I did a line up of 13 at a tasting on monday night, a couple were pretty ripe with poor acidity,my 2 favourites were the Vietti Castiglione and Massolino Barolo both looked good as shorter term cellar prospects
I opened the Produttori '13 normale last night and was just tasting the leftover third-of-a-bottle now (refrigerated overnight). It’s not really speaking to me. There are some nice very sour cherries on the nose tonight – more aroma than last night – but the tannins seem kind of harsh and the fruit is not showing. These often show better on release. Maybe it’s just at an awkward moment, but I’m not rushing out to buy this. (Lot 17.046)
Sounds mostly like 2009 to me. Perhaps Greg could comment on what he sees as the distinguishing characteristics of 2013 versus 2009?
Cheers,
Blair
If it’s mostly like 2009, there are going to be a lot of disappointed (and aggravated) people.
What sounds like 2009? ![[scratch.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/4/42a16863a8714da3c1604419e3eb9206bb87aa50.gif "scratch"){kind=small}
no I dont think its 09 all over again, out of the 7 wines I tried I found 1 that was picked too late and the flavours were over ripe and the acidity was too low and another that was still balanced but a little too ripe for me, 1 was nice fruit but I didnt care for the small oak it had been shown, 1 had very little tannin structure, and the Masolino and vietti wines looked good for medium term cellaring, 2009 wines blew my head off when I first tried them, these are more elegant
Yup awkward moment, we started with this wine on monday night, lots of smooth cherry fruit with elegant tannins
Pretty much everything John quoted from Greg in the OP, and especially:
_“The nature of the vintage is all about super ripe, fine grained tannins, lusciously sweet fruit, and spicy nuance. Both the tannins and the sweetness of fruit though seem to be the failings of the vintage as well.
[…]
This softness is the principal shortcoming of the vintage as well as quite a few wines are just too soft. They’re fun and delicious, but without backbone.
The sweetness of fruit in this vintage is also an issue. I don’t really look for luscious Barolo and don’t expect the particularly lush wines of the vintage to age that well. With time that lushness will fall away leaving wines that might lack depth, roundness, and nuance.”
_
The words above, quoted from Greg, describe just about every 2009 I’ve tried.
Cheers,
Blair
But note that in that quote, Greg also says:
“While the heights of 2013 are stratospheric, the wines are not as classical as those of 2010, which, in a general sense I continue to prefer over this more recent vintage. But boy are there lots of outstanding wines!”
Also, in his review of 2012 baroli, and preview of 2013s, Greg says this:
“2013 on the other hand requires no neck sticking out. It’s the best vintage since 1989. The wines have remarkable balance, elegance, great depth of flavor without excessive weight. This is a vintage which is expressing terroir and minerality like none I’ve ever seen. The tannins are the finest that I can remember. I tasted very few of the big guns this past week, that will have to wait until May, but across the board I was blown away by the elegance of these wines. I can’t imagine the scores they will receive for they deserve scores higher than they have been getting, and there is simply no space left on the grading curve. This is the danger of grade inflation. When you are face to face with what could be the greatest vintage of a generation, an extra point just does do it justice. It is not a sufficient means of communicating the qualitative jump from vintages such as 2011 and 2012.”
Hi Cristian,
Thanks for posting that, which I take was Greg’s first impression on the vintage.
I think John’s point in posting what he did was to show that Greg is no longer as keen on 2013, and he is now voicing some concerns (moreso than other critics).
What I was asking, if Greg is willing to clarify, is does his present view of the weaknesses of 2013 take us close to 2009 territory, and if not, what are the distinctions in his view?
Cheers,
Blair
Blair, I understand. I think it is interesting to see the evolution of Greg’s views of the vintage overall. The points that I took from this, and I think many people are well aware of them are that:
- these are snapshots in time - what last year seemed the best vintage since 1989, this year seems less so, but who knows if in a few years’s time it might not revert back to being the best
- the overall assessment of the vintage is just that, overall. Apparently there are still lots of great wines (Rinaldi, Mascarello, etc etc), likely more so than in 2009, 2011, 2012, and I think most folks on this board focus on the producers that are likely to make great wines. So vintage AND producer are probably more informative than vintage itself.
In any case, I look forward to trying the 2013s, though the only wine I tasted so far, the 2013 Burlotto Monvigliero, was rather simple and underwhelming, and not because of the high expectations set by the 100 points.
What are you talking about here? You mean blowsy?
Definitely quite different takes. But the second quote is from sometime last spring – before May, obviously – before the '13s were bottled.
Yes it is from the tasting of 2012s in bottle and I assume the 2013s were still in barrel.
A couple of the 13s were blowsy to my palate, but the better ones had an intricate tannin structure woven around the acidity
This information on 2013 really now helps me make sense of my experience. I was just in barolo for the first time last week and the enoteca that is associated/next to the wine museum had a special event (calici Stelle) with 100 different 2013 barolos. None of them had a the wall of tannin and they all seemed kind of obtuse. I chalked it up to too much wine all week at restaurants and that my taste is gone. And I think that still may be the case because even bartolo mascarello and Giuseppe rinaldi, the two best wines by a whole level at the event , didn’t wow my friend or I. Regardless the 20 or so we tasted at the event definitely had the feeling that many of you in the post say.
On a little side note I drank the 2013 burlotto mongliviero at a restaurant and that was the biggest anomaly wine I’ve ever tasted in a barolo. Unlike the 2010 that I had one of that seemed more normal in color and flavor of a barolo this almost had a pinkish hue, or maybe just light clear raspberry red. The flavor profile also was so high toned it was crazy. It did not taste like Nebbiolo to me. It was very good though just unusual.
David
Burlotto’s Monvigliero is distinct. It often reminds me of Chambolle-Musigny, with its strawberry notes. I found some of that in Frat. Alessandria’s Monvigliero, as well. The vineyard is quite unique. Also, Burlotto’s Monvigliero is pressed by foot and is macerated on the skins for 60 days – at least twice the normal period, even for traditionalists. Paradoxically, that yields an extremely feminine wine.
Here’s a clue as to how the trade will pitch these vintages: an article in the current issue of Somm Journal (downloadable PDF, p. 13), which gushes about 2013, 2014 and 2015.
ITALY IS IN A FULL-BLOWN GOLDEN AGE of wine. After thousands of years, it has arrived in the Promised Land. In particular, three vintages in Piedmont have bestowed a largess upon wine lovers almost to the point of excess. It really doesn’t get any better than this.
The author, Alfonso Cevoli, extolls 2015: “Tasting the 2015 Nebbiolos in the Langhe reminded me of grand vintages like 1978, 1982 and 1989.” (I have no idea whether he tasted those vintages out of barrel.)
He acknowledges the weather challenges in 2014, but says it has produced great wines, as he learned tasting Carlo Boffa’s Barbaresco. Need proof of the quality of the vintage? You can take Boffa’s word when he says, “Buy all you can of this wine.”
He also quotes Aldo Vacco at the Produttori:
“2014 was a quite difficult season in the vineyards all over Europe; however, the favorable end of the season proved to be a pleasant surprise for the quality of the grapes on the Langhe Hills. In particular, the region of Barbaresco was a shining exception in a difficult vintage.”
Reading between the lines – and the omission of any reference to Barolo in the 2014 section – Barbaresco is the place to focus in '14.
On 2013, much praise:
A plethora of enthusiasm envelops 2013, and rightfully so. It’s the current release for Barolo, and the producers we saw were showing wines that had grip, warmth, openness, freshness and lots of energy/tension/balance.
So don’t expect any letup in the hype.
“Promised Land”? “Buy all you can.” …what a spiel. Every. Single. Year. 
I definitely think just like in any profession some people sell more than educate, however to be fair there are two major considerations;
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it seems to me unless the entire system changes industry has to taste wines in barrell. Maybe this example in 2013 barolo is the perfect one. Maybe in barrell 2013 was just enough crystalline, just enough fresh, and just enough focused to think it was 2010+. I don’t know I’m just hypothecating
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I always read on this board that we go too far in vintages and that the best ones are not always as good as the tougher years 10-20 years out. So maybe we’re just over analyzing incorrectly as well just from a different perspective.