From the Sixes: A Surprising and Encouraging Start to 2026

The three wines that began 2026 so well

I’m plodding my way through the puddles in Southern California, on a personal mission. Before I got on the plane, we were invited to a friend’s house for New Years day celebration. It’s a yearly event, and lots of old friends show up, mainly from the Italian wine and food community. It was a pleasant day to sit outside and eat cotechino con lenticchie while sipping on Franciacorta and mature Barolo.

I used the day as an opportunity to liberate some of my older wines. Seeing as the new year ends in a “6” I opted for wines from years ending in “6,” namely 2006 and 1996. Three wines were picked.

And while this will mainly be a post about the wines and how they fared, this is not an indication about the journey this blog will be making in its 21^st year. But it so happened that all of these wines, when I opened them at home, were remarkably well preserved. It augured good tidings for the day, hopefully the year, and possibly for the wines “left behind” in the closets back home that are aging.

A little about aging. As I have mentioned a time or two on these pages, about 25% of the wines I have gathered are over 25 years old. In cat years, that’s about 116, in dog years about 83. In my “assisted living center” for wine back home I have my work cut out. So, we are working against the clock. Not just the wines.

At MdB with Valentina and Anna Abbona

 

Anyway, I popped the 2006 magnum of Marchesi di Barolo “Cannubi” first, using a Durand cork extractor just in case a 20-year-old cork wasn’t faring so well. It was OK, and the wine inside was even better. My experience with MdB wines is that they are better with some age on them. And this one announced almost immediately that all was well inside. In fact, it was one of the better MdB wines I have ever had, and I have had a good share of them, having represented the property in my wine days and visited the winery numerous times.

LLC and MLA at Maculan bottling

The second wine I opened was a 2006 Maculan Fratta. It was notable because I had personally “bottled” the wine in 2007 while at a dinner party at the winery during Vinitaly days. It was a lavish affair, with folks from all over the world attending, and was put on by them and their importer Winebow. Leonardo Lo Cascio was there with his erstwhile intimate, Marilisa Allegrini. Lovely hosts, as were the Maculan family. Good times.

Bottling the 2006 at the winery

The wine? Well, I had opened a 2005 a few months before and it hadn’t made the voyage. It was DOA. So, I didn’t have much hope for the 2006. I was fortunately upended in my pessimistic expectations. The wine was alive and very well. It was deep and rich and unctuous and delicious. What a wonderful wine. And so thankful it was, as I know this is and was a wine the founder Fausto Maculan is very proud of. Having been introduced to Maculan wines in the 1980’s by Lou Iaccuci with the dessert wine Torcolato, I was fascinated by Fausto, a larger-than-life person in the Italian wine pantheon, and really a post-war pioneer. He has dared to dream big. I’ve observed him in his winery and it truly is a dream life he has created. We’re months apart in age, but I always thought of him as older, because of his audacious and voracious take on life. And his wine on this day brought it all back, inside the glass. Which is what wine should do, should it not?

At Rampolla

The last wine, a bit of an outlier, was the 1996 Castello di Rampolla Sammarco. 30 years old, we were stepping lightly on these stones in the pond. Rampolla is the photo on the main page of On the Wine Trail in Italy, the winding little vineyard scene up above. When I first went there in 2006, I was transported, again, into a dreamscape. It was a living laboratory for the owners and one of the great wine makers of our time, Giacomo Tachis. It made no sense economically, this winery. But it made all the sense in the world to have a dream manifested in such a way as to bestow upon us such pleasure over the years. And the 1996 did not disappoint. The cork held firm (the wines were shipped from the winery 10 years ago and stored carefully and properly until opening). Upon taking the first sniff and sip, I knew we were upon a trio of three healthy wines this day, a good omen for the year to come, hopefully. It was rich and deep with well-honed tertiary flavors. A lovely gift of a wine and so wonderful to have with a bite of lamb and beef at the party, while sitting under the mild January sun in North Texas. 

Oh sure, I could say more. But I am coming upon my self-imposed word limit. Just to finally say, there are those days when all the wines show up and bring their best colors, their best flavors, their most beautiful bouquets – and Jan 1, 2026 was one of those days. For which I will be most grateful now and down the road. See you there. 

At Rampolla

 

 

© written and photographed by Alfonso Cevola limited rights reserved On the Wine Trail in Italy

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