Ernesto Grimaldi Barolo 1974

13% 720 ml

Ernesto Grimaldi was the father of Giacomo Grimaldi, who runs the Giacomo Grimaldi winery, mostly known for their Le Coste barolo from the commune of Barolo. Ernesto Grimaldi's barolo was exclusively sold to a restaurant. Giacomo began selling the wine commercially when he took over. As the family was intertwined with the Le Coste vineyard, it's a fair chance that this wine is from Le Coste.

Le Coste was known in the past as a vineyard that was blended with Cannubi. According to the Wine Atlas of the Langhe, it is one of the great vineyards of the Barolo commune, is almost entirely south-facing and G. Rinaldi's house is in the middle of the vineyard. G. Rinaldi blends this vineyard with his Brunate. The vineyard is just south of the town of Barolo itself. There is also a Le Coste vineyard in the Monforte commune as well.

Pristine bottle, great fill, cork came out in one piece. Decanted one hour.

"Tobacco scents. Poignant nose and palate. Tart. Concentrated. Intense rose nose. Tannic. Almost into rose bomb territory. Traditional, balanced, acidic, rich with deep savory nose. Striking. Classic. Gets more intense. Warm. Brisk. Smooth but taut. Rose w/ thorns (?) nose. Last glass was great - tannic and intense. Raspberries and strawberries"

Highly recommended although I can see the case for making a blend from this wine as it had a lot energy but seemed to be missing some key element that kept it from being great. Yet the wine had no faults at all and was very high quality. With airline pheasant breast and venison ravioli.

Off topic, I was looking at photos of 100's of obscure Barolo from the 1970's and '60's. Since you could see their addresses, it pointed out how many of the wines were made outside the district by firms with rather commercial or industrial sounding names who must have gone out of business once they were forced by regulation to produce within the zone. It further highlighted why producers within the zone made a point of saying that on the label or pointing out that it was made from estate grapes.

Thanks
Fraser