Michael's Wine Diary

Vinum’s recent September wine tasting in London brought together two of the greatest names in Piedmont: Tartuffi Morra, purveyors of the finest white truffles, and Vietti, the top flight family-owned Barolo estate. In a quiet library above Whitehall, these two great producers gave us a fascinating sketch of their houses and demonstrated that the aromatic flavours of these two supreme products combine to make a magical marriage.

Founded in 1930 by Giacomo Morra, his company was the first to commercialise fresh white truffles in Alba and is now the biggest truffle dealer in Piedmont, also offering ancillary products such as the delicious truffle butter –a gastronomically superior alternative to the much-touted truffle oil, which for some can be a sickly and indigestible combination. Throughout its history, Morra (the name coincidentally is also that of a great Barolo village) has shown a sure eye for self-promotion, offering the largest white truffle as a present each year to a chosen VIP as different as Sophia Loren, Winston Churchill and Pope John XXIII. The biggest truffle ever found, weighing 2.52 kilos, was presented in 1952 to President Harry S. Truman, ironically the small-town guy from Missouri reared on a diet of hamburgers, fries and corn.

The white truffles of Alba are the best in the world, their flavour and scent unmatched by others from the same species to be found in Umbria, Marche and now Oregon. Alba’s sub-Alpine climate of warm days and cool nights, allied to the wooded terrain where the soils retain both heat and water, has a lot to do with it – conditions that are ideal for the development of what is the ultimate underground mushroom or edible fungus. There are reckoned to be 10,000 truffle hunters in the Alba district, usually old boys in retirement who go out with their little dogs at dawn or in the dead of night to forage for the treasure in the forest. The truffles come in various hues-  milky, lightish brown or rose. Morra’s Alessandro Bonino says that the rose-coloured ones are usually the best in flavour and found near the roots of willow trees. The white truffle season truly runs from September to the end of November, though it’s best to wait until October for the best of the crop. Morra always buys everything that is available from selected truffle hunters - and, within reason, at the prices asked in order to ensure continuity for their customers worldwide. Thanks to an excellent distribution service, the ordered truffles are first cleaned, wrapped in paper, sealed in a protective box and then delivered the next day throughout Europe and within 48 hours in North America.

Vietti needs little introduction to lovers of Barolo in Britain and the United States. This Castiglione Falcetto estate is the one of the blue-chip producers of the Langhe hills, fashioning exquisite expressions of the Nebbiolo grape, each wine reflecting the fabulously diverse terroirs of the Barolo communes. For Mario Cordero of Vietti, as for other great growers, the name of the game is to bring to the glass the span of flavours from the soils which can change dramatically in the course of a hundred yards. In this respect, his district is closest in character and approach to Burgundy. Vietti is also one of the first Barolo estates to have pioneered single-vineyard crus, and this month we were treated to three great vintages of its Barolo Riserva Villero Vineyard matched with Morra truffle products in various guises and combinations.

The Tasting

First, a subtly low-key combination of truffle butter on rustic bread was served with Barolo Villera Riserva 2001. And quite right too, for the gentle flavours of the truffle butter played second fiddle to the magnificence of the wine (to be released next year): brilliantly limpid ruby colour gradating to a hint of garnet at the rim; nose a glorious combo of classic rose-flower scents and sliced red fruits; perfect mouthfeel- elegant acidity, purity of Nebbiolo fruit framed by firm, ripe tannins and a burgeoning vinosity that fully expressed the complexity of the Castiglione terroir which charts a middle way between the power of Serralunga and the elegance of La Morra, the two great neighbouring Barolo villages. This will almost certainly be the best vintage for Villera since 1996. An outstanding19/20 wine.

Next,  a more adventurous, even risky pairing of Parmigiano Regiano Cheese and truffle honey with the Barolo Riserva Villero 1997. "Yet the truffle honey brought out the sweetness of fruit in the ’97", commented the perceptive Bill Baker of Reid Wines. This vintage of Villera was praised to the skies early in its life, particularly by the Wine Spectator in New York. Now 10 years old, some reassessment is perhaps overdue. For though the wine is soft, fat, rich and certainly delicious, it lacks a little acidity and that majestic structure of a classic year like 1995 and particularly 1996. (17/20?)

One had no such reservation about the final match: Quail’s egg on toast and fresh White Truffle with Barolo Riserva Villero 1982.  The scent of the truffle melded seamlessly with the ambrosial aromas of tar, earth and roses in the Villero ’82, now at the peak of its 25-year maturity in one of the greatest of Barolo post war vintages. The complexities, balance and poise of its flavours defy description, except to say that this is one of the world’s finest reds (my score: 19.5/20) and the sort of emotional experience you’d be lucky to have on very few occasions in a lifetime, on a par with perfect old burgundy from La Tache or Le Musigny.

After the rarefied heights of Barolo, a final few words about Barbera, Vietti’s other speciality. The wine takes its name from Piedmont’s second quality grape. It tends to be packed with acidity and so needs decent ageing of eight to ten years to really show the paces in its best examples. Vietti’s Barbera d’Asti Vigna La Crena 1999 has extraordinary depth and concentration of flavour (£21.94 a bottle) while the Barbera d’Alba Vigna Vecchia Scarrone 2000 (£30.94) comes from a special site usually reserved for Nebbiolo and Barolo: the quality of this terroir takes the wine up from the level of its plum cake richness to a higher plane of velvety texture and perfect balance.