Wine Advisor
Roagna, Barolo Vigna Rionda 2004
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Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
Roagna’s 2004 Barolo Vigna Rionda remains a mystery to me. I have tasted four bottles of this wine and found some variation. My first bottle was extraordinary, but subsequent bottles have been far less exciting. The wine possesses lovely liqueur-like fruit woven into suggestions of dried roses, spices and licorice. The best bottle reminded me of some of the greatest Vigna Riondas I have ever had in its freshness and structure, while other bottles have been more advanced, and while still pretty, lacking the sheer perfume and verve of the great bottle. That said, Nebbiolo can be a perplexing wine and some of the bottles may have just been shut down, so only time will tell which is the real Roagna Vigna Rionda. My best advice is to suggest that readers taste this wine before making any major commitments. This Barolo Vigna Rionda was vinified by Canale with the help of Luca Roagna. The wine saw a relatively short (by Roagna standards) maceration time of 60 days followed by roughly two years in oak. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2029. This is a fascinating set of wines from Roagna, a historic estate in Barbaresco that is once again gaining the visibility and recognition it deserves. Proprietor Luca Roagna is young, humble and incredibly passionate about preserving his family’s traditional approach to making wine. The estate works with old vines, which are trained to ripen late. In the cellar, macerations are very long and aging takes place primarily in French oak casks. Roagna is one of Italy’s most promising young producers and his future looks to be very bright. This year, as last, I found some of the wines not fully perfect in their aromatics, with notes of woodiness that suggest the wines may be spending too much time in barrel. According to Luca Roagna, these aromas and flavors can be attributed to the new barrels the estate began using around 2000. Still, my sense is that the wines could achieve an entirely different level of quality if a few years of the barrel aging were replaced with time in bottle. Importer: Louis Dressner Selections, New York, NY; tel. (212) 334-8191
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The 2004, tasted from magnum, impressed for the silkiness of its tannins and the purity of its fragrant, expressive fruit.
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
Roagna's 2004 Barolo Vigna Rionda remains a mystery to me. I have tasted four bottles of this wine and found some variation. My first bottle was extraordinary, but subsequent bottles have been far less exciting. The wine possesses lovely liqueur-like fruit woven into suggestions of dried roses, spices and licorice. The best bottle reminded me of some of the greatest Vigna Riondas I have ever had in its freshness and structure, while other bottles have been more advanced, and while still pretty, lacking the sheer perfume and verve of the great bottle. That said, Nebbiolo can be a perplexing wine and some of the bottles may have just been shut down, so only time will tell which is the real Roagna Vigna Rionda. My best advice is to suggest that readers taste this wine before making any major commitments. This Barolo Vigna Rionda was vinified by Canale with the help of Luca Roagna. The wine saw a relatively short (by Roagna standards) maceration time of 60 days followed by roughly two years in oak.
About the Producer
The fine estate of Roagna has long roots in the commune of Barbaresco, having been started very early in the twentieth century by Vincenzo Roagna. Vincenzo passed on the reigns to his son Giovanni Roagna, who in his turn saw his son Alfredo succeed him as the head of the estate. Today the property is run by Luca Roagna, the fifth generation of the family. Luca was born in 1980 and succeeded to winemaking for the property soon after his graduation from oenological school in 2001. The style of the estate’s wines has been carefully passed down through all five generations of Roagna family, with the wines made in a very traditional and classic style. These are deep, complex and structured wines that are built to age and handsomely reward cellaring. The heart of the Roagna estate is its six and a half hectares of vineyards in the commune of Barbaresco, most of these lying in the fine cru of Pajè. From the Pajè vineyard the Roagna family now makes three distinct cuvées, a Barbaresco “normale” labeled as Barbaresco “Pajè,” a Barbaresco Paje Vecchie Vite and “Crichët Pajè" - made from the crest of the Paje cru. In 1989 the family’s long-held aspirations of owning top level crus in Barolo comparable to their Pajè holdings in Barbaresco came true, when they purchased a parcel historically known as La Rocche e La Pira, in the fabled village of Castiglione Falletto. The vinification techniques at Roagna are still traditional though Luca has made noteworthy improvements and changes to the process. The fermentations are in cask and the macerations have gone from around thirty days to, on average, 60-90 days. The aging regimen depends a bit on the cru and vintage but go from 2-3 years to sometimes 8-10 and as much as 15-16 years for the Riserva, part of which is in cement. Luca has also switched all of their oak to the highest quality French oak that is 10cm thick – twice the thickness of a standard cask. These casks allow for a very slow and micro-oxygenation which adds to the elegance of the finished wines. In addition to their fine Barbaresco and Barolo bottlings, the property also makes a Langhe Rosso cuvée from “younger Nebbiolo vines” which in Luca’s case are under 25 years – hardly young by other producers’ standards. He also produces a chewy and intensely flavored Dolcetto, and a white wine that is a blend of 75-80% chardonnay and 20-25% Nebbiolo (vinified without the skins) which they label as Langhe Bianco Solea. The Langhe Bianco Solea is held for three years prior to release by the winery, and is a medium-full, fresh and pure white that typically offers up an aromatic blend of pear, flowers, a touch of honey and pastry cream. All of the estate’s wines are bottled unfined and unfiltered.
