Decanting Barolo from the “disaster years” (1991, 1992, and 1994)?
Hello there. I'm hoping for some input. I will be opening up a 1994 Elio Altare Barolo for the future in laws this coming weekend. I know that 1994 is considered a pretty terrible year for Piedmont. My own personal experience with Barolo decanting is limited to two 1990 bottles over the past year. Both bottles required a prolonged decant time: the first time I did a decant of 3 hours and it was still opening up by the last sips. The second time I did a 6 hour decant and it felt just about right.
But with this reportedly-terrible 1994 vintage I'm concerned that if I decant too early (or even too aggressively) the oxygen will kill whatever's left. Scouring the internet does not provide a ton of information on decanting these 3 vintages after they've aged 20+ years. I imagine that's a combination of not many bottles produced because of the vintage plus people being smarter and drinking them earlier knowing that these would fade away quicker than standard vintages.
So any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated. Gentle decant (for sediment sake) right before serving? Trust that the producer pulled the best available product and still made a hardy bottle? This "slow-ox" system I've been reading about where I open and do a sniff in the morning to decide whether to recork or decant? Double decant and use the sediment-filled leftover liquid to determine how much air-time is needed? (Just in case someone suggests it, I don't own a coravin)
Thank you to all in advance! Happy upcoming Mother's Day.
Submitted May 10, 2017 at 01:32PM by twoceebeec
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