1964 Fratelli Barale Barolo- Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo (1/6/2018)
This showed quite well. It was set at a 45 degree angle for 3+ months to allow the sediment to settle into the bottom back of the punt and then decanted for sediment. The wine was opened at 6am and about 9/10 of the bottle was left after decanting, the bottle was rinsed with left-over 2010 Barolo from the night prior and then the '64 was poured back into the decanter for the long 4+ hours in a car. We drank the wine with a truffle risotto around 9pm and it was in a lovely spot. Easy to love, and quite robust…maybe some Barbera was blended in the wine back in the day? A lovely old wine…but I’m not sure it’s 100% Nebbiolo given how dark it was. I would have expected it to be much lighter given my past experiences with older wines from the 60’s in Piedmont. It did pair lovely with the risotto…If you had this I don’t see any rush in opening it. My guess is that this wine has another 5 - 10+ years left…if not longer. Will it get any better? I doubt it…but it is a lovely drop in the glass.
Oh, I was just saying that I think it was darker than if it had been 100% Nebbiolo and I’m guessing that some small percentage of Barbera was blended in. Maybe only 1-3%
Interesting. I recently opened a ‘71 Vallana Spanna that was considerably darker than the ‘61 Nervi Gattinara Spanna opened a few weeks ago. Wonder if the ‘71 had some Barbera mixed in.
It didn’t look to be. It was a low-neck/high shoulder fill. I got it from RWC…and couldn’t be happier to still have another bottle to open at another time. This is just a guess based on my (limited) experience with some other older Nebbs.
I wondered about that, too. The label is so pristine that it makes me wonder if it was labeled and released by the estate in relatively recent years, and perhaps topped up first, as Borgogno does.
It wouldn’t now, obviously. But the DOC system only came into existence in 1963 and Barolo only became a DOCG in 1980. I can’t find what the original DOC rules said. I assume they required 100% nebbiolo, but the concept of blending with nebbiolo in the region has historical precedent, according to Wikipedia, citing Oz Clarke:
In the Piedmont region, there is a long history of blending other grape varieties with Nebbiolo in order to add color and/or soften the grape’s harsh tannins. In addition to use of red wine grapes such as Barbera, Croatina, and Bonarda Piemontese, white wine grapes such Arneis and Favorita also have a history of being blended with Nebbiolo. Historically, the association of blending Arneis with Nebbiolo was so strong that a common synonym of the former is Barolo Bianco or “white Barolo”.
So it doesn’t seem inconceivable that Barale might have done that in 1964, with or without sanction of the rules, though it’s obviously speculation. (As the president of traditional balsamic vinegar makers’ consortium said to me 20 years ago, “In Italy, to create a rule is to begin the process of evading it.”)
FYI, there was a proposal in 1998 to allow other grapes, according to the same article.
There are rumors that Vallana blended all sorts of things into their wines over the years. Some have even claimed brandy, though most credible ones say barbera.
I’d think that a recently topped-up bottle would have a low likelihood of a totally saturated cork, as I presume that the cork would also be more recent. Of course, saturated cork can happen at any age of the the wine.
It could be some Barbera, that was not unusual at the time but it’s worth noting two points. The first is that all the press wine went into these wines, and the pressing was aggressive. This was true until quite recently. Secondly, back in the day many of these wines spent several year in demijohns, and while I am not fluent with the science, that does seem to help fix color.
I’ve been drinking these wines for decades, they always were atypically dark, I know of no true late release program at Barale, though at some point back vintages were readily available, and certainly none that would include topping off of reconditioned bottles.
Thanks, Eric. I see from my TNs that I also had a '64 Vallana that was dark colored. But I haven’t drunk enough old Nebbiolo to know if it was out of line.
Well it certainly was generally more common in the recent past than today. You’ll find the whole gamut from zero to all press wine blended into the finished wine today. Barale was, until recently, a quite enthusiastic user of press wine. I don’t know how much they are using today but press wine today is also not the press wine of past, much gentler extraction today. I believe they began with their lighter touch in the 2008 vintage.
It’s always get to get some of the folks with more experience with these older wines sharing their thoughts. Thank you. The only older (60’s era) Barolo I’ve had was almost like a rose…so I really appreciate others chiming in and sharing their thoughts on this.
