Will You Be Buying The 2011 Barolo's?

Just read A.G.'s report: clearly not a vintage for every consumer. Never saw the word paradigm mentioned, but he does say that many of the wines should be accessible relatively early. Are you buying 2011 Barolo?

I’ll probably only pick up a few bottles from a favorite producer or two. That’s mainly because I have spent so much on '08s and '10s. I’m interested to see what people think of the vintage, though, so hopefully some with experience will chime in here.

In general I’ve generally never had the urge to get ‘itchy fingers’ onto a new release, as many bottles stick around on shelves for 4-5 years. Back-filling is always an option so it’s nice not to feel it’s ‘buy now - or never’.

In the 2-3 years after release, we’ll often get over to Piemonte and get to taste a range of recent vintages, and that then helps inform buying - both at the winery and on return.

I’m also (mostly) relaxed about vintage variation, though with a little bias towards sturdily built vintages (e.g. 2006, 1996) and a little bias away from hotter vintages (except in Ghemme/Gattinara who seem to excel in hotter years)

Unless the pricing takes a crazy jump, I’ll take a look at any barolo/barbaresco producer I normally buy like; Vajra and Produtori. I’m not going nuts over new releases though at age 59. I’ll likely look to backfill more than buy new vintages of Burgundy, Barolo, Barbaresco, Norrthern Rhones and BDX.

I Will problable buy G.Rinaldi,Burlotto Monvigliero, and some Brovias.Went very light on 2009 Barolo.only purchased G.Rinaldi and Burlotto Monvigliero.So i am going to buy a little more 2011.And Then go deep again in the 2012 vintage wich should be very good. :slight_smile:

Way too early. No reason to rush on these wines as Barolo and Barbaresco will always be better after another 6 months to settle down. I will have a much better handle on the vintage after I return from Italy. Plenty of 2009s to pick up on discount and still a good amount of 2010s around. I will really start to look at them in the fall.

Probably some.

No, but I was rather curious about all of the missing Vinous 2011 coverage: no Giacosa, G. Mascarello, Clerico, G. Rinaldi, Gaja, G. Conterno, Fratelli Alessandria, Cavallotto, Germano, Pecchenino and Guido Porro. It appears certain that Galloni is not welcome at Giacosa and G. Mascarello, at least for now, and maybe Clerico, too. Either that, or perhaps Galloni will tell us that, based upon the 2009 off-vintage Clerico wines, he just does not like oaky, fruity Barolo any more. (Well, that cannot be right, looking at his scores for the 2011 Parusso Napa-Nebbiolo oak plonk!) My best guess is that he will drag out the old “I am such a tough scorer that they are banning me right and left” canard. Why they are ignoring him in Montalcino, too, he says. Antonio “The Truth Hurts” Galloni. (He mistakes a tiny handful of 88s and 89s floating in a sea of 95-100s as toughness, but whatever.) It could very well be that he is losing credibility with some of the top producers, and if that problem spreads, he is through. The older generation in the Piemonte remain a clannish lot, and Galloni is, after all, an outsider and a Gianni-come-lately. I am really curious as to why there are no Gaja scores at all and no bottle scores for the G. Conterno Ceretta and Francia (there is no 2011 Monfortino). Both Conterno wines are on sale here now…

The problems with Giacosa and G. Mascarello says more about the wineries than AG. And does not speak well of either of those places. Not sure what is going on at Mascarello but the issues at Giacosa are well known. We all should be upset if an estate will only let someone taste is they produce good scores. It is a different issue if they honestly feel that a reviewer doesn’t understand the wines. But they sure seem to understand the wines in other vintages, when the scores were high. He will probably come back to those wines in another part of the coverage on the vintage. His format gives him the ability to offer multiple articles. For good or bad. Hell, if I were doing the coverage I might not have given any info on the wines until the fall. But that doesn’t fit in with the wine selling cycle and trying to get in front of everyone else that is so common now. For what it is worth, with this and a couple of euros you can get a caffe if you are standing at the counter, I have never heard so many producers speak so highly of any reviewer as with Galloni. Maybe something has changed.

Absolutely yes, will buy plenty of '11 and '12.

And I will add he is far too thorough and exacting a reviewer to leave those wines out. Even if he has to go and buy every bottle.

Now that he doesn’t have Bob to kick around any longer, Bill has to go after the new top dog: A.G. In the words of Barney Fife, “It’s a compelsion”.sic

Not sure that AG is the new top dog. And after all, the miscreant of Monkton is still around. And Bill seems to have the ability to multitask.

I doubt anyone has much to add at this point about Antonio Galloni as a reviewer. A sizeable number of us will express skepticism about his incredibly high scores, his skillful operation of the hype machine, and his suspiciously periodic slaughtering of a sacred cow, ostensibly to show how independent he is but always having the effect of contributing to his own buzz. Michael will chivalrously step forward to defend his honor to the death with the hope that AG will deign to grant him a smile or, be still his heart!, toss him a used hankie. Gary will make various apparently authoritative pronouncements, typically non sequiturs. Klapp will stick the shiv up to its hilt while distracting people with a barrage of backhanded compliments sprinkled with bon mots.

In the meantime, I wonder if anyone is paying attention to the actual wines of Giacosa and G. Mascarello that were so sensationally panned? I keep reading reviews from experienced Barolo drinkers on Cellar Tracker of Giacosas from 2008 that are not only adulatory but consistent with older vintages. The same goes for the 2010 Mascarello Monprivato. I don’t put a lot of stock into CT scores on an absolute basis, but it is striking that the 2008 vintage for several of Giacosa’s 2008 nebbiolos scores higher than those from other recent, positively-reviewed vintages. There are only a few CT reviews of the 2010 Monprivato, but the reviews are striking in that they sound very characteristic of young Monprivato, e.g., feminine, light to medium body, red fruits, “pretty and aromatic,” “burgundian,” etc. Also, Tanzer apparently liked it just fine.

Given these incongruities, I’m wondering if anyone here has actually been drinking these admittedly young wines and has any thoughts on whether they truly are bad/cut from a different cloth per Galloni or whether AG’s mongered somewhat exaggerated rumors of these wineries’ death?

As noted above, Galloni is far from anyone’s top dog. Indeed, he is a distant number two to Tanzer in his own publication, and also second banana to Ian in Tuscany and the other important, non-Piemonte regions of Italy. He has street cred only in the Piemonte, and he may well be losing that by wasting time with hurried on-the-job training in CA, Burgundy, Champagne and God knows where else. He needs to dance with them what brung him, as Barney Fife might say (although that seems a bit more like Andy). He has earned every e-bitch slap that he has received…

Go read again the list of what else he left out, Gary. He has a lot of bottles to buy, eh? Indeed, he was neither thorough nor exacting this go around. He mailed it in a bit because the 2011 Barolo vintage is not awe-inspiring, and he spent all of his time putting very expensive lipstick on the 2010 Brunello pig. And read what Jay has to say. Galloni does not inspire confidence as a barrel taster. He is too green, and has too little experience with the tough wines to understand. He flat-out blew calls on the 2010 Monprivato and 2008 Giacosas and was stupid enough to boast about it. I know that you are molto italiano ITB and that Galloni is good for business, but that does not make him other than what he is at the moment. He does not owe anyone great scores, and if it were low scores alone that drove him to being shunned by some, I would agree that would be unfair and inappropriate. (Like you, I do not the practice of exiling wine reviewers even when there is a factual basis for doing so.) However, I am telling you that we are looking at blown calls on two great producers who were making legendary wines before Galloni was born. A brighter bulb with less insecurity about his experience would have studied and re-tasted, and maybe fessed up to getting it wrong. He did re-taste the Monprivato, and managed to get it wrong a second time. It has become his Caymus. Parker would be proud…

“A man has got to know his limitations.”

-“Dirty Harry” Callahan in “Magnum Force”

Well, Michael S., at least Galloni reads what is being said over here:

"Oh, and I forgot, as always, the spring article mostly focuses on wines in bottle. There are quite a few producers who bottle on the later side; Silvio Grasso, Fratelli Alessandria, G. Conterno, G. Mascarello, Cavallotto etc. For most of those wines, where possible, we have scores for wines tasted in barrel over the summer. That is not always easy or possible for some wines, like Cavallotto’s Bricco Boschis, which is blended from many casks.

That is one of the reasons why have continuous, streamed coverage on Vinous. I will be back in Piedmont in about ten days…"

Saved by the steamin’, streamin’ coverage! Monica will be back in Brunello about the same time, so maybe both reviewer jigsaw puzzles will be completed soon!

Bill, completely off topic, but is 2008 Monfortino available yet out there? I recall hearing it would be released a year or so early.

Jay, have the Giacosa Rocche Riserva 08 in my glass as I type this but this is the first 08 from Giacosa that I have tasted. It is far from diasppointing as it have fruit, tannins, backbone and elegance and the arch-typical Giacosa nose. This is a glorious wine and far far better than both red labels from 2007 IMHO
I’ve had the 2010 Monprivato three times now (drinking a whole bottle, not just tasting a sip) and I have full confidence in this wine as well although it is difficult to fully asses right now as it have so much fruit that just jumps at you. I still like the 2006 Monprivato more but that’s more due to style preference I guess

Thanks Martin. I really appreciate the first-hand impressions.