO
Barolo Tradizionale 2015
You may order by emailing info@mcf-rarewine.com or calling 212.255.8870.
Matt Franco
MCF Rare Wine, Ltd
249 West 13th Street NYC 10011
212.255.8870
