2013 Comm. G.B. Burlotto Barolo Monvigliero- Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo
Given all the hype surrounding this vintage of this wine I thought I should Pobega a bottle … and I was not disappointed. All class, this is potentially an outstanding Cru this year. Light, pale, translucent claret colour. Red cherry and red berry perfumes with touches of blueberries, rose florals and mixed spices. A sweet seeming entry but it’s bone dry. It’s packed full of ripe and rich red cherries, strawberries and other red fruit with cinnamon and other spices and hints of iron minerality. Ultra-fine grained, spherical tannins, with the precise, racy acids well balanced by the fruit. The stem component, at least at this time, well integrated and aligned. Clean and very pure. Satiny mouthfeel but with real volume and serious structure. Drinking beautifully over the two days, it really should be cellared for 5-8+ years, of course.
The 2008 showed very well recently, popped and poured, and just starting to turn up with some secondary complexity over 1-2 hours…though it still has at least a few years to get in to peak form.
Based on that, I’d say the 5-8+ additional years in the cellar Howard projects is about spot on.
Hi Markus
…and was still little more than that before Galloni ‘decreed’ the 2013 vintage to be worth 100 of his points. I very much doubt it’s good value at $200, but points chasers are still very much part of the wine scene, putting their faith (and money) in the palate of someone they’ve not even met, rather than taking time to explore their own palate.
Meanwhile Galloni gets himself name-checked widely, just showing how useful the 100 point scale can be to critics, wine traders & merchants.
Fabio won’t be selling it for anywhere near $100 a bottle, so all he gets is a mad hunt for the 2013 Monvligliero, then next year if the score awarded is more normal, he risks his regular buyers having moved on elsewhere, and the points chasers more interested in the next 100 point wine.
eh, the 2012 was around $65 and the 2013 was around $70 retail. Galloni didn’t force any retailer to charge $200 when their cost was only a little more than last year. Any wine that gets 100 points will see some speculation, but the actual price didn’t increase any more than the usual. In New York, the posted wholesale price for 2013 Monvigliero is $48 per bottle - no case discount tho
The pricing here from the local importer was ~ $US75 for the 2012 Monvigliero and Cannubi. For the 2013s it was slightly higher at ~ $US88 for either.
There are not huge volumes of the Burlotto Monvigliero produced but pricing higher than $200 is pretty hard to justify. Presumably this is ‘grey market’ pricing and not what US importers charge their customers who buy these wines on indent every vintage … ?
I suppose it’s similar to catching Grand Cru Burgundy in cask or on release before it shuts down. I haven’t had good luck with the wine on release, and the producer recommends drinking them around the 10 year mark, about 7-15 years after vintage to get secondary complexity, depending on vintage, etc.
Isn’t Barolo a wine that traditionally is known to have massive tannins, high acidity, and restrained fruit, taking decades to be approachable much less enjoyable? Is that no longer the case?
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