Barbaresco Wine Tasting

Gary shares one of his favorite wine regions, Barbaresco, a serious Italian wine to check out!

Hello everybody welcome to Wine Library TV. I am your host, Gary Vaynerchuck and this my friends is the Thunder Show, A.K.A. the internet’s most passionate wine program, and we sit here today as the year is getting closer to ending and it is all about Barbaresco, 100% Nebbiolo, only 10 miles from Barolo but clearly is at some level in the shadows of Barolo. Even though we have Gaia and Bruno Giacosa, Barbaresco continues to be value-driven, in my opinion. The wine’s rival, Barolo, a lot of people like them even more. They tend to ripen a little bit earlier than Barolo. Even though it’s 10 miles away, they come across completely different with the same varietal. That’s what you call terroir, my friends. It’s a place that first got the OC status in 1966 and then later became a DOCG in 1980. So it’s been on the competitive world stage for quite a while now and continue to pump out tremendous wines that are pretty pricey, $40.00, $60.00, $72.00. Not a little drop in the bucket. These wines get expensive, very collectible, last for 10 to 20 years pretty easily, and really create profound drinking experiences. So I'm excited about this show. I am excited to start with the Ronchi 2005 Barbaresco. It’s a great wine, 92 points wine spectator, $40.00. Let’s see what’s going on here. These are great wines with cheese, pasta, veal. They really are amazing wines in general. I’ve been a big fan of Barbaresco for a long time. Let’s get this a sniffy-sniff. And the thing that’s undeniable is like this licorice—like cherry licorice spell that I get. Anyway, good fruit, I get some cherry juice things going on here. There’s a little bit of—kind of like a peppermint minty thing in the back end, which is quite intriguing and unusual for me. But it’s really bright red fruit. There’s a little bit of creaminess, a hint of tobacco. Let’s give it a whirl. Good fruit, quite nice, let’s give it one more shot. Tannins, really dry. It’s a big boy! It did a full round. I mean, heavy cigar-like flavors. I get a little bit of smokiness, maybe like a Serrano smoked ham flavor in there as well, dark cherries, dark blackcurrant, really ripe fruit—dry. Your mouth is dry and you like it. It’s kind of like, “Thank you.” “You’re welcome.” Very solid stuff, quite approachable but very youthful. It needs some more time breathing. A little black tea on the back end and there’s kind of like a clove-type flavor on the back end that I think is quite remarkable. I think the spectator did a great job. I’m in love with this wine actually. 92 points is right—the par of the course for it. And at $40.00, I think it’s a fairly good deal. a pretty exciting way to start the show. It brought some serious heat. I like it. I like it a lot. Let’s give it a little bit of a rinsy-rinse. And now, we’re going with an amazing producer, the Cigliuti 2004 Vigne Erte Barbaresco, 91 points wine spectator, 45% alcohol. 91 points, $60.00, let’s see what’s going on here. This is a tough job. Sniffy-sniff. Now, this is much more earthy on the nose than the last wine, not even close. I get a really heavy top soil fertilizer action, some rocks and dirt, just like a real man’s man kind of nose. There’s a little bit of a plum component that I like. There’s alcohol popping through a little bit, so the nose is much more difficult, challenging than the last wine. Let’s give it a whirl. Bold, big, dry, I like the raspberry flavor that hit me in the mid-palate. It’s a little bit less complex than the last wine, believe it or not, even though it’s 50% more. Good wine though, oh boy! I mean if you’re not drinking Barbaresco, I beg of you that you make it a New Year’s resolution because these wines are serious. And, in Tyra Banks talk, these wines are fierce. I mean these are big, solid, structured, burly, immense, complex, thoughtful, long age worthy vino. They are very good. Both these wines are shining right now. I’m going to—wow! I am all in with wine spectator. I’m going to do 91 points on this as well, so I don’t know. I mean, it’s amazing. Anyway, great job! I agree for my palate. Great wines, not the least expensive wines I’ve ever seen, but both are great. This is one of the categories—and I know you guys watch a lot. I feel like such a celeb. But part of this show—no, not part of it—this show is about calling—sometimes, a category comes along that’s great for my palate. I love the dryness. I love the sense of old world flavors while having some new world sensibility. I think that’s the way it should be, good core values while adapting to new technology. That’s kind of what I think about. That’s what these wines are doing, just really structured but still bringing some good, good thunder. Roagna 2004 Montefico Barbaresco, 95 points Antonio Galloni, $72.00. 95 points Galloni for anybody out there who reads wine advocate, Robert Parker’s wine advocate, you know this is a big score. Galloni is a tough critic. This is what I love about Barbaresco Nebbiolo. You can see your fingers through it. It’s got that Pinot Noir type coloring, but the flavor is just massive. Let’s hold this like a tool. Sniffy-sniff it up with me folks. Now, this almost smells like a pine tree or some piney maple kind of things going on in here, very earthy as well, very earthy. It’s kind of like sticking your nose into an ant farm, just kind of like insecty, and that’s kind of what that maple—it kind of smells like bug repellant actually. That’s where I’m going. Notice that—it’s funny how the mind works. Ant farm, maple, pine, you know how it’s pine scented? The mind is so interesting. I get very much like a bug repellant kind of thing going on here. I do get some black fruit, a little mulberry actually. Let’s give it a whirl, very earthy-functified—a little functified action in here, a little earth, wind and fire. Let’s give it a whirl. Very complex. This is the tightest wine of them all, dry city USA. A big shout out to the CKCs. You know, I’m excited. I blubbered it. Is that what it sounded like to you? It was a big shout out to the CKCs, College Kid Crew. I met a couple the other day. Anyway, this is a fascinating wine. I am nowhere close to as excited about this wine as Galloni is. It’s very tight, it’s big. Again, we’re popping, we’re pouring, we’re assessing in 30 minutes—30 seconds. That’s a complete insane way to do this, but it’s just the way we do it. But I’m not liking this much. For my palate, it’s about a 90-pointer and at $72.00, pass. I was downright punked to try this wine, so I’m a little bit disappointed. Some of the energy that just came from there, I thought it was really climaxing to this big moment. It didn’t do it for me unfortunately, and that’s fine. But I’m a little sad. 90 points but three wines, all 90 and above. That happens twice a year, so a great way as we are winding down this year. The wines showed well. This is just a little bit of a disappointment. I just want to go back here. A little sniffy-sniff, yeah, this is the first wine for $40.00. Spectacular! Early Super Bowl predictions, who’s going to be in the Super Bowl and what’s going to be the score? You, with a little bit of me—and please, if you have not had Barbaresco before, please make it one of the first wines you have in 2010, please—we’re changing the wine world whether they like it or not.