Today was the final day of the Alba Wine Exhibition's grand tastings. the morning session today focused on the wines of Monforte and Serralunga. As usual I was tasting blind but I did notice when we moved from Monforte to Serralunga. That medicinal character of the wines really poppoed out immediately and while I am not sure what the wines were the fact that the wine exhibited their terroir today is a very promising sign indeed.

Much like the past 2 days there was a lot of tough going. the tannins in these 2005s are not subtle, they are a touch dry, chewy and very youthful, and sadly there really isn't a shortage of additional wood tannins. Having said that 2005 is a vintage where one really gets to see why great crus are considered great, why great winemakers are considered great, and why certain villages in the Barolo region are so renowned.

I think the strongest wines of the week have been those from Castiglione falletto and Serralunga with Monforte coming in a close second. I'll work on my notes, pairing each blind tasting note with the bottle tasted and then will post the notes soon, hopefully I'll get started by Sunday!

Today was a rather slow day. After the morning tasting was over we had a leisurely lunch, asparagus and gnocchi in pesto for those interested, before heading off to visit a small producer in southern Monforte, Flavio Roddolo. The vines here are planted in steep hillsides just outside of the approved zone for Barolo though Flavio does have a plot of the ravera vineyard in Moforte for the production of Barolo.

We tasted 2 very fine dolcettos, a solid barbera and Nebbiolo d'Alba and a powerful, scented Barolo. Surprisingly the surprise of the visit was the Bricco Appiani Cabernet Sauvignon. Yup, that's right a Cab! No new wood, the 2004 saw 2 years in used barrique and 2 years in bottle but deserves several more. it's plush and rich without any overt sweetness and backed with black currant fruit and rich but remarkably fine grained tannins. It was simly delicious and I couldn't help but drink a small glass.

After the visit we went tot he village of Serralunga for a final tasting, featuring wines from both 1999 and 2004 vintages. by this point my mouth was pretty much shot, in all honest it hurt to smile so i pretty much just chatted with folks and had a few sniffs of wine here and there. Sorry to let you all down but even my mouth nees a break once in awhile!

After the tasting it was off for our final dinner together, tonights not so god food wise but with plenty of good wine from producers like Ascheri, Rivetto, Oddero and Massolino! The 1999 Massolino Riserva Rionda was pretty impressive, the 1999 Oddero Mondouca, not as good as the bottle we had yesterday but fine. Both Ascheri and Rivetto had some nice wines and I had my first Naschetta, a white wine, from Rivetto. It's a lovely wine, nice almost tropical citrus toned, a bit of grass, green floral note, and a touch of spicy honeysuckle. Brisk in the mouth with lovely mineral bite. A really wonderful surprise!

And that was pretty much it. Bus ride back to the hotel and here i sit in the Hotel Savonna at 12:47 in the morning. I can't wait to get to bed as tomorrow is another very full day!

Notes and pictures to follow from Alba!

Ciao