2008 Gaja Barolo Dagromis

The Barolo Dagromis from the Gaja estate is made from a blend of grapes from parcels in La Morra and Serralunga. The 2008 Dagromis offers up a very suave bouquet of cherries, camphor, nutskin, a lovely base of soil and a generous serving of smoky new oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and well-balanced, with fairly low acids for the vintage, still some backend wood tannins that are being slowly absorbed into the body of the wine and lovely length and grip on the nascently complex and promising finish. This wine is supposed to be raised solely in one and two wine barriques, but it seems like there must have been some new casks used in the elevage of the 2008, as there seem like more wood tannins than would be possible solely from used barrels. It is a good wine that would be even better with less oak influence, but this is the world we live in. 90+. John Gilman.