An exciting visit ahead - The Bruno Giacosa sign is in downtown Neive but the winery is not at that location. It is a few blocks away with minimal signage.

Dante Scaglione, the winemaker, was our host for the quick tour and longer tasting. BG does fermentation only in stainless steel tanks. They purchase 70% of their grapes via long-term agreements and 30% fo the vineyards are owned.

There are two “companies” that make wine for Bruno Giacosa. The Bruno Giacosa Inc. wines include a sparkling wine, the Arneis and others. The other entity was created in 1996/97 call Azienda Agricola Falletto. One major difference between BG and other wineries is that they only use large French oak casks vs. Slovenian oak. They use no filtration and sometimes hold their wines for an extra year before bottling and selling.

Their total production is 120K (10K cases) bottles. Their new DOCGs are Dolgiani, Arneis and Roero and will be so designated in upcoming vintages.

They make an Extra Brut Spumante made from Pinot Noir since 1983. It averages 1.8 grams of residual sugar and they make 30K bottles. The grapes are grown in the hills outside of the region closer to Milan. We visited their production room where they riddle the wines.

65% of their wine is exported and 35% is held for the Italian market.

We proceeded to the tasting room where they were testing corks from bottles to get an idea of their rate of TCA. They cut the corks in half and had them in plastic cups with a little bit of water. Out of 70 corks they only found one cork with TCA. I thought this was pretty interesting and they wouldn’t speak too much more to it.

On vintages they weren’t thrilled with 2003 due to the extreme heat but felt that 2004 was a vast improvement. Dante switched into English at this point and stated “2004 will be VERY good”.

• 2003 Bruno Giacosa Brut Extra - Italy, Lombardia
  Tasted at the winery from magnum; Over 13.5% alcohol; 3 grams of residual sugar/litre. Very pale in color with medium bubbles and very sweet with a sort of sparkling lemon flavor. Quite pleasant but too sweet for my tastes. It did not have a Pinot flavor profile. €10 suggested retail. (87 pts.)


• 2006 Bruno Giacosa Roero Arneis - Italy, Piedmont, Alba, Roero DOC
  Tasted at the winery; This wine had pear, white flower aromas and flavors along with citrus on the finish with a touch of mint. No heaviness but maybe lighter on the acid than previous vintages. Good wine and generally a good bottling in most years. These are best consumed young. (88 pts.)


• 2003 Bruno Giacosa Barbaresco Asili - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco
  Tasted at the winery; Clear ruby in color; This wine spent 30 months in wood and was bottled in June 2006. It had dried flower aromas and well-defined but not extreme tannins. Medium-bodied and very balanced with few traces of the high alcohol. The winemaker indicated this wine could easily go 15-20 years but would probably decline after that due to the vintage. It was probably the best wine of the 2003s we tasted in Piedmont. €45 in Italy;15% alcohol. (91 pts.)


• 2001 Bruno Giacosa Barolo Riserva Le Rocche del Falletto di Serralunga d'Alba - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo
  Tasted at the winery from magnum; The nose was shy to start but became expansive after a few minutes in the glass. The aromas included cherries and spices and minerals. Similar flavors but the rose element was present in the middle and on the finish. Structurally this wine was immense, elegant and complex all at the same time. Silky in texture with a very long finish. The tannins were fine but present on the finish. This score was in the moment for a very young wine. How much better can it become? Potentially the best Barolo I've tried to date. (95 pts.)

Mark me as a Giacosa wine fan. I sat there and actually drank the wines (as opposed to tasting. ) This visit was worth going all the way to Piedmont.

Posted from CellarTracker