WTN: Gattinara 2001

Gattinara 2001, Travaglini, DOCG Gattinara, Piemonte, Italy

Light red/brown colour with pink rim. On the nose there are strawberries, rasberries and truffle/earth. Medium body wine with some fruit and nice balanced tannins. Good lenght and slightly bitter end. Good stuff! Recommendable. Cool bottle.

[James Roscoe]

Welcome Havard, and a great note! Keep 'em coming.

Doris, this is another wine we should do an open mike on in the near future as it will get me to buy a bottle.

Thank you James! I was an on and off member of the old forum (netscape based?), and have been lurking around here for a while. Some serious discussions and food for a geek. Good work.

[James Roscoe]

This is a wine I need to have. I really love your description. I'm glad you found your way here. Stick around. We love our Scandinavian contingent.

We do, don't we, James?

JuliaB

Thanks, Havard. I'll have to see if I can find this wine here in Northern New England, USA. I adore good Gattinara.

-Paul W.

Well James, I liked it a lot. It is quite old school(traditional) with focus on balance and mature aromas. Very different from the fruitbombs served at any occation. And I think nebbiolo wines looks like Burgundy(perhaps Vosne/Gevrey?) which I like a lot. I am not a experienced wine drinker and would have bet my nickers this was a Burgundy in a blind test. It also offered me some good qpr. Like a village appellation Burgundy at half price.

Well James, I liked it a lot. It is quite old school(traditional) with focus on balance and mature aromas. Very different from the fruitbombs served at any occation. And I think nebbiolo wines looks like Burgundy(perhaps Vosne/Gevrey?) which I like a lot. I am not a experienced wine drinker and would have bet my nickers this was a Burgundy in a blind test. It also offered me some good qpr. Like a village appellation Burgundy at half price.

Whoa.

I'd never have thought a Gattinara could be mistaken for a Burgundy.

I agree that the best Gattinara is by no means a fruit bomb. But I'd have thought quite different from a Burgundy. I've never had the wine you tasted, but here's my evaluation of Gattinara vs. Burgundy, in general:

Color: Gattinara would be more forcefully colored--more of a purple vs. the pale red/garnet of the Burgundy.

Aroma: I'd expect the Gattinara to have the distinctive nebbiolo violets and black cherries with a bitter note, vs. the pinot noir aromas of strawberries and red cherries, perhaps with a bit of tomato.

Flavor: the Gattinara should follow through with the violets present also on the palate, with some bitterness (I don't know how else to express what exactly I mean here) present, along with wild cherry and currant flavors. For a Burgundy, more cherries and strawberries--the more bitter elements absent.

Finish: Gattinara probably with significant tannic whallop vs. the Burgundy.

Conclusion: I don't think I'd ever mistake a Gattinara for a Burgundy, or vice versa.

I'm perfectly willing to be proven wrong, especially if you're paying.

Salut,

-Paul W.

Håvard
Many thanks for this. It's a shame we don't see more of the Northern Piemonte Nebbiolo's around. I've just got one Gattinara - a 1979 by Nervi, which I'll be opening up in a couple of weeks with a few other Piemonte wines (a get together with friends).

... and yes a very cool bottle!

As regards burgundy comparisons - yes it's a different grape grown in a different region with different wine-making methods. On the whole there will be differences in the scents and flavours. However there are also similarities of weight and subtlety. In good examples, wines that don't stand out, but paying them your full attention can give more reward than more immediate wines. In this sense it's often acknowledged that the wines have a lot in common, but it's maybe more on style than flavours.

and Paul, never say you'd never get them mixed up in a blind tasting - some amazing mistakes have been made over the years by very skilled tasters.

regards

Ian

I'd never have thought a Gattinara could be mistaken for a Burgundy.

I've never pretended to be a good blind taster, but we have had many times in our blind tastings where I have mistaken Nebbiolo for Pinot. In fact I find them so similar in colour and red toned aromatics and earthiness that it is only the tannins of young Nebbiolo which might help me differentiate the two grapes in blind tastings. Yet even here is a problem: once Nebbiolo ages and the tannins soften, this hint doesn't apply anymore. And the other problem is that some producers in Burgundy (Faiveley, Gouges, etc.) make very tannic wines which I have mistaken for Nebbiolo in blind tastings.

Well, It was first of all the colour that made me think of Burgundys. I have not been drinking much nebbiolo, but this one is "traditionally" made (aged in botte) with a light red/brown hue. I guess other young nebbiolos made in a fruitier style have more of a purple and dense colour. (I think I recall that in a cheaper Lange d'Nebbiolo I had in october ).

Second, I find the "profile" of Nebbiolo and Pinot Noir quite similiar. They "should" be drunk out of the same kind of glass (at least if you belive in the gospel of Riedel ).

Regarding the world of blind tasting; (Correct me if I'm wrong here) but I think it was Michael Broadbent who was asked if he had ever mistaken a Bordeaux for a Burgundy. "Oh, not since lunch", was the answer.

Regarding the world of blind tasting; (Correct me if I'm wrong here) but I think it was Michael Broadbent who was asked if he had ever mistaken a Bordeaux for a Burgundy. "Oh, not since lunch", was the answer.

I've usually seen the quip attributed to Harry Waugh.

...and then there are those who claim that Nebbiolo is a Pinot Noir clone...