Greg dal Piaz on 2013 in the Langhe: Qualified praise

[David_Cooper]

I’m pretty sure they are never going to be the hyperbole masters the Bordelais were during the 80s.

Have we seen huge price increases other then at the high end? Here in Vancouver we haven’t but we pay so much for everything it would be hard to pay more. Even the classified Chateaus of Bordeaux can’t gouge us like our governments.

[John_Morris]

@David Cooper

I’m pretty sure they are never going to be the hyperbole masters the Bordelais were during the 80s.

Have we seen huge price increases other then at the high end? Here in Vancouver we haven’t but we pay so much for everything it would be hard to pay more. Even the classified Chateaus of Bordeaux can’t gouge us like our governments.

The good thing is that the government takes a fixed mark-up, so on some hard-to-get wines the BC prices aren’t so bad compared to the US.

[David_Cooper]

True that. The $50 plus stuff is a bit better. The truth is the Rhone and Piemonte seem to get hit the least. However if you want to buy something from a private store you get hit with a larger mark up.

[Daniel_Mattisson]

Re: Produttori Normale 2013, I have had 6-7 bottles since these were first released in the US. After my last bottle I decided to lay off the remainder as I felt it was starting to go into a dumb phase.

[John_Morris]

@John Morris

@Gregory Dal Piaz

I am puzzled by John’s note from Germano [that they picked a week earlier in '13 than in '11] 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.

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.

Well, I was mistaken, as several of you suspected. There was some kind of miscommunication when I spoke with Sergio’s son last year. The 2013 harvest at Germano was in fact later than 2011 – ten to 13 days later, depending on the vineyard. Oliver McCrum, who imports Germano in California, e-mailed Sergio Germano, who sent a spreadsheet of their harvest dates for the last 11 vintages.

I made a chart of Sergio’s data. This is based on his Prapo, Cerretta and Lazzarito Riserva harvest dates (the three icons on each line), all in Serralunga.

This is one producer in one village, but it’s interesting. You can see how early the harvest was in '07, while '09 – a very ripe year – was harvested on the late side. And, while 2013 may be a relatively ripe year, it’s not because it was a hot summer leading to an early harvest. As you can see, the harvest dates were quite late – in line with 2010, though no one is comparing this vintages in style.

Something else to note: The riserva is not always the last to be harvested. Some year it’s first.

[Oliver_McCrum]

Thank you for this, John.

[Ken_V]

I think you can fit a damped, declining sine wave to that data.

[John_Morris]

@Ken V

I think you can fit a damped, declining sine wave to that data.

I can send you the Excel if you’d like to try.