Bruno Giacosa, Barolo Le Rocche del Falletto Riserva 2004

robert_parker99

Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni

The 2004 Barolo Riserva Falletto Vigna Le Rocche is off the charts. Sweet roses, menthol, tar, licorice and minerals come together in a sensual, elegant style that recalls Giacosa’s legendary 1989 Riserva Collina Rionda, a wine many observers (this one included) place at the top of the hierarchy of all-time legendary Barolos. Ripe, sensual, and utterly spellbinding, the 2004 Riserva Le Rocche del Falletto offers superb elegance and pedigree. At this stage the wine remains surprisingly accessible. Readers will want to taste the 2004 Rocche as soon as possible as it will almost certainly head for a long period of dormancy in the near future. This magical Barolo will likely merit a perfect score in the future. The 2004 Rocche is the last wine Giacosa and former longtime oenologist Dante Scaglione produced together from start to finish and it is an appropriate bookend to a wonderful partnership that yielded so many profound wines. Anticipated maturity: 2024-2044. Bruno Giacosa created quite a stir when he announced this spring that he would not bottle any of his 2006 Barolos and Barbarescos. While I wasn’t surprised he would pass on bottling a few wines – as early as spring 2007 Giacosa did not present the 2006 Barbaresco Santo Stefano and Barolo Croera in my annual barrel tastings – the decision to skip an entire vintage prompted a back and forth volley of polemics that is such an integral part of the Italian way of life. Clearly Giacosa had a difficult emotional relationship with these wines from the start, as they were made in the year he suffered a stroke and was absent from the winery for long periods of time. Perhaps Giacosa simply wanted to cancel the entire year from his memory. Or maybe it is a case where the vintage quality in Giacosa’s vineyards and later of the wines themselves in the cellar did not live up to his exacting standards. Given the emotional weight attached to this year I am not sure anyone – even Giacosa himself – will fully understand all of the circumstances behind the decision not to bottle the wines. After having tasted Giacosa’s 2006 Barolos and Barbarescos on numerous occasions I am convinced he has bottled lesser wines in the past. It is important to remember that virtually all of Piedmont’s top estates are essentially small, family-run wineries, and in that regard Giacosa is no exception. What seems pretty obvious at this point is that under normal circumstances without emotional duress, Giacosa and his team would have been better equipped to deal with the challenges of the harvest. Giacosa’s decision is more a reflection of the estate’s inability to deal with a difficult harvest (for understandable reasons) rather than a commentary on the intrinsic quality of the vintage itself. Giacosa may also have been prompted to skip an average year for his wines based on the exceptional juice he put into the bottle in the surrounding 2004, 2005 and 2007 vintages. Sadly, prices for the top bottles – the Red Label Barolo and Barbaresco Riservas in particular – continue to climb as collectors throughout the world recognize the quality of the wines. Still, at the risk of sounding out of touch with today’s economic environment, it is pretty clear that Giacosa’s finest wines remain relatively well-priced within the context of the world finest and most collectible wines. A recent bottle of the 1989 Barbaresco Riserva Santo Stefano stood shoulder to shoulder with the 1989 Haut-Brion and Rousseau’s 1990 Chambertin....in fact, it may have even surpassed those icons! A Leonardo Lo Cascio Selection, Winebow, Montvale, NJ; tel. (201) 445-0620

robert_parker97

Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni

2004 Barolo Riserva Falletto Vigna Le Rocche is dark burnished ruby. The structured 2004 Barolo Riserva is simply off the charts. Notes of spices and leather jump out of the glass followed by layers of dark fruit and rising tannins that coat the palate and teeth, followed by a gorgeous balsamic note on the finish. It comes across as a very complete and intensely satisfying wine. A super effort. (94-97) points, tasted 05/05 It is extremely rare for Giacosa to show his Barolos and Barbarescos at this young stage and the insight gained by tasting these wines is illuminating. These 2004s are already outrageous, and offer the well-delineated aromatics and expressive, layered flavors typical of a great year, although the vintage was not without its challenges. “2004 was a year where the vines tended to overproduce,” explains Scaglione. “We could have easily produced 120 quintali a term used to indicate the weight of harvested fruit per hectare, 1 quintale equals 100 kilos, and 80 quintali (8,000 kilos/8.8 tons) is the maximum allowed by law of fruit per hectare so we ended up dropping a lot of fruit to get to our desired level of about 65 quintali (7.15 tons). It was a perfect year in terms of the weather. Daytimes temperatures reached 30°C (86°F) during the day but fell to about 15°C (59°F) in the evening allowing the grapes to mature gradually.”

robert_parker97

Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni

2004 Barolo Riserva Falletto Vigna Le Rocche is one of my early favorites of the vintage. The 2004 Riserva displays an incredibly vivid personality in its vibrant layers of rose, violet, tar, smoke, spice, and menthol flavors, with superb length on the palate and great overall balance. Even at this early stage this Barolo shows its potential for greatness and it is illuminating to catch it at this early stage. A super effort. (94-97), 11/05 Bruno Giacosa is a famously shy and introverted man who shuns everything that has to do with public relations. Yet despite his unassuming presence, his wines are towering achievements that are rightly considered reference-point wines for the region. Giacosa typically doesn’t allow journalists to taste wines from barrel as several years ago the estate received negative reviews from a major US publication after having been provided barrel samples. So, needless to say it is a rare treat when Giacosa decides to personally show the wines and talk about their evolution. I was blown away by the quality of the wines, and by the extraordinary dignity and humility of Bruno Giacosa and enologist Dante Scaglione.

robert_parker99

Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni

As good as the Falletto is, the 2004 Barolo Riserva Falletto Vigna Le Rocche takes things to another level entirely. It exudes the essence of violets, tar, licorice, minerals and sweet dark fruit, with a profound expansiveness that saturates the palate. This big, imposing wine also remains superbly elegant and focused, with silky tannins that carry through to a long, satisfying finish. The sheer massiveness of its fruit hides the powerful tannins that lurk beneath, but this same bottle tasted a few hours later was completely shut down. This is a monumental effort from Bruno Giacosa, and has been nothing short of breathtaking on the several occasions I have had the privilege of tasting it. Incidentally, a bottle of the 2001 tasted a few days prior to my visit suggests that wine has entered what is likely to be a long period of dormancy. Anticipated maturity: 2014-2034. Bruno Giacosa’s profound 2004s, which I first wrote about in Issue 173, continue with these superb Barolos, all of which merit close attention. I also had a chance to re-taste the 2004 Barbarescos and they were as impressive as they have been on previous occasions. Importer: Winebow, Hohokus, NJ; tel. (201) 445-0620

vinous99

Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni

We finished with a beautiful flight of Barolo from the Falletto vineyard in Serralunga. Not surprisingly the highlight was the 2004 Barolo Le Rocche del Falletto, one of the greatest wines Giacosa has ever made. Silky tannins framed a core of elegant fruit in this sublime, emotionally moving Barolo.