Marchesi di Gresy Martinenga Barbaresco 2006
"The Martinenga Barbaresco, without a doubt, is our most important wine. It is a wine which carries an elegance that conies from its vineyard. On the nose, it offers sensations of sweet tobacco, leather and spice. It is fresh and jammy, rich in structure with good backbone and great harmony. Martinenga is a Barbaresco of great race and breeding. A fine wine with meat, poultry, and aged cheeses. Aged in French barriques during the first six months, then in Slavonian oak casks for 14 months followed by a maturation in bottle for at least 9 months."
Wine review by the Marchesi di Gresy
Machesi di Gresy’s Martinenga is perhaps the most approachable a young Barbaresco could ever be! So often, Piemontese reds (especially those made from Nebbiolo such as this) require the patience of a spider or the forgetfulness of those folks who liberally drinks from their deep, commodious cellars. Some have neither the restraint nor the cellar so those of us in that boat should revel in these wondrous wines we can buy and enjoy so young. Consider that next time you look to stock wines that could be opened tonight or else left alone for a decade. Why settle? Barbaresco offers nice dividends.
Wine review by Nicholas D. Livingston, February 2011
100% Nebbiolo
Wow, what an amazing nose!
Don’t start in on this one to quickly, sit back and take in the aromas for a while.
There are cola and small red fruit flavors.
- wine tasting note by MB, February 2011
Expert Review
92 points Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2006 Barbaresco Martinenga is utterly gorgeous in this vintage. The wine reveals the tell-tale mid-weight style of the house, but there is also surprising muscle behind the fruit. Sweet red cherries, roses, licorice, berries and spices are some of the notes that linger on the pure, sensual finish. Today the tannins come across as a touch potent, so a few years of bottle age seems wise. This is as graceful and elegant as Barbaresco gets. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2024.
This is a wonderful set of Barbarescos from Marchesi di Gresy. The wines show the estate’s trademark elegance but with perhaps a touch more fruit and a little less oak than in the past. As always, these are some of the most refined, transparent Barbarescos readers are likely to come across. Wine review by Antonio Galloni
"The 2006 Barbaresco Martinenga comes from a superior vintage. It is a very young Barbaresco but its brilliance is evident even now, and it is in fact enjoyable now if you don’t dwell much on the firm tannins of the rear palate. Its vibrant aromas and flavors include notes of wild strawberries, tart cherries, fresh herbs, tar, spice, and a piercing piney character. Although I would call the wine full-bodied, it is not huge or powerful but instead is extremely delineated. It has great depth and freshness of expression from its high acidity, pronounced flavor intensity (despite the delicacy of those flavors), silky texture in the front of your mouth, and lovely concentration of fruit character that continues through the wine’s finish. It is a wine of flavor, balance and precision.
This wine is more traditional than not in its winemaking, but it defies categorization as “old style” or “new style” Barbaresco. It tends toward the “new” in its fruitiness and firm tannins partially from a few months of barrique aging (followed by a year of aging in large casks of Slavonian oak). But its lack of heavy or fleshy texture, its pale color and its vibrancy of expression recall the best of the “old.” It is a style that di Gresy has perfected, a brilliant gem of a Barbaresco.
94 Points"
- Wine Review by Mary Ewing-Mulligan, Wine Review Online, 3/9/10
Food Pairings
Meats including hooved game and particularly savoury dishes like stews and braises. Pasta with rich, meaty sauces.
