From our wine critic, David Neuman…

Even the most avid wine lovers sometimes question why they spend so much time, money and energy on their obsession. We may have come to wine through a singular, transforming experience with a sensational bottle. But the more wines we drink, the rarer those experiences become. Too many extravagantly touted wines possess neither personality nor a sense of place. Many seem to have been crafted to generate high ratings in a competitive tasting, rather than to be enjoyed as a beverage with food.

Still, if you open enough bottles, the magic eventually returns. We had this experience recently, when we savored an extraordinary bottle from the venerable Piemontese winemaker, Bruno Giacosa (Barbaresco di Asili, 1997) during a celebration dinner in a restaurant.

From the first sip (in fact, from the first whiff generated by the first swirl) it was clear we were in for something extraordinary. Medium to light bodied, the wine was a lovely light ruby in color, and its bouquet exploded out of the glass with an expressive nose of lilacs and wildflowers.

Its texture recalled pure silk, with an initial attack of nearly pure raspberry (my wife Beth remarked, “there is so much raspberry, this barely even tastes like wine”). Then, after a perceptible lessening of intensity, the flavors re-blossomed in a resounding crescendo that kept evolving and building into a finish that lasted twenty seconds or more.

Just as important, the wine harmonized with each one of the great variety of flavors we savored over a multi-course dinner. The wine’s red-fruits sweetness–complex and delicate–harmonized beautifully with the hearty meatiness of penne in a Bolognese sauce; it was also a perfect complement to the gaminess of a roast lamb (as well as the bitterness of its radicchio accompaniment). With enough acidity and earthiness to pair with the sweet-savory wine reduction that accompanied roast loin of rabbit, the wine’s acidity even made a successful match with a pasta in squid ink with cuttlefish.

Giacosa’s wines are works of art; they are a perfect expression of Piemonte’s nebbiolo grape, created by a winemaker who seems to love what he does and crafts his wines to satisfy his own exacting tastes, rather than the perceived tastes of a powerful critic.

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