Saglietti, La Morra

As mentioned above, we chose Saglietti for our Tuesday morning visit based solely on the wines he offered at the La Morra degustazione.

This is a difficult place to find as the area he is in is on none of the maps nor navigators that we use.  We had asked for directions from a friend but you can find signs that will lead you to the cantina.

When we arrived, he was cleaning the hazelnuts that had been picked the day before with his father and son.  This year is not a good year for hazelnuts (we got nothing off of our trees).

We were escorted to the tasting room by Flavio and his wife, Paola.   Before getting started on the bottled wines, Flavio took us to the barrel rooms where we tasted some of his wines that are still resting, waiting for the proper time to bottle.  We were also given the opportunity to taste the 2017 Dolcetto which was just starting the fermentation process.  What we tasted was grape juice with no alcohol.  We are not fans of Dolcetto but the raw grapes after being crushed and before the fermentation had progressed provided a new light on this popular wine in Piemonte.  We tasted the 2014 base Barolo (a very big wine for a base Barolo), the 2014 Cerequio and three other Barolos from the 2015 and 2016 vintages.

Back in the tasting room, the first Barolo poured was the 2009 Cerequio.  We had never tasted a Barolo from this cru.  It is quite interesting and we are very interested to see what Flavio and Paola do with these grapes.  The 2009 Cerequio has an alcohol level of 14% and was opened the day before.  At first, the wine seemed to be over the hill, giving off a nose that was not conducive to a good glass of Barolo but after one hour, it had come around.  In the meantime, he had opened another bottle for us.  There is still the hint of the Marsala but it quickly disappeared.  We believe that this wine needs at least five years of aging before drinking.  Euro 27 a bottle, purchased for our cellar.

The second Barolo offered was the 2006 Brunate.  It had been opened about one hour.  Both the Brunate and the Cerequio crus are adjacent to the cantina.  14% alcohol, the 2006 Brunate is a spectacular wine now but we believe it has a few more years in the cellar that would not hurt it.  Euro 30 a bottle, purchased for our cellar.

Last was the 2011 Brunate.  Opened for the degustazione in La Morra two days previously.  The mouth was like a piece of candy, not a glass of Barolo.  This is not something that would be considered to be a defect but it was what it was.  The nose was quite light for a wine this young open two days.  Euro 25 a bottle.

27 August 2018  Because we believed the wines presented by Flavio and Paola were very good, we tried to make an appointment to return to their cantina to again taste, this time from the bottle, the 2014 wines.  Neither our emails nor phone calls were responded to.  We have been unable to contact Flavio so we have to conclude that they are no longer in business.

14 April 2019  Since we have no guidance from the producer, we have started to drink the offerings from Saglietti.  The first we tried was the 2013 Brunate.  We served it with Risotto with radicchio with Natalya;s pyrogi with fish.  It stood up quite well to the combination.  We would recommend that if you have this, you plan on drinking it soon.

16 June 2019  We wanted to try one of the older Barolos that we purchased from them so opened a bottle of the 2006 Brunate.  It was served with the risotto with radicchio since we had luck with the first bottle of Brunate we opened.  The wine changed dramatically during the first 15 minutes it was open.  We suggest that you open it 20 minutes prior to serving it.  The wine complimented the risotto as did the 2013.

20 October 2019  A bottle of our 2006 Brunate Barolo from this producer was opened for lunch today.  It was accompanied by zucca soup, sauteed turkey breast and a salad of beans and beets.  We noticed that the nose and the mouth had off flavours.  We suggest that if you have this wine, it be opened as soon as the opportunity is available.

26 November 2019  After our lunch in October with the 2006 Brunate, we decided to open the last bottle of the 2006 Brunate in our cellar.  It was served with a Tex-Mex dish, chili con chicken (a substitute for the beef).  While not as off as the last bottle, we again strongly suggest that you open any bottles of this wine that you might have.

1 October 2022  Today, it was my turn in the kitchen.  I made Shrimp fried Rice.  Before my schooling in cooking, my grandmothers were my teachers.  When I moved to San Diego, I took a class in Chinese cooking.  The teacher taught me how to use chopsticks and some very good Chinese dishes.  The Shrimp fried Rice I made is not the one she taught me (it was a long time ago) but it came out very good.  We served our last bottle of the 2009 Cerequio Barolo with lunch.  It was not really a good match to the Rice but we needed to drink the wine as we thought it was on its way to be not drinkable.  It was quite good but at the end of the meal, the wine was almost nothing in taste.  If you have it, we strongly suggest that you try a bottle to see if it the way we saw it. It is too bad that there is no more from this producer.  They have disappeared.