1999 Barolo Vigna Marenca
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Tasting notes
The 1999 Barolo Marenca is now fully mature. Dried cherries, tobacco, licorice and incense develop in the glass, but the 1999 has now pretty much reached the end of the road. There is plenty of Marenca intensity, but far less in the way up further upside.
Critic scores
Average Score
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
Antonio Galloni, Vinous
More reviews and scores
Dark ruby. Pira's bottling from Marenca represents full-throttle modern Barolo at its most intense. Less aromatically complex than the house's other wines, it offers masses of sweet dark fruit, licorice, tar menthol and toasted oak flavors in a potent style with notable length, vibrancy and freshness. It too will require another few years of cellaring after which it will offer memorable drinking until at least age 20, and likely beyond.
Marenca, far less known, is not one whit inferior to Vigna Rionda as a vineyard, and the 1999 Barolo Marenca is simply superlative. Explosively sweet and ripe with a noseful of plum and wild cherry fruit, raisins, chocolate, and licorice, it cascades over the palate with its lush dense fruit, tar, minerals, mocha, and melted asphalt flavors. Packed, potent, caressing, and sumptuous, Serralunga all the way, it defines modern-style Barolo in the greatest part of the zone. Anticipated maturity: 2005-2025. A Marc de Grazia Selection, various American importers, including Michael Skurnik, Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300, Vin Divino, Chicago, IL; tel. (773) 334-6700, and Estate Wines, Ltd., San Rafael, CA; tel. (415) 492-9411
Medium red. Aromas of strawberry, redcurrant, tar and roasted nuts. Juicy, firm and fresh, with good spine and intensity. Compared to the '98 Marenca, this is sweeter, brighter and classier; thanks to its stronger material, the tannins hit the palate considerably later.