2008 Alba Wine Exhibition | Donna in Piedmont

Over 300 Piemontese wines over the course of five days, primarily those made with the grape Nebbiolo, like Barolo and Barbaresco, but also Barbera, Dolcetto, Moscato and Nebbiolo Langhe. It was an incredible sensory overload. This was my first ever serious horizontal tasting so I thought I would share some observations from a novices point of view.

It is called the Alba Wine Exhibition and is being put on the group called the Unione Produttori Vini Albesi. It is an invitation only gathering for a bunch of wine journalists and smaller group of the wine shop owners/buyers who specialize in the wines from this region to Alba for a five day intensive tasting of the newest vintage of Barolo (2004) and Barbaresco (2005) which are made with 100% Nebbiolo grapes.

Since I write more about food than wine, they allowed me to taste with the owners of the wine shops instead of the wine journalists, which means I can know the name and location of the winery while I am tasting them. The wine journalists are tasting blind, they only see a series of bottles with numbers on them.

The tasting is held at the wine school in Alba (School of Enological Studies). The room is light and airy, there are about 15 tables set up around the periphery of the room with a long table with wine bottles down the middle. Each wine has a number that corresponds to a list we receive each day. There are two professional sommeliers who take care of pouring the wines.

Not wanting to look like an idiot, I did a little research ahead of time:

Characteristics of the grape Nebbiolo - Fruit like cherry and other berry fruits, often with hints of pepper and herbs like rosemary, thyme and anice. Acidity which allows the wine to be a good food wine and tannins give the wine structure and allow the flavors of the wine to evolve as it ages. Often the smell, or nose of the wine will be reminiscent of light floral on one end of the scale, and tar or tobacco on the other.

Zone where the grape is grown - The primary focus of the tasting is on Barolo & Barbaresco, but it will also include Roero.

Characteristics of the vintage - 2005 for Barbaresco and 2004 for Barolo. 2004 was a hands down blissful year for the region. 2005 wasn't as perfect as 2004 (or 2001/1999/1996), but is was still pretty damn good.

I was all set to analyze the color/acidity/tanins/fruit/structure of each glass, but I will tell you, after the first 15 glasses I was holding on by my fingernails. All of my senses overwhelmed and I was way behind everyone else in the room. I still had another 45 wines to taste. After watching my co-tasters I noticed everyone generally followed the same process:

SWIRL
SNIFF
SWIRLL
TASTE
SPIT
MAKE NOTES
(repeat several times)
DUMP

Repeat 65 times
3 hours - 65 wines - 5 wines at a time

After my rough start I got into a groove and caught up with the group and thankfully didn't drool on myself once.

Aside from the 249 Barbaresco and Barolos, we will also be tasting Dolcetto, Barbera, Nebbiolo (d'Alba and Langhe), Arneis and Moscato.

Check back for comments on the Day 1 tasting - Barbaresco and Roero - 2005

Copyright 2008 Donna Macdonald