Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Seghesio 2008 Barolo

What’s better than homemade lasagna and a bottle of Italian Barolo – not very much. We experienced this great pairing during a recent trip to a rustic cabin.

The lasagna was unique in that it was cooked in a wood fired stove. We gather with our college friends (almost) every year in a rustic cabin in Seneca State Forest in West Virginia. The cabins were built in the 1920s by the Civilian Conservation Corps and now are very much like well furnished lodges.

However the furnishings don’t go as far as electricity, running water or gas powered ovens. So this meal made by our friends came steaming out of the wood-fired cook stove. That’s a pretty hot proposition when you have to keep stoking the fire box while the temperature outside is 80 degrees.

The wine was courtesy of the International Wine of the Month Club. Barolo is named after the town from which it comes and is considered the “king” of Italian wines. It is a single vineyard wine from the Monforte zone of Barolo. This is a DOCG wine, the highest tier in the wine system of Italy.

This wine is rich with plum and noble flavors of red berries. Nebbiolo is the grape used and the Seghesio delivered flavor that was elegant but powerful. The group of a dozen enjoyed our meal at a communal table under soaring trees with a gurgling river a short distance away.

Barolo traces its history back to the Middle Ages and so our scene may be one that was duplicated countlessly over the years in Italy – friends enjoying wine from the Nebbiolo grape while eating a fire-cooked meal.

This wine was a revelation to me because I understood that Barolos should be aged 10 years or more before opening. The Seghesio was quite delicious only six years after vintage.

Drink them now or drink them later – Italian Barolo is a royal treat not to be missed.

Full disclosure: This wine was received as a marketing sample.
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