De Forville Nebbiolo d’Alba San Rocco 2007
There are some wines that you know are going to be good, even before you’ve had the chance to try them. Whether because of the producer or the importer, or perhaps the recommendation of a trusted source, these wines bring a wonderful degree of promise and sense of expectation to the glass. This was one of those, a wine that I had often imagined tasting and looked forward to with much anticipation.
The reason was two-fold. Firstly, De Forville is a Piedmont estate (and I love the wines of Piedmont) that I’ve read very good things about, especially the wines that they make from the famed Nebbiolo grape. Secondly, their wines are brought into the U.S. by Neal Rosenthal, my favorite wine importer by a long shot. The combination of a Piedmont wine, the Nebbiolo grape, and Neal Rosenthal as the importer was very exciting.
The De Forville family founded the estate in 1860 after first settling in Piedmont after leaving Belgium in 1848. Since then, the estate has been passed down from generation to generation and is managed today by Valter and Paolo Anfosso. The estate’s total holdings measure 10 hectares in the villages of Barbaresco (3.5 hectares) and Castagnole Lanze (6.5 hectares). The Nebbiolo grapes for this wine come entirely from the San Rocco Seno d’Elvio vineyard in the Barbaresco area.
In San Rocco, Nebbiolo d’Alba vineyards account for only 4.66% of the total plantings, with the majority going to Dolcetto d’Alba, Moscato d’Asti, and Barbera d’Alba. It’s one of the lesser areas of vineyards of those that contribute grapes to the great DOCG wine Barbaresco. Nonetheless, while Nebbiolo may not account for a large percentage of the grapes grown here, this noble variety has a long history of being planted here, and the De Forville estate uses Nebbiolo from throughout their holdings to produce a very well-regarded Barbaresco.
De Forville produces their wines pretty traditionally. After crushing, the grapes are left to ferment on their skins for as long as 4 weeks in the case of their Barbaresco. In late November, the wines are racked into large oak barrels (called “botti”) where malolactic fermentation occurs. Some of the Barbaresco and a Barbera that they produce are additionally aged in small oak barrels.
Tasting Notes
The nose is a complex blend of cranberries and candied cherries with the medicinal element of a ludens cough drop, underscored by a hint of a vanilla, and a foundation of warm earthiness. The palate is medium textured with huge, gripping tannins that threaten to grab hold of your taste buds and not let go. There are flavors of bing cherries, black licorice, tart raspberries, cocoa powder, and chili powder.With softer tannins the flavors would be more melded and pronounced, but at this stage they end up being just slightly muted. The finish is full of fresh, red fruits, with bowls of cranberries, raspberries, and strawberries, with subtle hints of mint and chipotle.
An absolutely intriguing wine, that I’m very lucky to have had the chance to try. I think it’s great now, and will be really stunning in a few years time.
It’s rare that I taste a wine and feel that it was opened before its prime. I’m really not that sophisticated when it comes to aging wines and having the patience to wait until they hit their prime. But in tasting this wine, and feeling the grip of those tannins and the influence that had on the presentation of the wine’s flavors, it was quite clear that in a few years, once those tannins mellowed and smoothed with time, the wine would be an absolute beauty to behold. So go! Buy a few bottles of this, stash them in your cellar, perhaps under the floorboards so that you forget they’re there.
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