The Forgotten Bottle

A very interesting thing happened to me today that truly shocked me. On Tuesday afternoon, a supplier of mine came by with a wonderful bottle from the world famous Piedmont producer Roberto Voerzio; his 2006 Dolcetto d'Alba Priavino single vineyard.

But who is Roberto Voerzio you may ask? If there a demi-god in Barolo today, or should we say La Morra, it is Roberto Voerzio. His path to success has been based on what are considered to be the lowest yields of fruit in the Barolo zone. Production is very limited and the winery makes less than 4000 cases per vintage, which equals less than one bottle per vine! Some of his wines he only bottles into magnums (double bottles) because he thinks that they are wasted in 750mls. He is actually getting ready to release a 10 year old Riserva Barolo in two years that he made next to nothing of and it is supposed to be phenomenal. You’ve got to love eccentric winemakers.

This Dolcetto opened exceptionally tight and needed to breathe, so I had her leave the bottle and planned to come back to it later on. Then in the hustle and bustle that is work, I forgot that this bottle was even around. Today as we were receiving in some new products, I found this Voerzio bottle and decided to take it home to see if there was anything left to it.

This is a COMPLETELY different bottle than two days ago! I generally am not a huge fan of Dolcettos without food around (they are so dry and tannic, that only food really comes that down) however this truly surprised me. The color here had not faded in the slightest and the nose just exploded with flavor! Two days ago it was a big and powerful wine endowed with masses of dark varietal fruit and an equally imposing tannic might. Now that intensity had calmed down and that power changed over to the silkiest of complexities that I just love. One of my absolute favorite parts of this wine is that was completely unfiltered, so my last glass looked like someone had poured sand into my glass with the wine.

I love when the world surprises me, especially in the form of wine. Definitely keep an eye out for this treat as I know we will be getting in soon.