Cappellano ’07 Dolcetto D’alba Gabutti
This is an incredible bottle of Dolcetto. Zesty. Bright. With brilliant fruit.
And with a finish that is long like a Nebbiolo. This is Dolcetto as it should be made by one of the best Barolo producers in Italy.
Teobalda Cappellano is the ‘wine artist’ behind this bottle, a legend in the Piedmont region of Italy, an iconoclast and one of the last truly traditional winemakers in Barolo. He is almost unknown outside of the Piedmont as in 1983 he banished all journalists from his cellars unless they agreed to review his wine without scores and has refused to be included in the classifications of wine of any sort. Cappellano probably unbeknownst to himself started the trend of ‘deParkerization’ of wine reviewing. Bravo!
I love this guy’s spunk. His famous statement, which I have to quote, is “If there is one thing that makes me crazy, it’s spitters of wine…the ones who taste a wine by rolling it around in their mouths and then they spit it out. I worked my butt off to make wine to drink, not to spit!”
Consequently few reviewed his wine and few of us here in the States have had the pleasure of drinking it. A loss, I assure you as this Dolcetto proves.
All wines from Cappellano are organic, with no added yeast, fermented in glass-lined cement vats and bottled unfiltered.
This is truly terrific bottle of wine and an incredible Dolcetto. The wine is rippled with fruit flavor, naturally acidic and only very mild tannins. It is the natural acidity of the Dolcetto grape in the hands of Cappellano that carries the flavor and makes it last.
I can’t speak highly enough about this bottling. At $28 a bottle, it is a rare value with no compromise.
From Chambers Street Wines in TriBeCa, NYC.
Note: Read Cappellano’s “Allow me to dream” label on the back of each bottle of his wine.
