Marchesi di Barolo: tasting the Barolo Cannubi 1982

At the end of the winery visit, lunch with Ernesto Abbona, President of Marchesi di Barolo, in the foresteria, a refined restaurant inside the estate. A tasting menu was served, paired with some of the winery's most representative wines. And a few hidden gems...

We begin with a Barbera d'Alba Piagal 2012, fresh, fragrant, perfect with the appetizer. Then, one by one, the three Barolo cru from the vintage (2011): first the Costa di Rose, then the Cannubi, then the Sarmassa. The first is intensely perfumed, floral. Never has a cru name been so fitting. After a few minutes in the glass it opens to hints of powder and fruity notes, tobacco, sweet liquorice and wild mint. Ethereal. The Cannubi immediately appears elegant, with deeper aromas, fruity in jam and undergrowth, tobacco and balsamic notes: refined and balanced. The Sarmassa is more austere, masculine; it remained closed for over twenty minutes before slowly opening to notes of violet, china bark, and earthy hints of mushroom and truffle. We return several times to the glasses already poured, while new ones are gradually brought in for the next wine.

We then moved on to the Barolo 2010, the traditional Barolo, an assemblage of various estate crus. Fruity and balanced. Very pleasant. Then comes the Cannubi 2005, with its distinctive green-colored label. "This label was chosen to differentiate this wine from the Cannubi that was bottled some years ago. This one spent much longer in refinement and was therefore only recently bottled". We enthusiasts thus run the "risk" of encountering two Barolo Cannubi 2005 from Marchesi di Barolo that followed two different paths. Immediate hints of camphor and a wonderfully fresh violet, which soon give way to more tertiary notes of tobacco, coffee, nutmeg and bay leaf.

And then the Cannubi 1982 arrives…

Cannubi, the most representative hill of Barolo, not just of the Barolo township. Spanning some thirty hectares, it is one of the most important vineyards in Italy, if not the entire world. It sits at an altitude that is all things considered not particularly high: the summit just exceeds 250 m above sea level, but the exposure is excellent (a south-to-east aspect) as is the ventilation, never excessive, given that Cannubi is sheltered by higher hills. The soil composition combines the characteristics of the oldest terrains, which emerged during the Helvetian period, with those of the more recent Tortonian soils. As a result, dark marlstone is present, blue-grey in color, rich in magnesium and manganese carbonates. At the surface the soil becomes lighter with sand and silt with a significant clay and limestone content, the so-called Marne di Sant'Agata.

Cannubi 1752 was the first bottle of wine to come – apparently – from grapes grown entirely on that hill. This happened long before the creation of modern Barolo, first bottled by the Marchesa di Barolo over ninety years later. And this speaks volumes about the prestige of this hill as a geographical designation, when one is fortunate enough to encounter it on a bottle of Barolo. And about the market valuations reached per hectare of vineyard, which have no equal in Italy.

And now I find myself with a glass of Barolo Cannubi 1982 in front of me. Ernesto: "I was undecided whether to open a 1982 or a 1985. But it had been a long time since I last tried a 1982". Thank you Ernesto for the opportunity you gave me – both were exceptional vintages in any case. "These bottles have not been on sale for some time: we open one occasionally to organize cultural events". If it were possible, I appreciate the importance of the moment even more.

On to the tasting. The wine has a beautiful, deep garnet color, with just a hint of orange at the rim. All things considered, a still youthful color for a Nebbiolo over thirty years old... giving the glass the appropriate circular motion, the wine forms the dense arches we expect. A sign of compact structure. It takes a while before it opens up. Ernesto uncorked it in advance, but the operation probably needed to be done even earlier: "I realize that at lunches like this, serving these wines is generally a disadvantage". Indeed. But slowly the thoroughbred that this Cannubi can only be emerges. Dark notes, earth, undergrowth, then pipe tobacco. Fruity memories of cherry in spirit soon give way to toasted hints, cocoa powder, coffee. But the wine changes in the glass and now notes of china bark and liquorice emerge. The palate leaves you breathless. A broad mouth, where the vibrant acidity finds a perfect synthesis with the alcohol in a caressing softness and with a balance that is astounding. Perfect tannins, silky yet present, plentiful, supporting a long finish measured in minutes, with retro-olfactory returns of liquorice and further balsamic notes. A moving wine – I am left speechless. I pour more into my glass under Ernesto's amused gaze.

We close the meal accompanying dessert with the Moscato d'Asti Zagara 2014, intensely perfumed with floral hints of geranium and rose. And, fittingly, of zagara.

What else could I add? Perhaps a wish to be able to experience something similar again. Next time, perhaps, with the Cannubi 1985!