OK, I have received a list with all of the Barbaresco crus offered, principally 97, 00, 01, 04, 07, 08 & 09 vintages.
I have little experience with these wines, but keen to have a dip.
Can the board recommend specific wines or even the crus that they consistently do well.
Many thanks in advance,
Kent
Rabaja, Montestefano and Asili are my 3 favorite crus. I am very fond of '07, as it is more open/drinkable than many other vintages. Most Produttoris need many years, so the '07s give me winesnto drink while I wait on the other years. That being said, I think the '07s will have a reasonably long life.
If they say “Produtteri” on them, don’t buy them! 
If you like Nebbiolo with some structure, I would avoid the 97s, 00s, and 09s. The others are all excellent vintages. Also, if you like structure, then David has already picked out the 3 crus which are best, but all of them are good.
Kent,
There will be far more knowledgeable people than I chime in, but I do drink a fair amount of Produttori and they are well represented in my cellar. Of those vintages I’d vote for 01, 04, 07, 08 in chronological order only . I’m not much of a fan of 97 in general and have had very few 09’s I love. I’d echo David’s comments on Rabaja, Asili, and Montestefano. I also like Montefico and Paje. Ovello with age as well. I think Rabaja is head of the class though. These are great value wines, that also stand up very well compared to more lauded producers. Put a Produttori Rabaja with bottle age into a blind Piedmont horizontal tasting and watch it shine. To boot they have long term potential for growth. I also agree with David’s thoughts on 07s to drink now while your 08 and 04s come around. The 07’s an open, giving nature to them and while I think they are less classic and with less tension than say 08 and less structure than 04, they hit the pleasure spot for me. I probably have a bias as it is a sentimental vintage as my wedding year. Anyway, it’s difficult to go wrong here with the cru’s in 01, 04, 07, 08.
Enjoy!
And one of them did post while I was typing my response!
Aha…thanks Ken.
Will edit title.
How are they stylistically, dare I say traditional or modern? That should throw the cats amongst the pigeons.
Quite traditional and classic Barbaresco. Never massive. All the wines are made the same way, so these are a real benchmark for both vineyard and vintage. BTW, I do have some handy charts here:
http://www.finewinegeek.com/produttori/
Kent,
I am quite a fan of these and bought heavily in the '08 vintage. Given the opportunity I would also buy as many '01 and '04s as I could find.
Hi Kent,
Produttori Riservas are the largest volume of wines in my cellar. They’re good, traditionally made Nebbiolo and great value for money. I’ve got every vintage from '01 onwards in my cellar.
They have that Burgundian-type terroir concept where you choose your favourite SVs (for me, Montefico) and can follow them with vintage variations. To me that makes them fascinating wines to follow.
Of those vintages I’d concentrate on '04, '07 and '08 and choose the SVs you think are of most interest.
There’s some comments about the vintages in this thread:
Best, Howard
This is great information. I want to buy them all now. Tempted by the 97s as it is so difficult to buy wines with age, lathough always preferred 96s.
Interesting take on vineyard styles Howard…very useful.
Love your chart Ken.
Which vintages of the riservas are mature? I’m thinking anything post 1990.
It will be interesting to see how well the Produttori Riserve of the past 20 years will age. I have 1967, 1971 and 1974 Rabaja’, Montestefano and Pora Riserve and Riserve Speciale sourced here that are certainly drinkable, but not yet fully mature, and could have another 10-20, maybe even 30, years left. Also, I think that the jury is still very much out on the 2007 vintage generally, in Barolo and Barbaresco. I am betting that, whether it is somebody’s idea of “classic” or not, 2007 will go down as one for the ages. (Overgeneralizing about the warmer vintages like 1997, 2000 and 2007 is already leaving egg on some reviewer, and even retailer and loquacious wine-board commentator, faces.) While it is true that some producers inevitably did not cope well with the conditions presented by such vintages, it is also true that those that did made world-beating wines. Gaja’s 1997s, Sandrone’s 1997 Cannubi Boschis and Giacosa’s 2000 and 2007 red labels, all brilliant wines, go a long way to destroying “hot year, not classic” mythology, which is best applied to scorched-earth vintages like 2003. Also, winemakers now have more tools to optimize their warm-vintage results than they did in, say, 1990, so the later warm vintages figure to produce more ageworthy wines as well. I much prefer the 2007 Nebbioli to the 2008s, except, curiously enough, the 2008 Produttori, which are indeed terrific.
I defer to Todd and the others above who are drinking more 2007 Produttori lately as to projected ageworthiness, as I have had only a couple so far, and, given the popularity of Produttori’s wines, I suspect that additional opinions will surface here on all of the vintages that you mention, including 1997 and 2000. Bob Hughes has not weighed in yet, and I think that he drinks Produttori Barbaresco for breakfast instead of coffe or tea…
P. S. If there is a knock to be made on the Produttori wines at all, it would be only that few of them (even the old ones, by the way) ever seem to attain the secondary and tertiary complexity of the very best Nebbioli, but given the value, drinkability and availability, that is hardly a drawback.
I would buy 2001, 2004, & 2008 as heavily as possible with a few 2007’s for immediate consumption. Really if there’s a lot available I’d just focus heavily on the 2001’s & 2004’s…but seeing an offer like this makes me want to open up the wallet as wide as possible.
If you do buy any '08s they need to be buried in the cellar.
Good thread going here.
Bill, I guess I should retract or rather modify my statement of drinking now on the 07s. I feel like I should run for office now.
To better state, I think if Kent is going to try some of these to get a feel for the Producer, the 07s of that list would be the ones most likely to show well now. Of the other vintages on that available list, I prefer 08, 04, and 01 in that order as a generalization for the Produttori for potential future pleasure, but I doubt those will give much love right now, or at least will be less likely to give as much insight into producer at their current stage of development. Probably some 01s would.
I think we share a lack of fear of aging these wines, as we discussed at Bercau drinking a middling 30 year old Verduno wine, and I suspect the 04, 08, 01, and 07 will all see their 30th birthdays in fine form. Also, I do think you have an advantage with regards to predicting development, having tasted all the 67’s in botti 
That said, I think that time will tell us which vintages develop and for how long. I won’t be surprised to be surprised. That will be part of the fun watching and learning where we guessed right and where we didn’t.
FWIW, I went long on the 07s Produttori wines partly due to vintage and also due to it being my wedding year. I have faith there will still be some of them in the cellar in 2037 developing nicely. I hope to be there to drink them.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone
While it’s interesting to speculate what some of these wines might be like with 30 or more years of age (when I will most certainly no longer be alive), the thing I enjoy most about the Produttori wines is that you are not heavily penalized for drinking them along the way. Many vintages (not all) are remarkably fresh and enjoyable at 8-10-12-15 years of age. They are not what they will be when tertiary characteristics are fully developed, but still enjoyable, and sometimes I wonder if they will eventually truly be better after all those years (I can hear the grumbling now). This could be different with wines from the 90’s and 2000’s, as opposed to the prior wines, as has been suggested before (perhaps by Aldo, if I remember?).
I think in other wine regions, and even within this wine region (eg many Barolos), this is often not the case. I’ve had an awful lot of underwhelming Bordeaux and Burgundy at 10-15-20 years that you might as well dump down the sink, only to find at 25 to 30 years they have suddenly become jems (Witness a recent 1975 and 1985 Bordeaux tasting within our group where the wines were almost universally great).
There are certainly vintages of Produttori that you had best bury, but there are a whole bunch, perhaps the majority, that you can sample now, later, or when you are dead, and enjoy.
Had the 2001 Ovello last week. Decanted for a couple of hours. Young and tense initially with classic old school Barbaresco characteristics and plenty of tannins. As the wine opened sweeter red fruits emerged with the tannins broadening and allowing for the wine to become more generous. By the end the wine was utterly gorgeous and had tremendous depth and complexity. While obviously not entirely too young it certainly could age for a long time more with ease if not even a bit more upside. These wines used to be an unreal deal and while still a decent QPR they have figured out that they can price higher and still sell. Good for them.mif you have a shot at buying back vintages I would definitely recommend 97, 99, 01 and 04 although I have not had many of those yet. The normale is a terrific deal and does well with bottle age as well if lacking the developmental complexity of the crus.
Kent
In terms of the single vineyards, I guess many of us have preferences but I wouldn’t want to say any one is better than the others.
One great spin-off from the energy / willingness to travel of Aldo Vacca, is that there are many write-ups on the internet of horizontal tastings that he has held in various countries. These make good reading for getting a feel for the differences, and they really do indulge our geeky nature to ‘taste the terroir’ of 9 different sources for the wine, seemingly vinified in a consistent manner.
rather than attempt to give you what would be a second hand opinion on some of them, I’d say hunt out those write-ups here and elsewhere.
regards
Ian
After having a few from older vintages I have become hooked. I purchased a few bottles each from all 9 vineyards on future for the 2011 Vintage. Curious to see which ones I like…
I have not tasted the 2010 and 2011. But experienced friends who have told me that they would rather drink the 2010 normale than any cru from 2011.