Dott. Giacomo Damilano Barolo 1967

13% 750ml

Damilano Barolo is to be found in supermarkets today and even my Dad had one when I visited last. It's not known for quality, more quantity although they own/rent some prestigious vineyards, like Liste, Fossati, Cannubi, Cerequio and Brunate. Evidently they stopped making wine sometime in the 1980's (?) and restarted sometime in the 1990's (?). They are now the biggest producer of Cannubi (?). There is nothing in English about the earlier winery. The current winery is in La Morra although I associate them with Barolo.

This wine was being sold by a prominent east coast retailer as being from the cellars of one of their long time customers who'd passed away. I have no idea what vineyards they were producing from then but the current list intrigued me.

The bottle was pristine. The label very colorful, the fill good. Obviously a well-cared for bottle. The cork broke. Decanted for about a half hour.

Who put the Burgundy into my Barolo?

I've only had two or three aged pinots or burgundies and this very clearly reminded me of them.I would have never guessed Barolo. It was a very earthy wine. The main characteristic. Hardly any nose. There wasn't a lot of fruit. Forest floor, black cherry, savory, black tea. The wine opened dramatically as we drank it and got better and better. Very nicely balanced. The wine somehow had lots of acidity without being an acid bomb. It was a real frisky wine. It had a backend that really smacked you with acidity and could it also be tannins at this age? So a very earthy, frisky wine that was close to being a great wine. I was expecting the classical-ness of Cannubi or the Barolo commune but this was something completely different. Very highly recommended. I wonder if this was mildly corked as the fruit was mostly gone and the nose was wet doghair-like. If it was corked, uncorked bottles ought to be fantastic. I have another 1967 and the 78 and 82 to look forward to.

Thanks
Fraser