Vin+ marks the spot for cult wine Roagna

Simone Baldwin , Contributor , Jakarta | Sun, 03/23/2008 3:05 PM | On the Town

The picture-perfect, wine village of Barbaresco lies perched above the rolling hills of Langhe overlooking the river Tanaro in one Europe's oldest and most beautiful wine growing regions, Piemonte. Located in the North Western pocket of Italy and translated as "the foot of the mountain", Piemonte is flanked by the Appenines and The Alps, its ancient soils are rich in essential oils growing hazelnuts of exceptional quality as well as the highly prized and hugely priced white truffles.

While gastronomic excellence is certainly at its heart, Barbaresco is also home to the distinguished Nebbiolo grape, earning its name from the word, Nebbia, meaning fog, which in the early hours of the morning, drapes over the vines like a bride's veil, creating an exquisite micro-climate for this seductive and sensitive grape.

Barbaresco's wine growing zone includes the adjacent communes of Neive and Treiso. The famous, nearby zone of Barolo contains many outstanding vineyards growing Nebbiolo, which are scattered around the area however it is Barbaresco which is home to the greatest concentration of the finest Nebbiolo vineyards in the region.

The magic of Nebbiolo and the wines that it produces, Barbaresco and Barolo, surely lie in its ability to capture a combination of strength and balance. These remarkable vineyards are rooted in a chalky, fine clay left over from the middle Miocene Period, which is known to produce wines of richness and delicacy. In their youth, these wines are high in tannin, alcohol and acid however as they mellow with bottle age, the mature wine will begin to unveil its remarkable beauty typified by an intoxicating, flowery perfume and a palate marked by complexity and fullness.

Of the 700 inhabitants who reside in the tiny town of Barbaresco, all are in some way or another involved in agriculture and those lucky enough to own vineyards in this district have been toiling the land and making wine for centuries, passing down the knowledge of their soils and vines from generation to generation.

The Roagna's are one such family. Their 150-year old winery and the wines, which bear the same name, are the epitome of traditional style winemaking producing wines of extraordinary depth and aging potential. Roagna's most prized wine is the Barbaresco Crichet Paje DoCG, which has become a cult wine for the most serious of collectors and Nebbiolophiles.

Currently at the winery's helm is Luca Roagna, the fourth generation winemaker who explains that Roagna's success is attributed to two key areas, the first of which is their non-interventionist approach to grape growing and winemaking, allowing for a maximum expression of the soil. The virtue of patience is the second most important aspect of quality as the wines are vinified by undergoing a 60-day long maceration period followed by up to a decade of aging in large, oak casks and further maturation in bottle before their eventual release.

With this passage of time, the wine has surrendered some of its mighty tannin but none of its glorious character.

Like its world famous neighbor in Barbaresco, Angelo Gaja, whose wines despite their stratospheric prices are highly sought after, the wines of Roagna are produced in such tiny quantities that the wine lovers who sip on these rarefied creatures must consider themselves very fortunate.

Of course, when it comes to wine dinners in Jakarta, RIVA Restaurant in the Park Lane Hotel holds the trump card for exquisite food and exemplary service. Chosen to host Jakarta's inaugural visit by Angelo Gaja in 2006, RIVA proved itself once again as an exceptional choice for the Roagna Wine Dinner on March 11. Imported in very small amounts by Vin+, currently Roagna can only be found on the hallowed wine list of The Bulgari Hotel in Bali.

Roagna represents the precious few remaining wine growers who worship the land and the vine with an unflinching compromise on quality. They are the winemaking heroes of our day, with their non-interventionist approach to viticulture and vinification, they stand alone, in stark contrast to the millions of winemakers who possess an oenological bag of tricks and a determination to flatter the palates of wine critics offering 90+ scores for blockbuster wines dripping with expensive, new oak and heavily extracted color and flavor. These overworked, score whores resemble the nectar of the vine but do not bare the markings of their origin or grape variety, two traits that are the hallmarks of any great wine.

As very few wines are exempt from the 100 point scoring system, it has already been applied to the wines of Roagna where they have regularly attained ratings in excess of 90 points.

This system of assessment is convenient for many consumers, however its greatest failing is that any number however high, does not encapsulate the ethereal experience of tasting a wine that has been gifted to us by mother nature and with the utmost care and respect for its origins, lovingly placed in a bottle bearing the name Roagna. Salute.

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