Another year, another Timorasso

One year ago I tasted an Italian white wine made from a grape so rare that it almost went extinct. Naturally I had to try this year's vintage too.

Here’s how I raved about the wine’s 2021 vintage: “La Spinetta “Derthona” Colli Tortonesi Timorasso is not your ordinary white wine. It’s rich and intense, playing a virtual symphony on one’s senses of smell and taste. It’s so interesting and complex that it’s difficult to pin down its details as first one sensation, then another, swirls past your attention in a twirling dance.”

Yes, it was that good. Even at a price in the upper $20s range, wouldn’t you be tempted to take a chance on the new vintage, too? I thought so.

But does vintage really make a difference if we’re not talking about high-end, ageworthy wines like top-rank Burgundy, Bordeaux, and Vintage Port? What does vintage matter for everyday wines, even very good everyday wines in the $20 to $40 range that come to us ready to drink and don’t require cellaring?

Why does La Spinetta use the artist Albrecht Durer’s 1515 rhinoceros woodcut on their wine labels? Click the label image for the producer’s explanation.

I talked about this at some length in my Oct. 21, 2021 article, Vintage: Year after year. Feel free to click back for the entire report, but here are some key points:

• Following vintage changes in a favorite wine from year to year can be interesting and fun.

• The combination of vintage and location establishes each bottle of wine in its time and place. Wine grapes are an agricultural product, and even the simple ones can vary significantly – for better, for worse, or just for different – depending on the weather that prevailed during the growing season. Warm or cold, drought or storm or soaking rains, fruit-smashing hail or even smoky wildfires all matter to the development and quality of each year’s grapes..

• Finally, I simply enjoy walking into a wine shop and spotting a recently arrived vintage of a familiar wine, as I did this week with the Timorasso. Chances are that it won’t be much different from the previous year’s bottling, but opening the new bottle can be as pleasant as greeting an old friend on their latest birthday. And as a certified wine nerd, after I try the new bottle, I enjoy pulling out my last year’s tasting report to see how they compare.

If you’d like to know more about the 2021 and 2022 vintages in Northwestern Italy’s Piemonte region in general, here’s a link to Jancis Robinson’s Piemonte Vintage Chart: 1971 to 2023. Wine-Searcher.com also offers summaries, including links to wines and vendors, for the 2021 Vintage – Piedmont [Piemonte] and a preliminary report for the 2022 Vintage – Piedmont [Piemonte].