Pelissero Winery Piedmont Wine Tasting with Special Guest Giorgio Pelissero

"I'm like old wine. They don't bring me out very often, but I'm well preserved." - Rose Kennedy, on her 100th birthday

We have an incredible line-up of events to start the month of February with several winery personalities like our good friend from the Piedmont Giorgio Pelissero coming in on Tuesday, February 7th. 

There are not many people that I will work on Tuesday night for but Giorgio is one of them not only does he make great wines, but he is also a great personality and a great friend of the Wine Watch.

Azienda Agricola Pelissero is a family-run vine-growing estate located in the district of Treiso, in the heart of the zone of production of Barbaresco.  Many gradual changes have been performed by the successive generations of the Pelisseros who transformed the grape-selling activity started by Giovanni Pelissero into winemaking of all the estate-grown grapes. Winemaking takes place in a cellar surrounded by vineyards situated in a zone called Augenta, the biggest plot of land belonging to the property.  The first bottles of wine dated back to 1960 and were produced by Luig Pelissero, whose work was followed by his son, Oenologist Giorgio who, after finishing his studies, decided to work full time at the winery.  The Pelissero family takes care of all the activities from pruning the vines to marketing the wine. The estate consist of twenty hectares of vineyards which yield a total of 80,000 to 100,000 (according to the year) bottles of wine, namely Dolcetto d’Alba from two vineyards (Munfrina and Augenta), Barbera d’Alba Piani, Barbaresco, Barbaresco Vanotu (this is the dialectal word for the name Giovanni, Giorgio’s grandfather), Grignolino, Favorita, Freisa and Nebbiolo.

Tonight, you get to meet the man behind the passion and commitment to the land and hard work in the vineyards and cellar as we welcome Giorgio Pelissero to dinner.  Giorgio has persevered in his endeavor to make high quality wines and now we are the benefactors and have real satisfaction because of his research in the vineyards and, successively, in the cellar.  Every year when I taste the new releases from this producer there are further improvements in Pelissero’s wines.  This evening we will feature a few vintages of my favorite wine from this estate the Barbaresco Vanotu along with the entire line-up of new releases paired to a Special tasting menu prepared by chef Toni Lampasone. The fee for this tasting which includes dinner is $225 + tax, for reservations call 954-523-9463 or e-mail andy@winewatch.com.

Pelissero Wine Tasting with special guest Giorgio Pelissero at WWWB
Tuesday, February 7th
7:30 PM

2020 Dolcetto d Alba  Munfrina
2019 Pelissero Barbera D'alba Piani
2011 Barbera d Alba Tulin
2017 Pelissero Nebbiolo Langhe
2016 Barbaresco Nubiola
2018 Pelissero Barbaresco Tulin
1996 Barbaresco Annata
1997 Barbaresco Annata
1998 Barbaresco Annata
1999 Barbaresco Annata
2006 Long Now

Menu
Selection of Cheese and Charcuterie
White Bean Escarole Soup with Veal Meatballs
Beef tartar with black truffle and Parmesan Crisps
Pork Loin with Wild Mushroom Duxelle Polenta Napoleon over Nebbiolo Reduction
Nutella Cake   

The fee for this tasting which includes dinner is $225 + tax, for reservations call 954-523-9463 or e-mail andy@winewatch.com.  Please let us know when you make your reservations if you have any dietary restrictions and chef Toni will be happy to accommodate you.

All the Pelissero Wines Available at Wine Watch:

2020 PELISSERO DOLCETTO MUNFRINA
Price: $25.00        Your Price: $22.00
Dolcetto is one of the most important wines of our winery. The microclimate of Treiso and its soil (extraordinary for growing Nebbiolo) give to the wine Dolcetto a very good tannic and sweet texture. The result is a balance between important structure and smoothness. The name derives from the old owner, a lady from Monferrato, who laboriously and diligently worked these lands.
Wine produced by trying to bring out the best varietal characteristics with the help of technical tools exalting the characteristics of the grape: controlled temperature during fermentation and short maceration of 4/5 days in order to preserve as much as possible fragrance and drinkability. After a cold decanting, it rests in stainless steel cask for 6/7 months, plus 1 month in the bottle.
The visual impact is a beautiful purple red very bright. The olfactory analysis reminds of fruit and typical aromas, including red cherry. The taste is a very nice balance among tannins, acidity and alcohol, so that the wine is sapid and pleasant. The aftertaste, slightly bitter, reminds of almonds which is the very typical characteristic of this wine.

2019 PELISSERO BARBERA D'ALBA PIANI
Price: $28.00        Your Price: $24.64
Piani, the name of the zone where this vineyard is located, in Italian means "flat" and, in fact, the portion of this hill is little steep. This site has always been well known for high quality Barbera production. The elegance of many Barbera (a grape rich in colour and acidity but poor in tannins) from Langhe region is here integrated with a good structure which gives to this wine a particular identity.
The colour is red ruby bright and intense; the vivacity makes it tempting. The olfactory sensations are very delicate including blackberry and plum in the beginning and typically vinous in the end. On the whole the olfactory fragrance provides a pleasant and teasing feeling. Saltiness and acidity are in the foreground of this wine that does not hide its polifenolic power. Barbera amplitude is very interesting together with its persistent aftertaste.

2011 PELISSERO BARBERA D'ALBA TULIN
Price: $53.00        Your Price: $46.64
2015 PELISSERO BARBERA D'ALBA TULIN
Price: $55.00        Your Price: $48.40
Rich and complex wine produced using vines grafted in 2004 on a surface of around 1,5 hectares. The choice of little productive clones, the use of a little vigorous rootstock as the Rupestris du Lot and the wonderful climatic position of the Tulin vineyard allowed us to reach quickly an unexpected result.
Accurate selection in vineyard with double cluster thinning (green harvest) and following hand harvesting. Further selection in cellar before the destemming and crushing. Fermentation with maceration for about 15 days. Ageing 2 years in wooden barrels and 1 year in bottle.
Rich and complex wine in which the great characteristics of Barbera are exalted by the perfect union between variety and soil. The colour is intense and brilliant ruby red almost bluish violet with a great viscosity. To the nose it has the classical notes of stewed fruit, raspberry, red blueberry and the sweet airy vein that release the trivalent alcohols. Savoury taste, full, mineral, acid, tannic, wrapping.

2017 PELISSERO NEBBIOLO LANGHE
Price: $27.75        Your Price: $24.42
Site: Treiso, Neive and Barbaresco villages Variety: Nebbiolo 100% Exposure: south - east - west Altitude: 200 – 400 m. Year of planting: all the Nebbiolo vines for Barbaresco planted in more recent years, up to 15 years old age Breeding form: gujot Density of plants per hectare: 5000 First and unique year of production: 1960 Soil: different soils in Barbaresco area. Characteristics: we produce this wine with the grapes that, according to the vintage, are not suitable for making Barbaresco. Among them, all new planted vineyards bought in the past few years, and consequently considered too young for producing a great Barbaresco. Technical notes: in vinification we try to exalt the Nebbiolo's characteristics of freshness: macerations are not too long and always temperature controlled. Ageing is made partly in barrique (20/30%) and the rest in 50 hl oak barrels for around 8/9 months. After blending, it rests in the bottle for 2 months and finally commercialized. Tasting sheet: clear, bright, purple red with evident clearer tannic nuances around the glass edge. Olfactory sensations are persistent, fragrant and wide open exalting the fruit of the wine. It is also rounded by evident perception of strawberry and raspberry typical in this wine. Good gustative persistence with the classic light tannin astringency of Nebbiolo, very well rounded by the wood aromas and other flavour components (proteins, salts, trivalent salts). Lovely finish, persistent and stimulating.

2018 PELISSERO LONG NOW
Price: $80.00        Your Price: $70.40
2004 PELISSERO LONG NOW MAGNUM
Price: $150.00      Your Price: $132.00            Quantity in Stock: 1
This unique blend of Barbera and Nebbiolo is from a very hot year and these wines are drinking at their peak right now.  It will be interesting to taste this next to the monumentous 2010 which is still a baby.

2016 PELISSERO BARBARESCO NUBIOLA
Price: $48.00        Your Price: $42.24
2016 PELISSERO BARBARESCO "NUBIOLA" MAGNUM
Price: $99.75        Your Price: $87.78

2017 PELISSERO BARBARESCO NUBIOLA
Price: $50.00        Your Price: $44.00
It is the last born of our Barbaresco wines. The first bottles date back to 2001. It belongs to an historical, traditional and cultural important denomination and it has got all the strength and complexity a great vine is able to express. The blend Nubiola shows in fact the name with which in the historical treaty of agriculture "De Ruralium Commodorum" (dated 1330) where Pier Dè Crescenzi (a jurist of Bologna) mentions one of the best vines known at that time describing it as a "a sort of black grape called Nubiola… wonderfully vinous and adapted for wine making."
It has an intense ruby red colour, to the nose it has both fruity and floreal notes that go from the ripe red fruit to the officinal herbs. Soft, tasty, velvety at the same time, leaves on the taste buds a note of sweetness and roundness typical of ripe grape with a slightly dry and astringent closure that distinguishes the Nebbiolo.

2003 PELISSERO BARBARESCO TULIN
Price: $140.00      Your Price: $123.20

2016 PELISSERO BARBARESCO TULIN
Price: $155.00      Your Price: $136.40

2017 PELISSERO BARBARESCO TULIN
Price: $145.00      Your Price: $127.60

2018 PELISSERO BARBARESCO TULIN
Price: $139.00      Your Price: $122.32
Tulin is the new name, since the 2001 vintage, of the Barbaresco Annata. After seven years, sustained by the appreciations of public and critics, we have decided to name this wine after the vineyard where the grapes for this wine come from, whose climate, composition of the soil and exposure are of great value. In local dialect Tulin indicates a small circular metal vessel as commonly used in churches for retention of the melted wax from the candles or distribution of food to the cattle in the stables. A melting pot of spirituality and handicraft, the soul and hands of Vinegrowers. Tulin is pronounced with the accent on the i.
Our aim to take into bottle the grapes characteristics conditions all the operations of transformation and ageing. This wine is produced with modern techniques and tools, but still in traditional way trying to harmonize the austerity of this great vine with the new conceptions of persuasiveness and pleasantness linked to international tastes. Maceration in contact with the skins for about 15 days in steel casks at controlled temperature and, after a period of natural decantation always in steel, the wine passes into wood where it rests for 18/20 months. Then the part, about 50%, aged in oak casks of 50 hl is blended with the other part aged in barrique. This allows us to avoid that an excessive presence of wood further dries this wine. After 9 months in bottles, it is fi nally released for sale.
A vivacious ruby colour. The nose expresses ample and fruity perfumes of magnesium and iron linked to the minerality of soil with well evident varietal notes and a right contribution of wood. The taste features the austerity typical of Nebbiolo completely and persuasiveness, saltiness and the right tannin give the taste a velvety and wrapping frame.

1996 PELISSERO BARBARESCO VANOTU
Price: $300.00      Your Price: $264.00

1998 PELISSERO BARBARESCO VANOTU
Price: $279.00      Your Price: $245.52

1999 PELISSERO BARBARESCO VANOTU MAGNUM
Price: $580.25      Your Price: $510.62
1999 PELISSERO BARBARESCO VANOTU
Price: $275.00      Your Price: $242.00

2000 PELISSERO BARBARESCO VANOTU
Price: $230.00      Your Price: $202.40

2010 PELISSERO BARBARESCO VANOTU
Price: $240.00      Your Price: $211.20

2015 PELISSERO BARBARESCO VANOTU
Price: $166.25      Your Price: $146.30

Vanotu is the diminutive in Piedmontese dialect of Giovanni, Giorgio’s grandfather and previous owner of this vineyard. Therefore it is a part of our winery to which we are very fond of. Thanks to the particular climate and exposure of this vineyard we can obtain even in poor vintages great character and personality wines.
Produced through modern and innovative methods (controlled temperatures, mechanical automatic timed and planned mixing) trying to take into the bottle the maximum exaltation of the varietal characteristics of Nebbiolo grapes. Aged for 20/22 months in barriques (80% of them are new) then 9 months in bottles we aim at creating concentration, fruit, soft tannic complexity. Our aim is to make an innovative wine trying to maintain and exalt the great qualities of Nebbiolo. The fi rst bottled vintage was in 1960.
Intense wide ruby colour, it expresses fruity notes of raspberry and cherry matched and well harmonized with persuasive woody notes of vanilla. The aromatic framework besides the typical notes of rose is completed by of sage, mint, thyme, camomile constant over the years: a real trademark for this soil. In the mouth it is velvety ample and fi lls up with sweet and lasting tannins. The great polyphenolic structure of Nebbiolo and the right acid tannic balance of this wine are synonyms of long lasting wine.

1996 PELISSERO BARBARESCO ANNATA
Price: $150.00      Your Price: $132.00

1997 PELISSERO BARBARESCO ANNATA
Price: $160.50      Your Price: $141.24

1998 PELISSERO BARBARESCO ANNATA
Price: $138.00      Your Price: $121.44

1999 PELISSERO BARBARESCO ANNATA MAGNUM
Price: $252.00      Your Price: $221.76            Quantity in Stock: 1
1999 PELISSERO BARBARESCO ANNATA
Price: $150.00      Your Price: $132.00
The Barbaresco Annata is now called the Tulin beginning with the 2001 vintage.  These vintages from the 1990’s are now drinking at their peak and we have all of these wines available by the case!!