Is 'Time' the Missing Ingredient for A Great Wine?
I ponder the mysteries of life over a bottle of Nebbiolo and a few slices of pizza.
Bruno Giacometto Canavese Nebbiolo 2016
Varieties: Nebbiolo
Region: Caluso, Piedmont, Italy
Producer: Bruno Giacometto
Costs: $30-$40
Missive: Is ‘Time’ the Missing Ingredient for A Great Wine?
Is time the answer to a great wine? What differentiates a good, attractive wine from a truly great one? Of course, everyone will have different answers for these questions. Regions, certain producers, and simply personal preferences. However, let me state one thing. The wine lover and nerd in me has come to appreciate one scientific fact about wine above all others: alchemy occurs in the bottle as time passes. True sorcery. Aromas and flavor profiles are summoned from the depths as though one were chanting above the bottle itself. Bright cherries turn into dark, Luxardo-style red fruit. Alpine herbs and spices replace blooming rose petals. Or walk alongside them, as the floral notes took on a drier, more earthy note. It will be an exciting one tonight, folks, as we have a lot to dive into.
The belle of the ball tonight is the ‘Canavese Nebbiolo’ bottling from Bruno Giacometto. The truly special part is that this bottle is from 2016. That means I am staring a ten-year-old Nebbiolo in the face. This wine really highlights Nebbiolo’s potential as it ages, and boy, does this grape mature gracefully. The acidity and tannins inherent in the grape really keep things floating. Plus, that’s before you even get into the use of oak, certain microclimates, and more. The simple fact is that even your standard Roero or Langhe Nebbiolo can handle some time. I’m here tonight to argue that it should take that time in a bottle. Said in another way, you should give it that time.
Let me highlight what this particular 2016 bottling of Nebbiolo offers the drinker to further entice you. There was so much power and aromatics from the time the bottle was opened. It was refreshing to know that at ten years old, this wine still had plenty of life left in it. The wine showed a deep garnet color with some rusted orange along the edges. Alright, everything checks out so far. The bright red cherry one would expect from a young Nebbiolo had morphed into an intensely dark cherry note. Luxardo-style cherries with a slight tartness to them.
The next category that really jumped out at me was the intriguing spice and herb factor. However, these tertiary notes were very much inherent to the region the wine comes from, as they had a pronounced Alpine note. There was an intriguing evergreen note, almost like sun-drenched cedar or pine, that really piqued my interest. Besides those, there was maybe the slightest vanilla and licorice element from the wine on the finish. At the very end, those sweet and oak elements persisted.
And how about the palate, you may be wondering. If the nose and aromatics are there, but the wine is dull, then what’s the point of it all? Well, as I said, this wine is meant to be around for the long haul. There is a shocking amount of acidity in this wine. That alone shows the importance of microclimate, as subtle shifts into the alto-Piemonte area enhance that liveliness aspect. That is in comparison to its Barolo and Barbaresco counterparts. I really get that grip and power from those regions, but alto-Piemonte really gives me that acidity and liveliness. The Nebbiolo tends to be a bit spicier and brighter for me. Clearly, with some time in the bottle, these wines can achieve something akin to their B-Town counterparts. That’s a hip reference to Barolo and Barbaresco. You have to get the youth interested in wine somehow.
Now we get to the theme of the night. Time. Time in the bottle, Time spent aging. Turning an interesting bottle of wine into a great bottle of wine. When you spend between $25 and $40 on a bottle of wine and get this much complexity out of it, you have to start asking the heavy questions. The one that really comes to mind is this: Are we drinking our wines too young?
On a larger industrial level, the emphasis is new vintage this, stop malolactic to bottle that, and it is not right. A wine is a wine. It’s a natural thing, a being of its own if you will. What wine lover wouldn’t argue that this thing we enjoy so much has some element of a soul to it? When you drink a wine, you are essentially collecting and experiencing various elements of souls that made that bottle possible. The part of the soul that a winemaker imparts to his or her product. The soul and energy of the region this wine hails from. And, in a way, the part of the soul that this wine hits on a personal level for YOU. Drinking a great bottle of wine is experiencing a soul-to-soul connection for that night. Tonight, this aged Nebbiolo hit me in a way that I needed. It reminded me that something great in nature often takes time to fully unravel and reveal itself.
I can be an impatient boy at times. I say boy because a good quality in a fully realized man, or person, is patience. At least the recognition of its importance in a healthy, balanced life. Patience is what allowed this wine to really come into itself. I feel as though I should embrace patience more in all aspects of my life. On a very wine-coded note, that could mean letting bottles sit for the long haul instead of finding an excuse to open them early. On a recent personal note, it could mean allowing things to take their course and knowing that anything great will handle the pressure of time in stride.
A great Nebbiolo and a great person will recognize the element of longevity in time. For me, it often comes in the form of reminders. A reminder that these dreams of mine are long-term goals, not things that will simply happen overnight or this year, even. A bottle like this serves as a reminder to me that those Piedmont red wines in my cellar should probably kick it there while I open some Beaujolais crus or Oregon Pinot Noirs instead.
Sometimes all we need is a subtle reminder in life. I love rereading my favorite books for that very reason. Heck, you will find me reading and writing about Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa in the next month or so. Make that reread number eight for a single book! We love what we love, folks. There is no shame in that. Far from it. When you love something, just go for it. Life is short; things happen as they do, and it takes courage and strength to love intensely in a changing, transient world. I will shout it from the rooftops: “I LOVE NEBBIOLO AND WHAT IT ACCOMPLISHES AS IT AGES IN BOTTLE.” I am not ashamed of that, and you should not be ashamed of what you love either. Heck, even if you are one of those people who love Amarone or ripasso-styled wines, there’s no judgment here! That is a joke, folks, and also a good reminder to stop while you are ahead. I am speaking to myself in that case. The TL;DR of tonight? Embrace what you love, allow time & longevity to be part of the conversation, and watch alchemy occur before your very eyes. Are we all capable of embodying the best version of Nebbiolo? We must be kings and queens in our own right.
Such wise words! Love the wine, the pizza, lobsters. All of it. So blessed to be along for the ride!
Wow! 💯❤️