WTN: Rivetting Barolo

[Jenise]

2016 Alessandro Rivetto Barolo del Comune di Serralunga d'Alba Nebbiolo
Opened and poured one glass immediately, and found: classic tar and roses nebbiolo character. Great nose, full midpalate, great lift, body and finish--nothing hiding or out of place. Happy to have five more bottles. That was Wednesday night. I'll see how the rest of the bottle fared tonight.

But in the meantime, yesterday I went to an in-store tasting with a much-lauded Washington winemaker who left his decades-long post at DeLille winery to build his own brand on Red Mountain. He poured six wines, starting with a very dry, grassy, gooseberryish Sauv Blanc "in the French style", as he put it. I liked it, but it wasn't $35 special.

The second wine was a Grenache Blanc, not pale but I'd still call it light pink, which he dumbfounded me by characterizing as "a Tavel". It was decent if too sweet on entry for my tastes, and more importantly missing the dark green herb and mild sherry notes I love about Tavels. When I shared the winemaker's description in the back room with the shop owner, he too was incredulous. I rejoined the tasting to sample the four reds but gave up after two. With that bright 10 year old Barolo still in my palate memory for comparison, these wines were unpleasantly plodding and overweight.

I don't drink as much these days as I used to. I have the same high tolerance I seem to have been born with, but the craving--the involuntary suggestion that a glass of wine would improve the moment--just isn't there like it used to be. And if I do go there, one glass usually suffices. What seems to have changed along with that, and maybe I shouldn't correlate the two though I'm doing it, is my tolerance for brawny young new world reds like those poured last night. I'd rather drink a cheap supermarket Valpolicella--sure, it would be young and potentially unexciting, but at least it would be fresh.

I share a few issues with you. I really don't drink very much in any given week - maybe 1.5 bottles on average and never have more than 2-3 glasses any day. And I am definitely with you with the heavy new world reds. For me, the combination of completely fruit forward reds and high alcohol are a total turn off. For example, I only a have a few southern Rhones and Australian shiraz left in the cellar - I just keep them for tasting events (mainly our wine lunches). I now drink far more sparkling and white wines than reds. For some reason cabernets are still a favourite, as long as the alcohol isn't too high, but I'm more likely to turn to a pinot noir or Etna Rosso for a red.

The other issue we probably share that you didn't mention is the wine buying bug. I really don't need to buy many wines now - my wine storage is really full - but I still keep buying, albeit less than before.

[David M. Bueker]

Hi, my name is David, and I have a buying problem.

[Jenise]

Hi, my name is David, and I have a buying problem.

I do too in spite of the myriad reasons against it in my case. I have a six pack sitting in the foyer I haven't unpacked and two cases arrive this week. One of this week's cases is auction purchases--things that hi-grade my collection, so almost justifiable. The others fall into the zone of wines I want to try; I read about them, can't buy them locally, so I pick up the phone. This latter category I indulge in way too often for someone who doesn't drink daily any more.

I've been pretty good lately - just did a cellar update and there are 100 bottles less in there than there were 4 months ago!

But the distribution is changing - not buying as much from some areas as i used to - Australia, South Africa and of course the US (due to the ban on imports here) are slowly shrinking.

[Jenise]

That's a pretty healthy net decrease, Bill! I haven't made any progress at all since Bob died. I don't have more, but I don't have less. And I really do want to have less.

I'm not operating at Bill's torrid pace, but I have trimmed our cellar down by 60 bottles in the past 9 months. The motivations are twofold: Jean is trying to drink less as a means to weight loss (pro tip: the science I've read doesn't support the idea that alcohol intake reduction translates to weight reduction) and we're looking ahead to a move in the next 3-5 years and I've only stockpiled enough shippers for about 100 bottles. Oh, and there's also my confrontation with my own mortality in realizing that there's very little point in buying vins de garde at this point in my life.

I was expecting Rivetti notes, and got Rivetto, Sounds good.

Mark, reducing alcohol may not be a big weight loss factor, but I'm better at not overindulging in snacks if I don't have a couple glasses.

I really need to downsize, but like David have a buying problem.

[Jenise]

And totally off plan, I just put in an order for five more bottles. John will appreciate this: all Northern Italian whites. (An upcoming tasting is Northern Italy, but only those regions that share a border with another country. So, anything north, east and west of, but not including, Emilia Romagna.

I was expecting Rivetti notes, and got Rivetto, Sounds good.

Mark, reducing alcohol may not be a big weight loss factor, but I'm better at not overindulging in snacks if I don't have a couple glasses.

I really need to downsize, but like David have a buying problem.

Yeah, the collector's bug is something that infects us all to varying degrees, I'm sure. ("Look! Baudry Croix Boissee for less than $20 a bottle! What a deal!")

Regarding alcohol and weight loss: no debate that alcohol is an appetite stimulant, so it can indirectly affect caloric intake but there's been a lot of revisionist thinking about whether caloric content is really the best measure of a foodstuff's contribution to weight gain. Glycemic index may in the end be a far better indicator,* in which case wine doesn't look so bad.

*Brand-Miller JC, Holt SH, Pawlak DB, McMillan J. Glycemic index and obesity. Am J Clin Nutr. 2002 Jul;76(1):281S-5S. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/76/1.281S. PMID: 12081852.

Regarding alcohol and weight loss: no debate that alcohol is an appetite stimulant, so it can indirectly affect caloric intake but there's been a lot of revisionist thinking about whether caloric content is really the best measure of a foodstuff's contribution to weight gain. Glycemic index may in the end be a far better indicator,* in which case wine doesn't look so bad.

*Brand-Miller JC, Holt SH, Pawlak DB, McMillan J. Glycemic index and obesity. Am J Clin Nutr. 2002 Jul;76(1):281S-5S. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/76/1.281S. PMID: 12081852.

Interesting scientific points, but I guess the idea of reducing alcohol as one part of a broader weight-loss strategy still has some purchase. Or at least you haven't been able to convince your own wife of her scientific errors?!