I didn’t get to taste every wine at the Dressner magical mystery roadshow yesterday in Los Angeles, but I did devote ample time to Luca Roagna’s wet-dream flight of his family’s crus (above). The 05s were showing nicely but the 04 Barbaresco Pajé was INSANE, with bright acidity, wonderful wild berry notes and the earthy tones that define Barbaresco when vinified by one of the great ultratraditional houses of the appellation (IMHO). Killer wine.
I was also geeked to taste Arianna Occhipinti’s new “négociant” project: Arianna (above) has begun supervising growing practices and vinification for other growers. The 2010 Tamì Grillo was awesome, salty and crunchy and delicious, with bright, bright acidity, remarkable for
Sicily where winemakers have trouble obtaining acidity in their wines. Very groovy.
Many more LA stories to come but now I gotta get my butt back to Texas for some rock ‘n’ roll!
Do Bianchi 
jeremy, i’m a huge fan of roagna. i highly recommend with 2000 pajé with a good hour or two of decanting. i’m heading up to sf today to the taste the wines and will pay special attention to the 04. roagna’s vineyards are farmed just like the wines are vinified, old-school, i.e. pre-chemical. just looking at pajé you can instantly tell which plot is roagna’s…
Did you taste the Tami Frappato?
@Eric we really need to taste together one of these days! Let me know what you think. I’ve never been to Roagna but have always been a HUGE fan of the wines.
@TWG I tasted the whole line and I thought they were great. But the Grillo was a real standout for me…
jeremy, i brought a copy of this post to luca yesterday…he asked “is ‘insane’ good or bad?”
i appreciate the wines across the board but pajé seems to always stand out to me. i believe that is their biggest cru holding and best value amongst the barbareschi and baroli.
next time you’re in sf, let me know and let’s grab a drink together…
Now you guys got me all excited about the 04 Roagna Paje. I remember recently having a 2003 Roagna Paje at Donato Enoteca (with white truffles) and wasn’t too impressed (despite Galoni’s 95-pointer). Eric, please publish your impression of the 04 Roagna Paje. That vintage just keeps on rocking. Let’s see how good the 2007 ends up.
Hi Jeremy,
I am the Australian importer for Roagna and just tried the 04 Paje in bottle (it just landed down under) since a visit to see Luca at the winery last year. It is an awesome wine.
However, what really took me by surprise is the Roagna Barolo La Rocca e La Pira DOCG 2004. Awesome wine and great that Luca bottles this half bottles. Have you tried it?