WSET 1 tasting 5 2005 Radcliffe’s Barolo, DOCG Piemonte

Italy 13.5%, £19.49
Colour: clear – medium – garnet
Nose: clean – light – spice, cinnamon, nutmeg, dried fruit
Palate: dry – medium acid – high tannin – liquorice – short length
Conclusion: (poor) acceptable
I didn’t manage to bite my tongue despite having swilled wine all around it. Radcliffe’s is the own label of Threshers. After swallowing up many a chain to become the behemoth of the UK wine retail industry. ‘Lower your glasses and surrender your sips. We will add your biodynamic and retail distinctiveness to our own. Your (retail counter) culture will adapt to service us.’
Average room temperature is 20–25°C, to detect assimilation of a retailer an early sign is its internal temperature rises to 39.1°C. Nice to see the basic rules of wine storage ignored by the largest ‘independent’ (non-supermarket) retailer. Its leaders expressed disappointment on losing trade to the supermarkets. I say no more. After the sad demise of the Nicolas franchise in the UK, it is heartening that Oddbins is back in family hands.
So little to say about this actual bottle of wine that should promise a whole story.
Understanding the label
2005 vintage
Radcliffe’s the ‘producer’
Barolo is a wine style from Piemont, Italy
DOCG the top categorization of Italian wine
Barolo is not just any old wine style ‘the wine of kings, the king of wines.’ So called for many reasons.
Not only one of the finest of wines, it is said to be the greatest example of wines made from the Nebbiolo grape.
Beloved of the local Torino nobility, but additionally within the Barolo region the Verduno, Roddi and Serralunga d’Alba estates were in possession of the Italian royal households in the nineteenth century. This historic patronage, whilst a good spin, would mean nothing if the wine didn’t continue to deliver.
Piemont, Italy, is often compared to France’s great Burgundy. The regions within Piemont a great interlocking mass on the map. DOC statuses were marked in 1936, the same era as the ACs were being marked in France. DOCG status awarded to the finest Barolo estates in 1980.
As a style it is a big wine, the flavours whilst the wine is young too big to sit comfortably in a glass together. Most Barolos are aged for several years, up to several decades for the finest, the aggression dies down in the dominant flavours so the whole thing sings harmoniously. There is so much about Barolo, its fine traditions, its modernisation, its unique microclimates, its various ‘terroirs’ (what is Italian for terroir?). I’ll just pop this link in as it leads to many, many more: http://www.jancisrobinson.com/ocw/CH270.html

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