Wednesday night pasta TNs: Three Baroli from Guido Porro

WINE TALK
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  • 2004 Guido Porro Barolo Vigna S. Caterina - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo (8/19/2020)
    Lovely - nicely focused on the palate, with sweet & sour cherry fruit, good acidity and persistence. This has time in front of it as well.
  • 2005 Guido Porro Barolo Vigna Lazzairasco - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo (8/19/2020)
    One of the few times where I prefer the S.Caterina bottling to this, as I just had the '04 & '05 S.Caterina.

This is good, but seems to betray the heat of '05 a little more than the other wine, with a subtle prune/overripe fruit note on the nose. Better on the palate, but tonight, my least favorite of the three.

  • 2005 Guido Porro Barolo Vigna S. Caterina - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo (8/19/2020)
    I just had a glass of the '04, and this wine is different, yet equally pleasurable. There is more of a crystalized cherry fruit thing here on the nose, and on the palate, the wine is less focused than the '04. For whatever reason, Porro seems to fly below the radar, but if you like your Barolo with a traditionalist bent, one could do a lot worse on a Wednesday night.

Posted from CellarTracker

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Interesting notes. Porro is a new name to me.

RT

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Nice to know the 05’s are still kicking. I drank mine up years ago.
Bob, have you tasted the younger vine Gianetto? I think it just came out in 2014(?).

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Thanks for sharing Bob. I agree an underrated producer that makes outstanding if not profound wines. Still solid value as well, and that is becoming a rare bird. Your note made me want to grab one but then I remembered it’s 107 here today. I’ll need to wait a couple months. Thanks again, and I hope you are well.

Todd

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107! Yeah, hard to get motivated for Barolo when it’s that hot.

Markus, until you mentioned it, I hadn’t heard of the Gianetto, so no, I’ve never tried that one. I generally prefer the Lazzairasco, but not last night.

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Thanks for the notes, Bob. Don’t forget (they’re very proud) Guido has some land in Vigna Rionda now, too. Such a nice farmer, family.

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Porro is a Kermit import, and the winery is just outside “downtown” Serralunga, with the Barolos coming from plots in the Lazzairasco cru. The Caterina is usually the lighter of the two, but both are good values in traditional Barolo.

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I just saw one in a local shop this past weekend for the first time. The person at the store couldn’t tell me how it compared to the ‘usual’ bottlings, so thought I’d ask you, Mr. Lover-of-Italia!

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Total production is under 2,500 cases a year. I suspect that Kermit Lynch doesn’t sent much or any east. The bottles I own came from K&L.
Here’s Kermit’s page on the property: Guido Porro | Our Wines | Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant

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I had a horizontal of the 14 Porros - Gianetto, S Caterina & Lazzairasco.

I don’t think 2014 was a representative vintage of the house. All three were uncharacteristically ripe and unstructured. If served blind, I would not have recognized any as Barolo.

The Gianetto was the lightest bodied of the three and my notes from the tasting include the term “glou glou”.

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Yeah, just checked my back labels and they were brought in by Lynch.

I also just checked Vinous, and it appears the last vintage that Antonio reviewed by them was 2011, which adds somewhat to my “under the radar” comment. Maybe, as John said, they’re not even available on the East coast anymore - the youngest vintage I have in the cellar is the 2010.

I find them to be solid, and made in a traditional style, but seldom revelatory, which echos Todd’s comment. I was not aware they now had holdings in Rionda.

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This thread jarred my memory that I own a few and even drank one.

I bought from Wine Library and its Cinderella Flash sale site. The price was right and I decided to take a chance on some wines for which I had no information (beyond Barolo + cost).
I bought some 2009 and 2010 Lazzairasco.
I went back to CT for my note: I now recall that I opened this to enjoy on an evening sail. Opened, had a small taste, put the cork back into the bottle. The wind was good when we started and picked up so we had to focus on sailing (including raising a spinnaker for extra excitement).
Alas, around 11 PM, we ran aground. Missed the marker on the lake as we were moving so fast. Hit the ledge and came to a lurching halt.
After about 4 hours of trying to drag us off the ledge, US Coast Guard arrived.
After 30 to 45 minutes of back and forth - “Sir, Yes Sir. No Sir. Sir, we are safe. No sir, we want to stay on the boat. Yes, Sir. Sir, can you try to help tow us off the ledge? No? Yes, Sir, I understand. Yes Sir, we will leave with you as it appears we have no choice.”

We departed with the Coast Guard.
Ending up drinking the wine from the bottle in the parking lot at 4AM while waiting for a ride home.
Might be time for me to open another one and actually taste it in a more ‘usual’ setting.

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So much for letting the bottle rest peacefully.

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The Vigna Rionda was replanted within the last 10 years, so the vines are very young. I recently received an offer for the Vigna Rionda 2016, at roughly 3x the price of the S Caterina/Lazzairasco, or 2/3 the price of a Massolino Vigna Rionda.

Not sure if the VR asking price is justified given the vine age.

Notwithstanding, happy to see this producer continue to fly under the radar…cru Serralunga cheaper than most producer’s entry-level Barolo.