446948 Tue Oct 02 11:56:25 -0700 2007 2 34 Wine 0 2996858 I had dinner last weekend with a wine-collector friend of mine who's especially fond of great Italian wines... We BYOB'd at Trattoria Roma in Chicago. He brought the reds, I brought the whites. There were 3 red bottles... a 1985 Gaja Barbaresco, and a 1978 Barolo and Barbaresco... Being just the 2 of us initially we only opened the two 1978's... True to the great 78 vintage, both were very lively and fruity, amazingly showing no sign of age decline aside from perhaps a bit of thinness creeping into the texture... and this despite two poor-looking corks. After a bit, what I began to notice about them was the remarkable similarity whereupon my friend commented something to the effect that "they are starting to converge".... I find this an interesting concept that as they approach max maturity, Barolo and Barbaresco may become quite similar in impression. As good as these two wines were, perhaps the very standout of the evening was the Chardonnay, an Evans and Tate 'The Reserve" from the incredible 2004 vintage in the Margaret River Valley... Also holding it's own was one of the most distinctive single-vineyard Italian whites.... Inama's Vigneti di Foscarino Soave Superiore 2005. Just a luscious reasonably-priced food-friendly wine that has my vote for the most under-appreciated white in the world. Easy to understand because so much jug wine comes out with the Soave label. These single-vineyard Garganegas have nothing in common with the jugwines except for the name. Tue Oct 02 11:56:25 -0700 2007 42549 Chicago Mike 1 2997118 Both '78s were Gaias? Barolo and Barbaresco are pretty similar. Same grape (Nebbiolo), similar soil (calcareous marls), similar topography (ridges and very steep slopes), vineyards only 5 to 10 miles apart, similar growing and winemaking practices (at least in the last 25 years). Tue Oct 02 12:52:38 -0700 2007 2996858 11369 Robert Lauriston 2 2999464 Add to that the more modern style of Gaja . . . Wed Oct 03 07:04:56 -0700 2007 2997118 28122 zin1953