2011 Barolo at Four Seasons Restaurant, NYC (2/6/2016)

Morning Tasting of New Release Barolos at Antonio Galloni Vinous Media's La Festa del Barolo 2016.

We tasted one 2011 Barolo from each of the 15 producers represented. These were all current releases except the riserva from Scavino which can't be released until next year. All wines were opened around 9:30am and served cool (cellar temp). The tasting ran from 10:30am to 12:30am. The tasting was followed by lunch (see below).

Part 1 of this special event was a Gala dinner the previous evening.

Click on an image with a border for a much larger view of that image which may contain additional image.



The entrance to the Four Seasons Restaurant:

All set for the tasting:

Looking toward the back of the Pool Room across the pool from my seat.
(Note this is a 10MB file if you click on it.)

Panning across the front of the room: The producers in order of speaking and tasting.

A photo taken from the dais by Valter Fissore.
I'm on the left in the 2nd row in the maroon sweater,
then Jamie Wolff, Jonathan Doft, Greg dal Piaz.

Antonio gets the morning started.


Tough to get started at 10:30 the morning after the Gala dinner, but I quickly got up to speed. I'm a trooper!

This was a very informative tasting. And we had a chance to retaste some of the wine during the lunch that followed.


Flight 1: Cannubi
Chiara Boschis Paola Rinaldi & Barbara Sandrone


Flight 2: High Elevation Vineyards
Giuseppe Vajra Valter Fissore


Flight 3: Monforte
Alessandro e Gian Natale Fantino
(from their website)
Gianluca Grasso, who did smile,
just not in my photo.


Flight 4: Serralunga Wines from Castiglione Falletto Wineries
Lorenzo Scavino Alex Sanchez


Flight 5: Two Great Vineyards
Roberto Voerzio Luca Currado


Flight 6: Blends of Vineyards
Enrico Scavino Marta Rinaldi


Flight 7: Monvigliero
Vittore Alessandria Fabio Alessandria


Summary

Based on this tasting, 2011 is a very good vintage that produced mostly very tasty, early drinking wines. They lack the structure that makes a vintage like 2010 a great vintage.

My tasting notes posted from CellarTracker.


More People Pix

Roberto Voerzio, Enrico Scavino, and Enrico's
daughter Elisa Scavino chat after the tasting:

All the winemakers gathered for a photo opportunity before lunch:


If you have a subscription to Antonio Galloni's Vinous (highly recommended), there is a thread on this event and there are excellent videos from this event posted there.



Lunch

Lunch was served in the Grill Room with the wines from the tasting. Where there was something notable about the wines, I included it in my notes above. It was nice just to enjoy the wines with the food.

Mostly food photos, followed by mostly people photos.

Roasted Eggplant Caviar. This was so-so.

Four Seasons Hamburger. Delicious and an inspired choice.

Tasty frites.

Apple Tart. Delicious!


Looking Around the Grill Room:

Our long table to my left: Todd, Greg, Kelly, Henry.

Our long table to my right: Jonathan's nose,
Vittore Alessandria with the beard, our Somm standing.



 

 

 


All original content © Ken Vastola