Borgogno Riserva

Some tastings are planned for months. This one happened because Alessio found five old Borgogno Riservas - 1958, 1964, 1967, 1971, 1978 - and the only reasonable response was to open them as soon as possible. No overthinking, no waiting for the perfect occasion. The bottles were there, the people were willing, Pantagruel had a table. That's enough.

Giacomo Borgogno & Figli, founded in 1761 in the town of Barolo itself, is one of Piedmont's oldest and most traditional estates. Their Riservas were made the old way - long maceration, years in large Slavonian oak, no concessions to fashion - and then held in the estate's cellars for decades before release. What landed on our table was twenty years of Barolo history in five glasses: from the quiet post-war classicism of 1958 to the still-restless energy of 1978, with the legendary 1971 vintage standing somewhere between youth and myth.

We opened with two sparkling whites - Il Falchetto's razor-edged Alta Langa and a Diebolt-Vallois Prestige from Cramant - and kept an Ogereau Chenin Blanc on hand throughout as a palate cleanser. The evening closed with Soldera's Brunello di Montalcino Riserva 2000, which proved that Nebbiolo doesn't hold a monopoly on transcendence.

One of the best tastings of the past year. Not because of the labels - because everything in every glass was still, impossibly, alive.

Tenuta Il Falchetto Alta Langa Blanc de Blancs Extra Brut 2021

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Diebolt-Vallois Prestige Blanc de Blancs (2021) NV

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Ogereau La Saponaire 2022

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Giacomo Borgogno Barolo Riserva 1958

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Giacomo Borgogno Barolo Riserva 1964

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Giacomo Borgogno Barolo Riserva 1967

Beautiful. Very fine, complex, more rounded and balanced than all the others - yet strangely reserved, as if it's holding something back. Fruit is still here, flowers too. Balsamic, coffee, earth. The fruit is genuinely gorgeous - delicate, not dried out, still singing quietly beneath the tertiary layers. If the '58 glows and the '71 roars, the '67 hums. The most elegant wine in the vertical, and perhaps the most underrated.

Giacomo Borgogno Barolo Riserva 1971

Extinguished cigar, tea, uzvar. You'd never guess this wine is fifty-five years old - it tastes absurdly young. High acidity, a tannin that's still fully charged. Complex, layered, utterly delicious. But also a touch aggressive - there's a green edge that hasn't rounded out, a restless energy that refuses to settle. It's beautiful precisely because it's unfinished, still arguing with time. The '71 vintage's legendary reputation? Earned. Every sip.

Giacomo Borgogno Barolo Riserva 1978

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Soldera Brunello di Montalcino Riserva 2000

Stunning. Blind, I'd have guessed Barbaresco from the '80s - that kind of transparency, that kind of lift. But no, this is Soldera, and it's simply an extraordinary wine. Impossibly complex and delicious. The fruit is breathtaking - luminous, vivid, dried wild strawberry, as if twenty-six years hadn't passed. Great concentration - pure bliss. Springy, with sunflower seed husks - or rather their shells - adding a dry, savoury counterpoint. Multilayered, tender, perfectly balanced, and so juicy. Case Basse at its most casually transcendent.

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