Moccagatta Barbaresco

Every time I get the chance to visit another winery I am always so impressed.  I love to have the opportunity to see what the producers are doing taste the most current vintages and many times learn some new things.
It was a very wonderful visit we had with Martina Minuto. She welcomed us and gladly showed us around her winery.  She told us the history of the family, and how her father and uncle were the pioneers who made Moccagatta what it is today.  Typically the name of a family owned winery here in Piemonte is taken from the family name, however in this case Moccagatta being owned and operated by the Minuto family did not necessarily follow in that direction.  The once was farm house that has been wonderfully transformed into a fully functioning winery has been built on the Muncagöta vineyard.  Sound familiar?  Well their name was taken from the Piemontese name of this vineyard.

The wines we tasted were the Chardonnay "Buschet"
(coming from the word Boschetto) meaning little forest. I like tasting Chardonnay from Piemonte, it shows very differently than Chardonnay from France or the new worlds.  Chardonnay here has a nice history, it is in no way new to this area.  As a matter of fact the Marchesa di Cavour who was known to have such a love for Burgundy decided to not only have a french oncologist come to this area but with him she had requested he bring some clippings of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.  So for all of you who were wondering it was because of her that we today will be able to find these grapes.
The two single vineyard Barbaresco that we had tasted were from the sites of Bric Balin and Barsarin.  Bric Balin is a special selection with in their Muncagöta vineyard which surrounds their estate.  Known for its clay and limestone rich soils makes a very muscular example of Nebbiolo coming from Barbaresco.  This wine had much more power fruit, structure with respect to the other vineyards we had tasted. The vintage 2012 is turning out to be a good structured very aromatic vintage loads of fresh red fruits and flowers.
Barsarin is located in Neive right on the boarder of Barbaresco where the soils are much richer in sand and limestone.  Here the sand helps to make the wine much more elegant, aromatic, and fresh.  This wine for me was much more approachable now the tannins were much more softer and it showed much more red fruits.  Both 2012's were wonderful and this experience was amazing.