Brett happens

With the 2011 having garnered a rave from Dolcettoman, I’d had an eye peeled for Silvio Grasso’s 2012 Dolcetto for the better part of a year now. But I’d missed its arrival at the SAQ until the Gazette’s Bill Zacharkiw mentioned it yesterday in his must-read article on the trend toward high sugar levels in red wines (the Grasso was, rightly, listed as a wine that bucked the trend).

Technical information on the wine is in short supply. What are the estate’s farming practices? How are the grapes picked? Are they destemmed? Are the fermentation yeasts indigenous or selected? Is the wine filtered, fined or sulphured? The producer and its distributors apparently don’t think its important for the public to know.

Langhe Dolcetto 2012, Silvio Grasso ($18.90, 12062081)
100% Dolcetto from 15 to 20-year-old vines. Not listed on the producer’s website. According to the Quebec agent, it’s fermented and macerated on the skins for four to five days and matured for seven to eight months, all in stainless steel tanks. 14% ABV per the SAQ, 13.5% per the label. Quebec agent: Rézin.
Popped and poured. Changing nose: at various times mulberry, plum, spice (cinnamon?), turned-over log, sawed wood, graphite, old books and whiffs of alcohol. Medium-bodied and very dry. The fruit takes a back seat here, leaves the driving to fine, tight tannins, tickling acidity and a fleet fluidity. An alcoholic kick – not a burn – lifts the lightly astringent finish. Sleek and savoury in a way that Dolcettos normally aren’t. Zacharkiw says “It has the high and the low end, and whatever you eat will fill out the middle.” Let’s agree it’s better with food than without. But I also found it a bit hollow on its own – until I vigorously swirled it in my mouth, that is, at which point it exploded with fruit. That and the fact that it deepened and smoothed as it breathed suggest it may be passing through a dumb phase and that, if opened now, it should be carafed or double-carafed an hour or two. A fine match for spaghetti with pesto rosso and a plate of sliced prosciutto. (Buy again? A bottle or two to continue investigating WTF is up with this wine.)