1990 Olga Raffault Chinon Les Picasses- France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Chinon (12/11/2020)
Decanted for 45 minutes. Dark garnet color with scarlet edges. Nose of savory green leaf, beautifully fragrant floral notes, currant, rocky earth, plum pits. Layers of lively plum, currant, anchoring earthy green elements, and tobacco gracing the palate. Smoothed tannin and still-bright acidity to keep things moving. Long finish of satisfying dark plum and peppery earth with grip and depth in spades. A surprisingly agile, fresh, and totally enjoyable wine at age 30. (93 pts.)
2001 Produttori del Barbaresco Barbaresco Riserva Moccagatta- Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco (12/4/2020)
Decanted for 3 hours. Opaque bricky ruby. Nose of plum blossom, full rose petal, somewhat searing tar, soy, camphor, saline. Palate revealed layers of delicious plum fruit, tarry earth, sweet grip, and resinous texture. Fresh acidity and serious but filed off tannin. Long finish of earthy red plum, tar, deep soil, and exquisite grip. Quite excellent now, could age for years. (92 pts.)
Doug thanks for the note on the '90 Les Picasses, as I have one on deck to drink in the next couple weeks. Your note is conistent with my experience the last time I opened this two years ago. Was hoping for some additional evolution since then but sounds like maybe not so much.
The '90 in my experience is just such a different beast than the '89 and '85; much more fruit/less savory than those. Still a nice wine though!
My last taste of this was two years ago also and in my view it really hasn’t evolved very much in the interim. Yes the fruit last night was evident and the wine was quite lively. Not bad for 3 decades old!
Totally agree with your comparison to '89 and '85. Actually did a side by side of '90 and '89 recently and while '90 was enjoyable, '89 was on another level.
Thanks for the notes, Doug. Agree on the differences between ‘89 and ‘90 Les Piscasses. My regrets are not buying cases of each vintage when they were released into the market for cheap a few years back, and already drinking the purchased bottles (all of which were great).
I bought 2 bottles of each ('89 and '90) several years ago, and agree that the vintages showed differently, though perhaps due to relief that bottles of unknown provenance can show so well, rated them about the same. My notes on the '89 indicate that I may not have decanted them long enough.
Thanks for the fine notes on a couple cool wines. I wish I had more older Raffalut, I don’t think I’ve ever had one that was less than excellent and all have been interesting and aging beautifully. Also, thanks for the note on the '01 PdB. I should check in on them soon.
Indeed, I should have gone longer on Olga Raffault! Sadly this was my last bottle of the older vintages. I purchased several bottles of the 2010 which will slumber for a while and the 2014 should be pretty awesome in a decade or so.
Haven’t sampled all that many 2001 Barbaresco/Barolo but the Produttori was really quite nice and with the decant was open for business. If you have a bunch, no harm in trying one now.