Comment from Pietro Oddero on the 2016s

Pietro Oddero was pouring wine this weekend at the Wine Connection in Pound Ridge, NY. He walked tasters through 10 recent wines. I didn’t take any notes but was generally impressed. The 2013 normale was not, IMO, in the league of my favorite normales from Brovia, F. Rinaldi, F. Alessandria, or Produttori’s Barbaresco — but, I was interested enough to buy a couple of bottles to compare down the road. With the exception of the 1999 Vigna Rionda, which I thought was a little oxidized or otherwise comparatively ‘off’ — I thought the wines showed very well, getting progressively better as we progressed through the tasting.

Max threw in a bottle of the 1967 Barolo, which showed very well.

Barbera 2014 — lacked depth and was a bit dilute.
Barolo 2013
Barolo Villero 2013 — a clear step up in both quality and price
Barolo Brunate 2013
Barolo Brunate 2008 – rich and very tasty
Barolo Castiglione Falletto 2008 (from Magnum) — my favorite
Barolo Vigna Rionda 1999
Barolo Vigna Rionda 2007 — really lush but very good
Barolo Bussia Mondoca 1996
Barolo 1967 — impressive and very alive

Pietro is a great ambassador for Oddero and Barolo generally. He offered a nice tutorial of the region and the geologic and climatic influences that impact the wines.

I asked him about the upcoming vintages and there was very obvious excitement about 2016. His comment was essentially, if you didn’t make a great wine in 2016, you don’t deserve to be making Barolo.

I was there, too, with a friend. Was that you in the round glasses that we were talking to about how tannic the '96 was? (No surprise there.)

My takes were pretty similar to yours in most cases. I’ve put my thoughts in italics below yours.

Barbera 2014 — lacked depth and was a bit dilute.
We weren’t fans, either. I would have described it as tight, rather than dilute. In any event, I prefer barbera in warm years, and '14 wasn’t. It would take a lot of persuading to get me to buy a '14 barbera when there are '15s and '16s, and some remaining '13s, around.

Barolo 2013
This showed much better last fall at a big Barolo tasting that Chambers and Jancis Robinson sponsored. I thought it was one of the best classico/normales there. Yesterday it seemed very light, lacking concentration. Not sure what to say - a stage?

Barolo Villero 2013 — a clear step up in both quality and price
Agreed. MUCH more concentration and complexity.

Barolo Brunate 2013
No comment? I thought this was another big step up. Sadly, almost twice the price of the Villero - $126 at Wine Connection before discount.

Barolo Brunate 2008 – rich and very tasty
This was wine of the afternoon for me. Taut, but some tertiary notes, and it’s got some flesh behind those bones of tannin and acid.

Barolo [Rocche di] Castiglione Falletto 2008 (from Magnum) — my favorite
This was from the Rocche vineyard. I liked it, but not nearly as much as the '08 Brunate

Barolo Vigna Rionda 1999
Agreed, a tad oxidized. Shouldn’t be tired!

Barolo Vigna Rionda [Reserva] 2007 — really lush but very good
This is a riserva, just released. This was nice, but didn’t hold a candle to the '06 Vigna Rionda Riserva that Pietro poured at the winery two years ago, which was stupendous.

Barolo Bussia Mondoca 1996
Tannic, but it’s all there – super concentration. Just needs many more years.

Barolo 1967 — impressive and very alive
Yes, very fresh and elegant.

FYI, I think all the pre-2013s came from Max’s cellars, from what he said.

No, that wasn’t me. I was there with my wife just before 2PM. Your notes have me wondering if I conflated the 2008s…

In any case, I’ll keep an eye out for you on Saturdays. I stop in when Max is doing something interesting, which is fairly often…

Cheers,
Jim

2016s are shaping up to be gorgeous wines. They are built on elegance, finesse, and balance, so perfect wines for a subset of Barolo lovers. I can’t wait for their release, in the meantime we’ll have to make due with the recent slate of wonderful vintages, touch work indeed. It’s worth noting that the Oddero’s recently did away with malo in barrique, which was used from 2006-2013 and their wines are returning to form with a more elegant and transparent nature and less of the very difficult wood tannins that I found in their wines during that period. What I tasted out of botte there this year was really terrific with some spectacular examples being produced there today.

I was bringing the 1996 Bussia Mondoca to an offline in just a few weeks… will now give an option for the 2008 Brunate

From the few 2016’s that I’ve tasted this is a vintage where you don’t have to spend big money to get great “world class” wine. I blinded my friend on the 2016 Produttori Langhe Nebbiolo and he was guessing it was in the $40 price range based on quality of the juice alone…I think it’s a year where you can spend the $ on big names and those will be Iconic bottles in 25-30 years. However when there are excellent wines along the entire spectrum maybe it’s a vintage to be selective at the top and focus on the better (more affordable) normal bottles?

Question for me is how perceptible will difference to 2015s be?

I don’t know…I haven’t tasted enough to know.

They are pretty different in character. 15 is a sunny vintage which lead to a moderately early harvest of wines that are opulent without being extravagant, alcohols running to the high side, fruit is slightly dark. 2016 was much more even over the growing season with a perfect harvest that allowed for good hang time, evenings were cool, they wines are very finely balanced with redder fruit and very fine tannins. Though it’s not always the case, in 2016 all the varieties share this character. Buy a pair of Dolcettos or Barberas from a producer and they should quite graphically illustrate the difference. I feel that while 2015 is a lovely fun and quite successful vintage, 2016 is special, it may not have the initial impact of a 2015, but I expect the bottles of these wines to be of the sort that tends to just disappear at a dinner. Theres plenty of time for them to change before release of course, but everything I’ve tasted leads me to this conclusion.

Thanks. Will do as you suggest and try them out against each other.

Bad luck I suppose, The 13’ Normale showed really nice at Hi Time in Costa Mesa a few weeks ago.

Also looking forward to 16’s, also thankful they’re released years after 16’ Burgs and others.