Roagna
Crichët Pajé Barbaresco Nebbiolo
Barbaresco, Cuneo, Piedmont, Italy
1998 Roagna Crichet Pajé Barbaresco. Leathery, a bit of rustic olive-laden barnyard brett, but not enough to drag the dinner into the barn; you are...drier than you are sweet, you have a garden with roses in your backyard, you are fresh and alive in your tart cherry vibrancy; you are not greying in the least. You seem a bit volatile at your deepest core; but you leverage that and still manage to be bright and aromatic with acid-laden, cranberry and bruised apple aromas on the finish alongside the roses, leather and tiny allusions to milk chocolate -- and even tinier allusions to eucalyptus. In spite of your bruises, you feel young all the same, with at least half of your life before you, or at the very least you still have many years before you are constrained to a walker or God forbid a wheelchair. Your drying tannins and lively acid are proof of your rustic vitality. And the fact that I purchased you from an unknowing merchant, whose former buyer left 7 yrs ago, for only $81.12, who warned me it "those wines stored up there were tasted recently, and most were bad...I gotta warn you this is probably not good", kind of bolsters my belief in Easter miracles. I gave you a 5% chance of showing well, and you rose on the third day (after buying what should have been your dead corpse).
1998 Roagna Crichet Pajé Barbaresco. Leathery, a bit of rustic olive-laden barnyard brett, but not enough to drag the dinner into the barn; you are...drier than you are sweet, you have a garden with roses in your backyard, you are fresh and alive in your tart cherry vibrancy; you are not greying in the least. You seem a bit volatile at your deepest core; but you leverage that and still manage to be bright and aromatic with acid-laden, cranberry and bruised apple aromas on the finish alongside the roses, leather and tiny allusions to milk chocolate -- and even tinier allusions to eucalyptus. In spite of your bruises, you feel young all the same, with at least half of your life before you, or at the very least you still have many years before you are constrained to a walker or God forbid a wheelchair. Your drying tannins and lively acid are proof of your rustic vitality. And the fact that I purchased you from an unknowing merchant, whose former buyer left 7 yrs ago, for only $81.12, who warned me it "those wines stored up there were tasted recently, and most were bad...I gotta warn you this is probably not good", kind of bolsters my belief in Easter miracles. I gave you a 5% chance of showing well, and you rose on the third day (after buying what should have been your dead corpse).
Apr 5th, 2015
Awesome stuff, but no where near ready, only just beginning to age. Such a classic tar, rose and orange peel nose with mint, massive concentration and a boatload of tannin still there, and acidity, and minerality and fruit and color still there. Excellent, but will become incredible if given enough time i think...1998 vintage.
Awesome stuff, but no where near ready, only just beginning to age. Such a classic tar, rose and orange peel nose with mint, massive concentration and a boatload of tannin still there, and acidity, and minerality and fruit and color still there. Excellent, but will become incredible if given enough time i think...1998 vintage.
Jan 13th, 2015
A knockout. Heady aromas of dark cherry, leather, tar, mint, bitter dark chocolate. A really fine example.
A knockout. Heady aromas of dark cherry, leather, tar, mint, bitter dark chocolate. A really fine example.
Oct 6th, 2019
