G. D. Vajra Barolo Albe 2007
Posted on 12 December 2011
Was having fried chicken for lunch yesterday and needed a bottle of red to go with that. On a whim, I opened the G. D. Vajra Barolo Albe 2007. Not everyday that I’ll have Barolo with chicken! (Though it can be worse: Charles Scicolone had pizza with some of the greatest old vintages!).
See here for an emotional profile of the G. D. Vajra winery, one of my two or three favourite on this planet. Actually I also have an emotional story with the Albe Barolo. When Aldo Vaira started bottling his own wine, he only made a cru version from the Bricco delle Viole winery (and a mighty fine Barolo that is). The Albe, a lighter, less structured vineyard blend, only came to existence with the 2000 vintage. The first time I drank that wine was during a major blackout here in Poland following an epic thunderstorm in July 2005. Electricity supply was cut off throughout central Poland and living way out of Warsaw, we had to wait no less than five days before power was back. Imagine five evenings with no TV, no blogging or web browsing, no telephone and no cooking… It was the most enjoyable five days of my life as we spent late nights on Scrabble and drinking up random bottles from the cellar. The Vajra Albe was among them and I can still remember its marbley minerality coupled with succulent raspberry.
Happy paradox: everyday Barolo.
This 2007 is bringing fond memories and is a very good wine on its own. But it’s also a surprising wine. I can’t remember having a less tannic, more approachable, fruit-driven Barolo at age 4. Aldo and Giuseppe Vaira do make this wine with early drinking in mind, and the warm, dry, pleasurable 2007 vintage has added to that. The structure is very low-key here, almost that of a serious Langhe Nebbiolo, though there’s that extra bit of density at mid-palate and texture that few Nebbiolos have. At the same time the wine is absolutely classic: the colour is transparent, there is never a hint of oak or excessive sweetness. It is just a great bottle to introduce a newbie to Barolo, or to open with no afterthoughts on fried chicken. Tomorrow I’ll try it with calamari. You only live once.
Disclosure
This bottle was kindly sent to me by the Vaira family.