One From Gaja

“…this is a pleasure to drink right now, but its best days are still ahead of it…”

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My hopes were higher than my expectations for the big game, but in the end, there was only disappointment to be had either way. There’s been a lot of “armchair quarterbacking” going on around the Motor City since Sunday evening’s NFC Championship game, but all I will say is that it was a game the Detroit Lions could have very well won, which makes the outcome even crappier.

We did have some good wine to drink, however. I wanted something special for such an important game, and again, I figured a 20-year old wine should do the trick, especially one from a winery no less iconic than Gaja, located in Piedmont in northwestern Italy. It was just the “regular” Gaja Barbaresco, and not one of the even more prestigious (not to mention pricey) single vineyard selections, but it did the trick all right, with one timely qualification. Continue reading

A Beautiful Barolo

“The texture is silky, and while there’s still some structure here for further aging, this is drinking so well now, one can’t be blamed for pulling another cork soon.”

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Back when I first reviewed this wine in 2016, I wrote the following: “We don’t drink a lot of Barolo here at Gang Central, which is a shame, because it seems like every time we do, we ask ourselves why we don’t drink more.” After trying it again, 7 years later, I feel even more strongly in that regard. I pulled it from our cellar a few nights ago to open and enjoy with my wife Kim and our friends Shar Douglas and Ken Hebenstreit. I was very interested in seeing how it had developed during the intervening time, so when Shar took a sip and exclaimed, “Oh, this is nice,” I figured that the time in the cellar was well spent indeed. When I tasted it myself, any lingering doubts (not that I had many at all) were completely removed. Continue reading