2013 vs 2016 Barolo

[John_Morris]

Unlike 2013 and 2016, which were terrific in both Barolo and Barbaresco, 2010 seems to be a lesser, more restrained vintage in Barbaresco.

2010 was a more difficult and uneven vintage in Barbaresco than in Barolo:

Vinous | Explore All Things Wine

[Otto_Forsberg]

Unlike 2013 and 2016, which were terrific in both Barolo and Barbaresco, 2010 seems to be a lesser, more restrained vintage in Barbaresco.

2010 was a more difficult and uneven vintage in Barbaresco than in Barolo:
Vinous | Explore All Things Wine

Indeed, that’s sort of what I meant by “lesser vintage”.

Unfortunately the link you posted only leads me to a subscription page, so not much help there. However, I’m well familiar with the unevenness of 2010 Barbaresco and generally avoided them, unless I’ve tasted the wines first and know they’re good. For example Produttori 2010 was a lovely wine - I guess not in small part thanks to all the Crus that were blended into the wine in that vintage.

[John_Morris]

Weird. The link worked for me without a subscription.

[Kirk.Grant]

I am a big fan of 2013, but 2016 received so much more hype as a vintage (although admittedly I was not around when 2013s were getting released). At this point enough have tasted 2013 and 2016 to perhaps have a view, which is the better vintage?

My own speculation (which I hope to tighten with the aid of this thread) is that 2013 is a more structured, lower alcohol, and somewhat less fruitful vintage than 2016 (while still having enough fruit). And conversely, 2016 is big fruited with big alcohols, yet balanced. I have concerns for how the high alcohol 2016s will age and assumed they would peak much earlier than 2013s (say 15 years from now), and be very delicious at that time. But it seems consensus is not to be worried here and the wines will be multi-decade wines that won’t peak for 20+ years. More importantly, I wonder if the high alcohol will just be more perceptible in 2016s versus 2013s, which to me would suggest 2013 as the better vintage.

Curious for your views (or that of any winemakers you may know)!

Early on when I was trying to get “the best” of a bunch of regions. I think that’s a pretty common place to start. In comparison of the 2010, 2013, & 2016 vintages, I think they’re all of a very high quality, with less consistency in Barbaresco in 2010. While 2013 & 2016 had more consistency between Barbaresco & Barolo than 2013, but there were some riper wines in the 15% range in 2016 (Elio Grasso Casa Maté & Fratelli Alessandria Monvigliero) interestingly enough, the 2008 Elio Grasso Casa Maté is also 15%. If you’re buying these wines to store 20+ years and enjoy later in life, I think you’ll be happy to have both vintages in your cellar.

[Joseph_Grassa]

From my somewhat limited experience, 2013 was a bit less consistent. The 2016s were so much more fruit forward that at times I think it made it harder for me to assess the tannic structure. Because of that I am a little less confident on the longevity of the 16s than the critics were.