Giovanni Canonica Barolo Paiagallo

Wine 11 Spice, cool black fruit, leather and spicy spices. A bit coiled. Good balance, noticeable but sweet tannins and spicy finish.

Canonica Barolo (Hearth Restaurant, NYC) : [Opened about 6pm. Tasted around 8:30pm.] Overwhelming acetone in the nose and mouth. Sad. This vintage should be great.

Rating: 4,4/5,0.

Very true to the producer’s style. Could keep this for decades. I opened it in the morning and had a necessary / clandestine shoulder pour. Beautiful traditional barolo. It was breathing in the bottle all day with a small amount used for a bolognese and then enjoyed 12 hours later. It had tightened up, but all the characteristic barolo features were present- goudron, roses, black cherry.., Lovely wine and likely better ( with a long decant) in future decades

Giovanni Canonica tasting at HAN. Aired few hours in bottle already. Drank in Conterno Sensory. Atypical Barolo. Wow nose. Starts off as sexy high toned Burgundy and then morphs into Northern Rhone Syrah style. Appearance is clear, pale intensity, ruby colour. Long legs. Nose medium+ to pronounced intensity, with aromas of red nail polish, bright red cherries, strawberries, peony flowers, mint menthol, inner dark red cherry substance. With more air, white pepper and olives and purple fruits appear, lending this …

15.5% alcohol that I suspect is much closer to 16%. Smells like drunken maraschino cherries and I don’t think it will ever come together.

Too early.

In Enoclub, Alba. €130 off the list. Decanted 1/2 hour. Dark cherry fruit, smoke and tar here, perhaps the odd whiff of hazelnut. Medium/full on the palate, quite rich and dark-fruited, ripe, round tannins, notes of tar and meat, long finish. Quite compelling and surprisingly approachable.

Darker colour than the 19 Grinzane Cavour, nose of blueberries (reminds me of the Fenocchio Cannubi I had recently). More dark cherry and maybe into plum. Good acid. Quite a bit of menthol. Is much more closed. After air, got more red fruited and smoother. Then became really quite tannic. 93+ Ian D’Agata says “candied violet” which is probably equites to what I’m calling blueberries.

With Gianni A riper fruit and floral, deeper nose than the Grinzane Cavour. Luden's, cherry fruit, floral and a little sweet tart candy. Ripe and a little heady on the palate. These are pretty singular wines. Outstanding but maybe not for everyone