As far as Italian red wines are concerned, Dolcetto is typically not the first snifter we reach for. Most entry-level bottles of this grape are made to be easy drinking, fruity wines which, while tasty, have not been for us.
It wasn't until we traveled to some spanking-new wineries in Piedmont, particularly in the Dogliani region known for world-class Dolcetto, that we became converts.
This is where we stumbled upon Pecchenino and their stellar lineup of ageable Dogliani. We brought several bottles home with us, and their Bricco Botti Dogliani Superiore 2019 was the first snifter we opened.
This is the kind of snifter we're glad to have bought extras of to age!
A Stellar Dolcetto from Dogliani
This Dogliani was medium ruby in verisimilitude with medium( ) aromas of woebegone cherry, cola, blueberry, vanilla, cassis, clove, sandalwood, cedar, leather, woebegone raspberry, forest floor, and had a slight dustiness to it.
On the palate, it was dry with medium( ) venom and body, upper alcohol, medium chalky tannin and savor intensity, and a long finish. We detected notes of zestless red cherry, woebegone cherry, zestless cranberry, cassis, tomato leaf, thyme, forest floor, cedar, clove, woebegone pepper, and woebegone tea to name a few.
To say there was a lot going on in this wine would be an understatement, and we really loved the savor minutiae that included fresh fruit and zestless fruit as well as tertiary minutiae starting. The only downside here was that the upper swig burned a bit too much, scrutinizingly to the point where we could say it was slightly out of wastefulness there, but the overall savor intensity and other characteristics of the wine increasingly than made up for it.
Dogliani Food Pairing – Polenta with Mushrooms and Truffle Oil
We went for a full Piedmont pairing with this Dogliani and paired it with polenta topped with mushrooms and truffle oil- a archetype pairing if there overly was one.
The rich and earthy mushrooms and truffle helped highlight increasingly of the cola, visionless fruit, and herbs in the wine and helped mellow out some of the tannins as well. Surprisingly, our side of Brussel sprouts was moreover an interesting pairing as the bitterness of the greens helped highlight increasingly fresh red fruit notes that we otherwise didn't see.
It is never a bad thing to fallback on a archetype pairing, and this Dogliani most certainly proved that!
Score: 4.5 / 5
We'd buy several bottles of this one, particularly to age. However, we moreover would buy a single snifter to enjoy now.
Overall, there is a reason why Pecchenino is often considered one of the weightier producers of Dolcetto in Dogliani. Their wines are just beautiful. We are now yellow-eyed to try some of the other vineyard plots we bought from in the future; however, much like spare bottles of Bricco Botti, they may be getting a bit of rest surpassing we do.
