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94 JG. "It had been several years since I last opened a bottle of the 1990 Bartolo out of my cellar, and as several of the 1990s I have tasted in recent times were really starting to drink very well, I thought the same might be true for this wine. Wrong! This is still a fairly young bottle of old school Barolo that has not yet started to blossom and remains at least five years away from beginning to drink with some of the generosity of maturity, but it is also one of the purest and most precise wines that one is likely to find from this fairly roasted vintage. The bouquet on the ’90 Bartolo is excellent, offering up a youthful blend of black cherries, cassis, oregano, road tar, roasted game and bonfires. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and very, very precise for a 1990, with a rock solid core, nascent complexity, tangy acids and still a fair bit of firm tannin perking up the very long, perfectly balanced finish. This has to be one of the wines of the vintage in 1990!" View From the Cellar, Jul/Aug 2014, Issue #52 |