I’m going to be visiting Florence, Bologna, and Rome in a few weeks. Despite not having the time to make my way to Piedmont, I would still love to pick up some interesting Barolo/Barbaresco. Does anyone have recommendations of wine shops or sources for difficult to find in the US wines? I would prioritize traditional producers, and would prefer fewer bottles of exceptional wine (even if expensive) than more bottles of very good wine given the limited number I’ll be able to carry back. Any particular producers I should look out for? (Would love to track down some Bartolo Mascarello, but sounds like that will be impossible.)
Hi Ashish
I had a quick look at the two websites of the enoteche I pm’d, but one has only a small proportion of the wines listed, whilst the other doesn’t list their wines. Not unusual for Italy! Thus it’s difficult to say what they have. Either should be able to assist, with traditional = tradizioanale in italian (the ‘z’ pronounced more like tz and the final ‘ale’ more like arleh).
Perhaps useful to load you up with vintages that might interest for Barolo/Barbaresco, though I recall a thread on that subject a few months ago. That’s not to say other vintages aren’t worth considering, but these are commonly considered decent/good. I’ll stick to 1990s onwards, but plenty of older vintages have great interest still.
1990, 1996, 1998, 1999 (1997 and 1995 can be decent, and 1993 not bad)
2001, 2004, 2006, 2008 (only 2002 & 2003 are best avoided, but even here there were good wines)
2010, 2013 (but personally I’d not avoid any of the vintages of this decade)
Of all of these, 1996 and 2006 are both very structured vintages, amplifying a traditional style IMO
For traditional style, definitely take a link/copy of Pat Burton’s wonderful thread on classifications across the style range. I can’t say what’s best, as I haven’t tasted even half of the trad producers’ wines, and even if I had I’m sure I wouldn’t be able to rank them. I suspect most get imported to the US, though maybe you could ask for a ‘piccolo produttore’ (small producer), then use the price as a reasonable guide to perceived quality.
Regards
Ian
Two final thoughts.
I’d personally look to buy only the odd bottle in the 1st two destinations, to avoid having to lug heavy bottles around, so whichever the last destination is, would be where I’d look to buy the majority.
Packing the wine for the return journey. Assuming you’ll be packing suitcase(s) half full on the way out, consider packing bubble wrap on the outward trip. It’s not stocked in stationery stores in Italy, but rather in backstreet homeware stores, the type that sells mops, ironing boards etc. It’s really cheap there (usually 5m roll for a small few euro), but few will speak English, so it can be a difficult conversation. If you do fancy giving it a go, then ask for ‘Plurobol’, which I think is a brand. If that fails the literal ‘carta plastica con bollicine’ (plastic paper with bubbles!) has got me understood before. Sticky tape goes by the brand name ‘scotch’. I trust bubble wrap more than rolled up clothes, mostly as if the worst happens, the bubble wrap would limit the spillage, whereas clothes would just soak it up.