Today’s Story: Damilano
Damilano is a family owned and operated wine estate located in Piedmont, Italy and they are known for their Cru Barolo bottlings from the Cannubi, Brunate, Cerequio, and Liste vineyards. The Damilano family traces their winemaking roots to the year 1890 when Giuseppe Borgogno, the great-grandfather of today’s owners, began making wines from the family vineyards. It wasn’t until 1935, however, that Damilano got its name and “official” start under Giuseppe’s son-in-law Giacomo Damilano. Giacomo worked to improve the quality of his family’s wines, ultimately passing the estate to his children and then his grandchildren Guido, Mario, and Paolo Damilano who run the estate today.
Today’s Wine: 2008 Barolo Cannubi
100% Nebbiolo; 15% ABV
The 2008 Barolo Cannubi is opaque deep garnet in color. Given an hour or two to open up, the nose showcases classic aromas of black cherry, black raspberry, anise, red rose, tobacco, truffle, basil, scorched earth, and oak. Meanwhile on the palate I get equally classic notes of black cherry, plum, baked strawberry, cola, black licorice, pipe tobacco, oregano, and mineral. This is full-bodied with medium acidity, grippy and dusty medium (+) tannins, and a medium length finish.
Price: $85. There is a lot of good here and I think the price is justified, but this is lacking in complexity and depth to really blow me away. Though the alcohol is not overbearing, at 15% you can tell it is there and this comes across as a more modern expression than I would like. It has all the great Barolo notes to it, but there are bottlings more my style around the $50-60 mark.
JB's Wine Talk 