Many of the 2010 Barolos are still reasonable, but the big names have jumped reflecting the hype (or genuine quality) of the vintage. Starting to approach those Allemand auction prices…
Thanks Ken. I’m inclined to take your advice.
Galloni listed the Francia (no more “Cascina Francia”) release price at $250 for the US. I suspect deals will be available, but not for a while. I grabbed a couple of bottles from PC a whole back for $150, speculating the price would jump. I’ve never bought Barolo from PC, so we’ll see how that goes.
The real outrage is the price on the 2010 Barolo Cerretta (released only in magnum). Wine Library has it supposedly on sale for $550. That is insane for the first vintage of any wine, no matter the producer. I suspect the price is a combination of the vintage and Suckling’s 100 points (ever more reason to loathe him).
The 2010 Monfortino pricing will likely be painful. I think it would price at $750 in today’s market, so who knows how bad it will be several years from now. I am curious to see the pricing on 2008. The wine is being released early and doesn’t seem to be quite as special as early billing.
As for Elio Grasso, the sale at Binny’s is over (sold out) and the prices across the board are inflated—typically $80-90. I think people are forgetting that both Barolo were $40-$50 two years ago.
Personally, I’m following my typical buying patterns for Piedmont but will be going a little lighter on Giacomo Conterno. I bought a bit more G. Rinaldi because I found prices that didn’t jump.
The reality is that pricing for Barolo is starting to reflect its quality and scarcity, at least relative to ridiculously priced regions such as mass-produced Bordeaux and short-lived Cali cabs.
fwiw I just checked a dealer in Milano that I use pretty regularly. At current exchange rate and including the ~ 7% of VAT you don’t get back, the 2010 is ~ $169 USD. This came up on another thread, but the US prices for many traditional Barolo producers is way higher than Europe. For instance, the 2010 G. Rinaldi Brunate is ~ $75 if you carry back to the US ($85 including VAT if you keep it in Europe). I haven’t seen the US price yet, but you can bet it will be $150
Antonio Galloni is very fond of the vintage. Perhaps he sees it as his equivalent of what 1982 Bordeaux was for Parker. He’s starting from a much higher point though
I’ve purchased some Grasso and Brovia so far. I’m hoping to buy some Bartolo if the price is non-insane, and I may pick up some Vietti. I’m probably priced out of Cascina Francia, and sadly Monprivato as well.
At this point I’m just skipping any more of these weirdly expensive 2010s. On 2008s I got suckered into buying early and now the wines I bought are widely available for 20-30% less than I paid for ‘discounted’ exclusive rates.
So now I’m focused on back-filling 1989-2001. I may skip 2004 and 2006 completely.
Zero price increase on my end for Altare’s '10s. Pretty much the same on their end.
Arrive to port this week…I’m psyched.
If you’re bemoaning prices, go to Vinoplois website and search Piedmonte, you’ll find at least 50 different delicious wines under $50, with many running around $30.
I can’t afford many of the $100 wines but buying in the $30 range is a no brainer and there are many wines to choose from.
Vinopolis is the first that came to mind, there are several other retailers with like pricing.
I’ve been able to find the '10 Brunate for $130, which is $10-$20 more than recent vintages. Not a terrible bump under the circumstances. But $75 would be nice. I’m anticipating $140-$150 for Bartolo.
The info I got from retailers in Italy is that demand from abroad has increased, and the producers have been happy to follow it, reducing the allocations of even very old customers (meaning retailers) in Italy, and Europe, I guess.
So, in addition to the price increase also allocations went down, and for producers like G. Conterno, G. Mascarello, E. Grasso, I could only get a few bottles each.
This is starting to look very much like Burgundy…
Some believe that he hoped that 2007 would have been that for him as well, and neither 2007 nor 2010 has accomplished that.
After reading Greg’s post, I offer a different perspective and cautionary note for novice Nebbiolo drinkers: “best vintage of my lifetime” assessments from any source for any wine, when applied to new or recent release vintages, should either be taken with a grain of salt or dismissed entirely. Nowhere is that more true than with Barolo and Barbaresco, where great-vintage wines routinely fail to reveal their full potential after 50 years. What can safely be said is that 2010 is a strong, ageworthy vintage, perhaps with across-the-board rather than only for a limited number of wines, as happens in some vintages (1999, for instance). For younger fans, it is one to put away. However, a look at all available scores and commentary so far hardly suggests that this is the vintage of anybody’s lifetime, and claims to that effect (sorry, Greg and Antonio) are just so much subjective hyperbole.
In the first place, it is still impossible to accurately assess prior potentially great vintages such as 1989, 1996, 2001, 2004 and 2006, and just recently possible to understand the brilliance of the 1978s. (I could support Greg declaring that to be the vintage of his lifetime!) I am drinking a lot of traditional Baroli from the 1960s right now, a mix of the greatest and a wide range of lesser-known producers, and I can tell you that, after 50 years, some wines are taking 24-48 hours of aeration to fully reveal their stuff. It is true that 1964 and 1978 are likely the two most structured, long-aging vintages of the past 50 years, but you get the idea. For that reason, I am skeptical of the rash of horizontal tastings of vintages like those listed above. The 6-hour, double-decant approach is wholly inadequate in my view, and the only learning is likely to be to identify the wines made in a style or under circumstances that cause them to drink well young. God knows I understand the frustration that grows while waiting for Nebbiolo to age properly and show its magic. For that reason, modernist wines were developed and are widely available. However, young Barolo of a different style will never be old, traditionally made Barolo, and if you look at the drinking range estimates for one of the gold standards of traditional Nebbiolo, Monfortino, we are not getting any closer to accelerating the maturation process for the greatest wines. Just the nature of the beast.
It seems to me, as noted above, that a wide range of excellent, reasonably priced 2010s are readily available. The pricing that I am seeing here and in the U.S. is not “vintage of a lifetime” pricing, even with yields down a bit, and I am guessing that the price hikes will be limited to a handful of top wines, based upon broader international demand. And finally, understand that 2010 would have a veritable mountain of great vintages to climb over to join a legend like 1978, and as the recent 2001 and 2004 horizontal tastings have clearly shown, it is far too early to make even preliminary assessments of the potential greatness of those years. A better strategy, understandably not available to all, is to put together vertical, horizontal and mixed tastings from the period 1955-1985, including lesser-known producers, Nebbiolo outside of Barolo and Barbaresco and “off” vintages. The meaningful learning lies there today, not in hyperbole and unjustifiable comparisons…
Sounds like 2005 red Burgs…
Prices for many top wines doubled (plus), and never really came back down.
I could not agree more with Bill (though Bill has 10x or maybe 100x my Barolo knowledge, so my agreeing with him does not add much to this discussion). There is no ‘vintage of a lifetime’. 2010 will most probably fit in nicely with 2006, 2004, 2001 and maybe 1999 and a few more ('96, '90, '89, '82, '78). Vintage of a lifetime is created to sell the wine that is for sale NOW. Pass on the initial hype and the wine will be available later with only some rare exceptions.
For 2010 now, seems like Rinaldi ‘Coste’ and Sandrone ‘CB’ are offered at reasonable levels at Binnys ($145 and $128 respectively), and I’m sure many others as well. Sandrone ‘CB’ represents real value as the stupid rating guy gave the Le Vigne a higher score. Impossible for the Le Vigne blend of many ‘good’ vineyards of Baudana, Merli and Vignane to be better than the single vineyard ‘great’ CB from Cannubi. This would be like a Burgundy reviewer giving Drouhin’s ‘Chambolle 1er’ a higher score vs their Amoureuses. So the numbers guys are grabbing the le Vigne and leaving the CB alone. Silly.
Pass on G Conterno CF at $175 or $200 or $225 or whatever. As Bill said, the best of the juice goes into the Monfortino. A fantastic $75 - $125 bottle, pass at $175 and up
So look around, refuse to pay up, buy only when the price is right, keep in mind the slide in the $/E exchange rate over the last few months, buy '06, '04, '01, and '99 as you see them and don’t worry.
Remember that the '10s that you buy, if you’re in your '50s or later, will probably never be ready in your drinking lifetime. You’re buying them as museum pieces, or for your kids, or for your estate.
I just bought both Giuseppe Rinaldi 2010 barolo for 90$ in denmark.It is a 10$ increse from the 2009 vintage.
Peter makes some additional good points. If I were young enough to make a serious investment in the 2010s, I would still be splitting my money between 2010s and backfilling earlier vintages at comparable or better prices, as he recommends. (Indeed, I am doing that right now anyway, buying but a few 2010s and a slew of '60s and '70s as they become available here, including occasional ex-cantina bottles from the likes of Cappellano and Cavallotto.) Also, there is a notion floating around that 2010 is not a Barbaresco year. Not true. It was not a Giacosa year because problems in that family and winery resulted in NO wine, but otherwise, Barbaresco is exhibiting the same breadth of quality seen in Barolo. I bought the 2010 Castello di Neive Santo Stefano, perhaps one of the two or three best ever of that wine, which drinks brilliantly right now with Piemontese dishes and seems unlikely to shut down. (A Riserva is coming next year on that wine as well.) I also went in for a few bottles of the Alessandria and G.B. Burlotto Monviglieros, one each of the 4 Brovias, Vietti’s Rocche, Gaja’s Sperss and G. Rinaldi’s Tre Tine blend, none of which I expect will outlive me (fingers crossed as we get deeper into truffle and game season), and I may buy a few more, maybe even a single bottle of Monfortino to look at and admire, if not to drink! (I second Peter’s notion on the Sandrone CB, by the way. Le Vigne has never been its equal, and I doubt that is the case in 2010 (only Antonio seems to think so), although Antonio could simply be drawing attention with a hyperbolic score to what could be the best Le Vigne ever.) I also drink Vajra’s wines quite a bit in ristoranti, as they are almost always good bets for “now and later” drinking. But to reiterate, I cannot imagine why anyone would consider paying $225, much less $285, for a wine which has been a consistent low-to-mid 90s performer for all reviewers except Antonio (and he only occasionally), with Antonio going 96-98 for the 2010 (versus Tanzer’s 93-95) and placing a number of other 2010 wines above it. On those facts, if I were a young man (yubby dibby dibby dibby dibby dibby dibby dum), I would buy more bottles of better-priced 2010s of pedigree, or squirrel some of my money away for fewer bottles of what figures to be a consensus prodigious (as The Man says) 2010 Monfortino…
P.S. A word of apology to those staging 2000, 2001 and 2004 horizontals. It is your wine and your choice, so I am not at all like the fellow on other threads who accused some of you of high crimes and misdemeanors for opening ANY wines of the new millennium. All that I am saying is that the responses to the published results of such tastings are, far more often than not, “Thanks, I will not touch mine for another 10-15 years,” or else discussions of variant findings (sometimes wildly so) of tastings of the same young wines, or sometimes other discussions which end in inconclusive findings, which is just what one should expect. I will still read what you write, whether or not I find much to take away from the efforts!
Looks like the 2010 Castello di Neive ‘Santo Stefano’ is offered for around $30 in the US. Would be pretty nice with the coming white truffle season here…
People have been saying Barolo will explode on the world scene and prices will soar for 20 years at least. It seems every great vintage (and there are a lot) starts with some high prices. In the end, they can’t sell it all, prices get discounted and another great vintage comes out. Drinking average 96 thru 01 Barolos provides me plenty of pleasure today. Most of these wines can be found in more recent vintages for $30 or so. I am buying very little over $40 for 2010 Barolo and already have seen a bunch that I have no doubt will be great in ten plus years. If a few top Barolos can get that kind of pricing, more power to them, but I am more than content waiting it out to see what else shows up over the next year or two.
General question- any thoughts on Paolo Conterno Ginestra ?
Loren- can you post a few wines at the pricing level you refer to ? Schiavenza is one who I really enjoyed and stocked up on the 08’s. Don’t see the 10’s yet here in the states.
Peter - I seriously doubt you are talking about the Barbaresco. More likely the Barbera Santo Stefano. Great wine.