Wine Advisor
Bruno Giacosa, Barbaresco Asili Riserva 2011
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: James Suckling
This is an incredible wine that reminds me of the perfect 2000 Barolo Rocche del Falletto. Flowers, spices, leather and animals. Dried mushrooms too. Then changes to Japanese ginger and lemon peel. Full-bodied but refined and so long. It has layers of fruit and power. Decadent. Ripe and intense. Perfect balance and harmony. It will be released in 2016.
Reviewed by: Monica Larner
The 2011 Barbaresco Riserva Asili (red label) is a full and generous wine that wraps thickly over the senses. The bouquet shows enormous depth and power with a generous presentation of dark fruit, cassis, balsam herb, cola, licorice, tar and lingering smoke. There is an evident sense of fruit ripeness here that helps to build momentum and staying power. Clay soils in the vineyard site have also helped to contribute to the heft and full-bodied nature of this special wine. The finish is characterized by mild acidity and lingering flavors of ripe fruit. The opulent fruit of the wine recalls the 2007 and 2004 vintages.
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
Giacosa's 2011 Barbaresco Riserva Asili is soft, open-knit and quite approachable. A bit light in color and also slightly advanced, the 2011 gives the distinct impression it will be a relatively early drinker. The flavors are ripe and slightly roasted, but the 2011 avoids being heavy. The 2011 Asili Riserva is a solid effort from Bruno Giacosa, but it lacks the inner sweetness and visceral thrill of his best wines, the Red Labels in particular.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
(bottled in July of this year): Good medium red. Crushed cherry, raspberry, rose petal and botanical herbs on the tangy nose and palate. If the Santo Stefano is a more masculine, underbrushy style of nebbiolo, this one is a perfume bomb in the mouth, incredibly silky and fine-grained but with outstanding sappy tang to leaven its thickness. Most impressive today on the slowly mounting, elegant, mouth-saturating back end, which features big but fine-grained tannins and outstanding rising length. A real essence of nebbiolo.
About the Producer
Bruno Giacosa, located in the south and south-west of Piemonte, has been performing well for three generations, thanks to the careful selection of high quality grapes and the emphasis on traditional winemaking techniques. The vineyard covers 44.7 acres (18 hectares) and is planted with Nebbiolo d'Alba, Barbera and Dolcetto varieties. The average age of the vines is 15 years and the planting density is between 4,500 and 5,000 vines per hectare, with an average yield of 4,800 litres per hectare. In terms of winemaking, the owner has a classic quote: "For us, the philosophy of traditionalism means making wines that are not only strongly local to the vine and the grape variety, but also maintain the various local terroirs. We have always made single-variety wines. Our winemaking techniques have been improved and we also make use of gentle pressing, crushing operations, advanced rotary systems and optimised cold and hot treatment techniques." For Garcosa, technology and tradition are not necessarily at odds with each other. In the winemaking process, the grapes are first fermented in steel containers and then transferred to wooden containers for ageing, which varies slightly depending on the type of wine. Finally, the wine is bottled without filtering. The main wines produced by the winery are the Barbaresco Garina, the Barbaresco Santo Stefano, the Barbaresco Asili, the Barbaresco Wabasha and the Barbaresco Asili. Barbaresco Rabaja, Barolo Falletto and Barolo Le Rocche del Falletto. Some of the more recent vintages are 2001, 2000, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1990, 1989, 1982 and 1978. These vintages are often relatively closed and uninteresting when first bottled, but after 10 years in the cellar, they all show an irresistible magic.
