We can't go out on New Year's Eve. It's sort of a house arrest kind of thing. Long story. So we went out last night instead, and to celebrate the craziest, wackiest, most difficult and rewarding year of our lives - and my father's birthday - we went to dinner at Felidia, Lidia Bastianich's pseudo-aponymously titled wonderland of Italian cuisine. To top it all off, we ordered a bottle of thirteen year old nebbiolo from one of my favorite producers, Vietti.
According to Vietti's website, the Masseria "cru" is located in Neive, and the vineyard is planted with 4,600 plants per hectare. The vines are over 40 years old and "were grown by the Guyot system." The resultant wine is aged for 24 months in cask and another month in tank before bottling. Less than 500 cases are produced.
The 1995 Masseria *** was a dark garnet color with good opacity. While not as impressive to me as Vietti's 2003 Masseria **** which was full, wildly berry with menthol and pine notes and the texture of warm milk, the 1995 was a wonderful wine. It was slow to open up and reminded me at first of the 1988 Dunn and 1980 Caymus we tasted last month - woodsy and ephemeral - but this soon led to warm, ripe cherry-raspberry notes and displayed an almost fresh floral mid note in the glass. The finish was slow and not particularly long, but the mild texture of granite pebbles did not dissipate and the wine gained strength throughout the night. In retrospect, I should have asked they decant it.
Happy Birthday Dad!
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