In Gattinara and Ghemme, the hidden gems of Piedmont we already looked at the theory, but now it's time to open one of those rare bottles and discover what it all means in the glass. In this blog I will talk about Gattinara, the bottle of Ghemme is for the next occasion.
The first thing to notice in the glass is the light, almost transparent colour of the wine and the brown edges. This will not surprise you of course, since this is typical for the nebbiolo grape of which Gattinara is made. There is not much more to be said about the visual aspect of the wine, which is an excellent excuse to move on to the nose, because that is something special.
Everyone who has already tried a Barolo, Barbaresco or other good Nebbiolo will know what I'm talking about: violets, liquorice, sour cherries and other red fruits, combined with earthy tones, as if you are hiking through the forests of Piedmont looking for truffels. But this Gattinara does that in a way that I have not encountered in any other wine before. The aromas are both pronounced and delicate, overwhelming and yet almost ethereal. I could happily keep smelling this wine for an entire evening.
But I won't, of course, or I wouldn't be able to tell you how the wine tastes...
In the mouth the tannins are present, but soft, and in combination with the high acidity they bring a good structure to the wine. The body is not too full, which means the wine is fresh and elegant and doesn't feel too heavy. Personally, I wouldn't serve any stews or other heavy dishes with it, but a simple duck ragout would combine perfectly with the wine, without dominating its delicate fruity and earthy flavours.
In order to measure the wine's potential for ageing, I left the wine open for a night and tried again the next day, with a surprising result. As you would expect, the tannins are more interwoven with the flavours and the fresh young fruit tastes riper and more concentrated, but this came at the cost of losing the more delicate aromas. The wine is still excellent, as you might expect form a good quality aged nebbiolo, but it has lost that unique identity that I liked so much the previous day. This is of course only a simulation, and you will not get exactly the same result if you leave the bottle closed and in a good location for a few more years, but I would still advise you to drink this wine when it is still young. And to finish the bottle once it is open...
