WTN: RIP Joe Beppe Rosenberg(2001 Scavino Barolo)

Saturday we had out of town friends over for most of the day, but they were heading to relatives, so just us for dinner. Betsy made a dish of salmon atop a mushroom/asparagus/tomato* melange plus some quinoa, I opened a half-bottle of the 2001 Paolo Scavino Barolo. OK, so Barolo and salmon isn't exactly classic, but I wanted to open a Piedmont wine to toast Joe "Beppe" Rosenberg**. I remembered his opinion that Scavino was the best of the modernist "de Grazia gang. "

Just vanilla and a little black cherry -fairly mute. Into the decanter for a while till dinner time. Opened slightly, but still not very aromatic. Just tannins, a bit of acid, some dark fruit and vanilla. As we progress through dinner the vanilla fades, replaced by a harder more edgy toasted oak note. I leave one glass in the decanter, revisit hours later. Tannins have softened, but the oak is still aggressive. I didn't expect this much oak from the basic bottling. Maybe it will integrate with time, but I will pass on getting more. B-/C+

* Betsy has been making recipes from the Sonoma Diet Cookbook. Surprisingly good for diet overall. This wasn't one of my favorites- every once in the while the author comes up with flavor combinations that seem not very thought through- "I like mushrooms, I like asparagus, so...."
Still, it was ok, and salmon very good.

** Joe was a long-term contributor to AFW, where I also posted, and I met him a few times. He also posted on the old WLDG site, though I don't remember him making the transition to here. He died this last week. A sweet guy, though I confess I didn't always totally appreciate some of his humor. He had some insights into importing history (he used to rep some Italian brands, especialy Piedmont).

Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency

I never met Joe, but I remember a crazy thread between him and Dressner over on Wine Therapy. He posted a few times there under the name of "Tush", until he was kicked out by the Administrator. He did have a wacky sense of humor, a real WIWP.

Dale, can you direct me toward an announcement or other notification of Joe's passing. I would for sure like to read more of his last several years. I too always enjoyed his insights, and thought he was quite insightful on wines that he liked. Sorry to hear of his passing. Thanks.

Very sorry to hear of Joe's passing. He certainly had an "interesting" sense of humor but then again the internet wine world would be pretty dull without all of the interesting senses of humor.

RIP, Beppe.


Mike

Marc,
I don't usually read Therapy, and missed his thread with Dressner. But I remember seeing his initial post there (someone sent me an email saying "uh oh train wreck") where he posted notes, with scores, and a statement that he "calibrated 2-3 points below Robert Parker." I cringed and went away, feeling it was going to be too ugly to watch.

Bob,
On this thread Bill Loftin (ID starts with vze) knew him best:
http://tinyurl.com/yv74u9

Mike,
Interesting is a good word. I'll just say that all else aside, I never knew him to be mean online, which is probably more than most of us can say.

[David M. Bueker]

A very interesting fellow. I attended one offline dinner with him & then drove him back to his hotel. Let's just say I never got a word in edgewise in the 45 minute ride from offline to hotel.

Nice guy - strange tastes in wine.

I'm sorry to hear this. He definately *was* a character, like that loud man wearing red pants to a high school reunion. I knew him from my days at afw, reading his stories made him feel like you knew him, even though we never met. There was one year when he was going up north to a college reunion at Alfred and he emailed me to see if we could get together but something intervened and he never made it up here. Pity.
RIP, Joe (and sympathies to his wife). I'm sure there's a place for funnymen in the afterlife.

Mark