1967 Piedmont….and White Truffles 

<table>
 <tbody><tr>
 <td>
 1967 Bruno Giacosa Barbaresco Riserva Speciale Asili &nbsp;&nbsp;
 </td>
 <td>
 95
 </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>
 1967 Giacomo Conterno Barolo
 </td>
 <td>
 94
 </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>
 1967 Gaja Barbaresco
 </td>
 <td>
 92
 </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>
 1967 Emidio Pepe Montepulciano d’Abruzzo
 </td>
 <td>
 93
 </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>
 1978 Bruno Giacosa Barolo Riserva Speciale
 Villero 
 </td>
 <td>
 99</td></tr></tbody></table>

A simple, casual dinner with
friends provided a great opportunity to check in on a few wines from Piedmont’s
1967 vintage. We were fortunate, as all of these wines were terrific. If
well-stored, the 1967s can still keep and drink well for at least a few more
years although the potential for further development seems exhausted at this
point.

Our menu was Nantucket Bay Scallops
with porcini mushrooms, homemade pasta, and poached egg, all of which were
generously topped with shaved white truffles. Everything about this dinner was
pure magic. I can’t think of a better way to ease into the fall…

<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1373254011577-Truffles+-+vinous.jpg"> 

We started with a pristine bottle
of Bruno Giacosa's 1967 Barbaresco
Riserva Speciale Asili. The fill on this bottle was unreal considering its
age, so I was not terribly surprised that the wine was initially firm and fresh.
With time, the wine softened and the inner Asili sweetness emerged in a
compelling display of elegance and power. In 1967 Giacosa had been bottling wines
under his own label for less than a decade, but the wines from this early
period already show a prodigious talent in bloom. Today Giacosa’s Barolos and
Barbarescos from the 1960s are exceedingly rare and are always a privilege to
drink. Gaja's 1967 Barbaresco was
denser in texture, with surprising depth and richness, if not the complexity or
freshness of the Giacosa. It too was a superb example and an absolutely
delicious wine. The Gaja winery was already well-known to discerning consumers
forty years ago, and with very good reason, as this and other bottles have
amply proven.

Giacomo Conterno's 1967 Barolo was awesome. It was similar to the
Gaja in the depth of its fruit, but with a more balsamic profile of mint,
leather, spices and tar. During this era Conterno sourced fruit from Monforte
and Serralunga, and this Barolo revealed the heft that is the hallmark of those
villages. Notwithstanding the wine’s masculinity, the finish was sweet, long
and sublime. This was an exceptional bottle.<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1373254032929-HomemadePastaWithTruffles+-+vinous.jpg"> 

Towards the end of the night, I
opened Emidio Pepe's 1967 Montepulciano
d'Abruzzo as a ringer, and it showed beautifully, with signature notes of
autumn leaves, tobacco, earthiness and spices. Tasting blind, everyone placed
this as Nebbiolo and I probably would have done so as well, as the textural
qualities were very much in line with those of the previous wines.

Bruno Giacosa's 1978 Barolo Riserva Speciale Villero was simply
monumental in its profoundness. A fabulously scented Barolo, it flowed with
tons of dark fruit, sweet spices, leather and minerals on a layered, powerful
frame. This was a sublime and totally breathtaking bottle that was among the
finest examples of this legendary wine I have had the pleasure to drink. At a
minimum this wine has another decade-plus of very fine drinking ahead of it. Bruno
Giacosa's 1978 Barolo Riserva Speciale Villero remains a benchmark wine capable
of holding its own with the finest wines from anywhere in the world. Readers
fortunate to still have a few bottles from this stellar Giacosa vintage in the
cellar should be thrilled.

<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1373254053083-Bottles+-+vinous.jpg"> 

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; -- Antonio Galloni

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