Offer Archive 2004 San Germano Alfieri Pinot Noir | 2004 San Germano Alfieri Pinot Noir |
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| Saturday, 14 April 2007 | |
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1835 Pinot Noir Dear Friends, We’ve had some very special wines lately but this is right up there with the rarest and most revered. If you are a collector of the world’s top Grand Cru Burgundies (or Pinot Noir in general) this deserves a place in your cellar. It is a wine with one of the longest potential ageing curves and most unique personalities you will have the good graces to acquire... The Alfieri heritage is one of Italy’s most important and this wine is dedicated to their ancestors. 2004 was a great vintage in Piedmont for Barbera and for Pinot Noir, better than 2005 (I know, that sounds ridiculous as how many acres of Pinot Noir are there in Piedmont?) and this wine hails from one of the most revered parcels of Pinot Noir in Europe. It is a parcel lauded by a famous vintner of Chambertin and surrounding climates as “better than Chambertin”. This wine, the San Germano, is comprised mostly from a steep sector of vines planted in 1835 in the commune of San Martino Alfieri near Asti by Camillo Cavour, a relative of the Alfieri’s (in dog years, it would make them something like 700 years old). The plants are recognized as potentially Europe’s most historic pre-phylloxera series of vines left in existence and each gnarled, grizzled old veteran of the House of Savoy, multiple world wars, factions, governments, strife, chaos, exaltation and euphoria now produces less than one bottle of wine per plant. If you think you’ve tasted mineral dusted old-vine Pinot Noir sap from root structures up to 300 feet deep before, guess again. This is a singular experience and one that requires boatloads of patience to allow the vanilla cream sickle shell to melt away into an aged thing of terroir-specific beauty. This wine is treated like a Grand Cru from Gevrey and the masculine tannins and intensity of fruit and structure most closely resemble that northerly sector of the Cote d’Or. The fruit is as pure and razor sharp as can be with masses of red and black fruit tones that are begging to be released from the bottle. The influence of Barolo and Barbaresco cannot be left out of this wine as it shows a slight leaning toward the Piedmont classics with a rose water and brick essence that weaves in and out. This is certainly one of the world’s most distinctive and unique bottles of Pinot Noir but its graces do not come out for at least a decade (like Barolo). An amazing, if not iconoclastic wine for its challenge to Burgundy in a qualitative and pricing sense (if this were produced in Burgundy it would be $150+)\n This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it " target\u003d\"_blank\" onclick\u003d\"return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)\"\> This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it u003c/a\>\u003cbr\>\n\u003cbr\>\nThis wine arrives with impeccable provenance at some point in 2007. Out of state orders will be held for free under ideal storage conditions (56 degrees/70%humidity) until shipping is possible. Locals may pick up at their leisure.\u003cbr\>\n\u003cbr\>\nFirst local pick up date: We will post to our web site upon arrival\u003cbr\>\n\u003cbr\>\nFor current local pick up information, please see our “Arrivals” link on the new Garagiste web site (you will need to log in first before you can view the link): \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.garagistewine.com\" target\u003d\"_blank\" onclick\u003d\"return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)\"\>www.garagistewine.com\u003c/a\>",1] ); //--> From Gambero Rosso: “The Marquess Alfieri family, Lords of San Martino, is part of the history of Italy’s Piemonte Region. The vineyards surrounding their 17th Century Baroque Castle have remained in the family since 1337 and are renowned for top quality Barbera. Today, the winery is managed by the ”Three Princesses of Barbera” the San Martino di San Germano sisters who brought Mario Olivero’s award-winning skills from the renowned Col d’Orcia at Montalcino in 1999.” This is another wine that will be a “stump the host” favorite in a blind Burgundy tasting and its virtues will not go without much discourse (although you will have to wait a few years for it to unfold but it would make for a very interesting 2005 Burgundy vs. 2004 Alfieri comparison in a decade or so). VERY RARE - only a few hundred cases produced (less and less each vintage due to vine age): One shipment only at about the same price as in Italy: |
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