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Barolo Falletto Le Rocche Riserva 2004 150cl

DOCG | Barolo | Piemonte | Italie
Épuisé
Évaluations et Scores
99 Robert Parker
The 2004 Barolo Riserva Le Rocche del Falletto 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!
Producteur
Azienda Agricola Falletto di Bruno Giacosa
Ces quarante dernières années, le méticuleux Bruno Giacosa a été à l’origine de Barolo et Barbaresco parmi les meilleurs du marché. Ses connaissances, sa passion et sa curiosité ont façonné la réputation de cette cave remarquable. Sa quête permanente des meilleurs raisins, issus des plus grands vignobles, a porté ses fruits, au sens propre comme au sens figuré. Hormis les vins qu’il élabore à partir de raisins achetés auprès de viticulteurs, qui sont commercialisés sous le nom de Casa Vinicola Bruno Giacosa, il s’est inspiré de la nouvelle vague de producteurs-récoltants en achetant des vignobles. Dénommés Asili à Barbaresco et Falletto à Serralunga, ces vins de domaine font figurer la mention Azienda Agricola sur l’étiquette. La réputation du domaine est fondée sur ses crus de Barbaresco - Asili, Rabajà et Santo Stefano - et ses crus de Barolo, baptisés Vigna Rionda. Ses Falletto et Villero exhibent la complexité harmonieuse du nebbiolo avec une aisance absolue. Au final, les efforts de Giacosa et les méthodes traditionnelles de l’œnologue Dante Scaglione se sont conjugués pour séduire tant les critiques que les amateurs avec leurs barbera, dolcetto et autres roero arneis.