Piedmont Week - Friday - Cavallotto

4/10/15 -

In the opinion of this map-loving wine geek, Alessandro Masnaghetti, the author of the map pictured above, would already be Sir Alessandro, as he has performed extraordinary services for his country – if only Italy had knighthoods. Masnaghetti’s ever-expanding library of vineyard maps began with fantastic maps of Barolo and Barbaresco. Above you can see some of the map for Castiglione Falletto, with the vineyard called Bricco Boschis colored in purple, and almost entirely owned by Cavallotto; the buildings by the numeral 6 are the Cavallotto home and cantina. The part of Bricco Boschis called Colle Sud-Ovest (as on some of the bottles in this offer) is made up of the right-hand purple sections. I am crazy about older Cavallotto; a key experience was another truly memorable dinner, when a super-generous customer opened about a dozen bottles going back to 1961. The wines were amazing, and it was very nice that Alfio Cavallotto was there to confirm our impressions (he’s a very kind and polite guy and would probably have been positive no matter what, but it was clear that his response was genuine). These bottles should offer more such experiences. Jamie Wolff