Thanks for the kind words ken. I have not. I have been there while they have been bottling for both of the last two years and was unable to work in an appointment either time. Hopefully next year!
Thank you for the kind words Eric. They are much appreciated.
It’s not a warm vintage and a warm July and first half of August not withstanding, it was not a warm growing season. It was however a long growing season. I am puzzled by John’s not from Germano as virtually everyone started harvest later that has recently been the norm and finished very late indeed as the weather during harvest was quite favorable for waiting. It’s that wait that seems to have done in a few wines. I’m not sure what exactly happened but the late stage ripening wasn’t simply desiccation but something else. Ripening that continued to concentrate grape flavor sweetness without increasing sugars significantly while at the same time letting tannins almost melt away. The wines have those warm vintage traits, a certain sweetness and in many cases very soft tannins while retaining the cool climate traits of good acidity and remarkable transparency and minerality. It’s a tough vintage to pigeonhole.
Words don’t do the difference between the vintages justice. While the 13s display a lot of fruit they also have terrific depth and complexity and the fruit is much more in the red end of the spectrum. I find the 09s to be darker fruited, having coarser tannins, softer acidities, and in generally a richer, more ungainly character. The 13s are brighter, more nuanced, and infinitely more elegant wines, even if they vintages share a few traits.
Vintage of the . . . millennium?
Hi Blair,
No, very far from 2009. See my comments directly above. 2013 is a great vintage, there is no doubt about that. A lot of people will actually love the softness and fruitiness that many of these wines display, but many are not exactly classic wines. Some base Barolos are amazing while other, better regarded sites are not. It comes down to producers a bit but this is a vintage that was more site specific than usual. I think a few keys to the vintage where the early issues during flower leading to crop reduction and the ability of each site to handle the heat of the summer and then the rains of September. There was a lot going on throughout this growing season, and both producer and site had to be up to each challenge The potential for extending the harvest also presented its array of pitfalls.
At the risk of repeating myself the distinctions between 2009 and 2013 are quite significant but they boil down to three details. The fruit is fresh in 13 and cooked in 09. The tannins can be coarse in 09 while they are elegant, if sometimes too soft in 13, and the complexity and nuance of 13 is head and shoulders above the intense though often inelegant fruit domination I found in 09.
I just checked my notes and that’s what I wrote down when I was speaking with Elia, Sergio’s son. Elia’s English wasn’t terribly strong, though, so perhaps he misspoke. Also, it’s not clear from my notes, but this may have been referring to the Prapo in particular. I’ll check with Oliver, who imports Germano in California.
It was a tricky vintage to call early, particularly from the wines I had tasted at that point, which where wines made by what we might call lesser producers. Many if not most of them produced wines that were atypically good for them. A slice of the market where the wines can really benefit from softer tannins. Having said that I had also tasted Giuseppe Rinaldi and Brovia wines from barrel since they were a year old and they were and remaining stunning wines. In a certain sense the variability of the 13s recalls the variability of the 12s, though in different ways. Try a bottle of Burlottos Acclivi, or Brovia or Oddero’s base Barolo and you’ll get a sense of the potential of the vintage. I still put it at the very top of the recent vintage pyramid, though not the pinnacle. In hindsight I would have used different wording perhaps. 2010 is for me a better vintage, though 2013 is more accessible and certain more consumer friendly, which at the end of the day might be a valid component in any vintage assesment.
You are going to be fed so much BS about the coming vintages, particularly if you believe people in the trade who are writing purportedly unbiased reports. 14 is interesting and I know I’m going to love the freshness, austerity, and purity of many of the wines, debatable as to whether the public at large will. 15 is ripe and exotic, 16 has problems with alcohol, as does 15 for that matter. It is a bit early to make detailed predictions about the last two vintages, though the quality of the Barbera in 15 would certainly suggest that it was too warm in many places for the maximum expression of Nebbiolo. But it is never too early to tell an eager audience what they want to hear!
John, do you have information on normal maceration times for traditionalist producers? I visited Silvano Bolmida earlier this week, and he does even longer macerations than this. On the nose, his Barolo Bussia 2013 was also pretty feminine, although it did have the usual tannins of a young Barolo when tasting. Interesting vinification: classic maceration, then 1 year on fully cleaned, non-new, non-charred barriques and then only in botti.
Gregory, thanks for all this information. My take based on 10 days in the Barolo / Barbaresco, without detailed prior knowledge of the region:
- I liked the 2014 Barbaresco’s: sufficiently ripe, not diluted, very fresh
- I also tasted a lot of 2015 Nebbiolo Langhes and really enjoyed them for the price: I read quite a lot about this type of wines, which must come from Barolo / Barbaresco. They either come from not ideally exposed vineyards (ie not in the correct exposition to the sun) or from declassified fruit (young vines), etc. The ones I tasted, from the better producers, were really juicy, perfectly ripe (but not overly so), so if anyone is afraid of “ripe and exotic” Barolo’s in 2015, these wines might be a bit of a substitute for short-term consumption, as they are of course not vinified in the same manner.
- Barbera in 2015 was great - I realize I a not a fan of oak usage on this grape.
I think 20-30 days maceration is typical for traditional producers.
More than 60 days maceration plus a year in barriques is downright weird.
Counter-intuitive things happen sometimes with extended processes. That certainly seems the case with Burlotto Monvigliero. I experienced something analogous visiting Guigal many years ago and doing barrel tastes of Cote Roties. Surprisingly, past a certain point – two years or so – the oak was less conspicuous in the wine. Philippe Guigal confirmed that that was the case. More is not always more with wine.
Hi Greg,
Thanks very much for this - very helpful!!! I think the last two 2009 Baroli I tried are somewhat outliers, and were closer to how you describe 2013 in general (those were 2009 Marcarini Brunate, and 2009 Burlotto Acclivi). Both on the elegant side for 2009s, I’d say. I believe that is why your 2013 description sounded so close to my recent experience with those particular 2009s. However, I am thankful you provided the above summary of the distinctions of these vintages overall - and it makes perfect sense to me.
Cheers,
Blair
When I was in Barolo in November, all of the producers said '16 was looking to be qualitatively better across the board than '13, '14, or '15. The hype train isn’t stopping anytime soon…
The Produttori chaps think it is a classic vintage according to their blurb:
RECENT VINTAGES
Produttori del Barbaresco s.a.c.
Via Torino, 54 - 12050 Barbaresco (CN), Italy - Tel. +39 0173635139 - Fax +39 0173635130
www.produttoridelbarbaresco.com
SOCietà agrico la coop erativa
2013 VINTAGE
2013 harvest will be remembered as a classic one, with picking operation progressing
almost until the end of October! It started with a cold and wet tail of the winter
which caused a very delayed start of the growing season. Nebbiolo’s buds brook in
Barbaresco around April 12th almost two weeks behind average timing! Most of April
and May were cold and quite wet with intense rainfall, over 8.0 inches in just 3 weeks,
and farmer’s skills were put at test due to favorable conditions to mildew’s attacks
right from the outset of the season.
June and July were blessed by much better climate and both flowering and fruit
set happened regularly. Needless to say July green harvest and careful canopy
management were crucial in a vintage like such. Despite the good turnout of the
second half of the summer, vines were not quite able to fully recover the delay and by
early September we were looking at healthy grapes, still quite behind schedule in the
ripening process.
September brought cool nights and warm, bright days, particularly in the second half
of the month, and conditions remained fair also into October. Nebbiolo is the grape
that benefits more from this climatic condition, properly developing to the full the
phenolic profile that grants complexity and produces wines best suited for ageing.
Thanks to the protracting good weather conditions, we were able to wait and pick late,
starting harvest on October 10th and ending it two full weeks later. October harvest
was the norm during the ‘80s but has becoming an exception in the new millennium
when harvest usually happens around last week of September. Late harvested grapes
bring into the wine complexity, structure and ripe tannins combined with intense
color, all quality that will result in elegant, yet powerful wines of great balance and
longevity, definitely a “classic” vintage!
Try the wine and see what you think. As I said, maybe it’s just at an awkward moment.
Barolo Bromance! 
I know someone there if you need help getting in. 
Aldo Vacca and Luca Currado both made comments during the 2016 harvest that these were the best grapes they had ever seen. I don’t know if that translates into great wines or just a statement about the healthiness of the grapes. I asked Aldo if that meant the wines would be great and he said “We will see.”
Aldo Vacca and Luca Currado both made comments during the 2016 harvest that these were the best grapes they had ever seen. I don’t know if that translates into great wines or just a statement about the healthiness of the grapes. I asked Aldo if that meant the wines would be great and he said “We will see.”[/quote/}
If you think back you might recall that that was what was said about 1985. Most beautiful fruit ever. We’ll see about the wines. No doubt there’ll be spectacular wines but more than one producer I tasted with was unhappy about the alcohol levels.
I hope they were right because we were on our honeymoon there and thus it will be our wedding year vintage!