An obscure history of modernism vs. traditionalism in Piedmont

WINE TALK
21

Exposure to oxygen will give you VA, Stuart, since aceto bacteria are present in most environments. (Just leave a bottle out on your counter in this weather and it will turn.) The long (big) barrel aging made Barolo vulnerable, even in pretty clean cellars.

22

Kind of what I was wondering. VA needs acetobacter + oxygen. Brett can cause VA, but if there isn’t barnyard & band-aid as well then Brett seems less likely.

I’d think the bigger barrels would be better than small ones, though, depending on how they’re used. Less surface area to volume. Perhaps barriques are easier to keep topped, however. A big, open barrel that is left untopped would probably run the bigger risk of oxidization and VA.

Still trying to wrap my mind around extended maceration not being dangerously prone to harsh extraction, oxidation and VA. Maybe if the cap is left relatively intact it creates a barrier to oxygen and isn’t subject to as harsh extraction.

23

Tangential question: which producers are making blended Barolos? Not as in blends of Crus, but rather blends of production style. Either extreme has its potential weaknesses with modern too soft, fruity and near drinking, and old school being harder, perhaps more oxidative in approach. Blending of styles . . . . seems like it could yield a very complex wine.

It is not uncommon to see producers blending barriques and botti, but the motivation might be more about oak influence and micro-oxygenation differences that broader stylistic delineation.

24

Remember, some of the old guys were leaving things in tanks for five years and longer. There’s always some ullage, and a lot of surface area potentially. VA is created at the air interface, and the surface area on top relative to the volume is significant.

I don’t know on the maceration times either. Fermentation temperatures might be a factor. In the old days, those were not controlled. And, again, it may be that the preservation of fruit has more to do with perceived harshness than what’s extracted from the skins. But I’m speculating.

Here’s another puzzle: Burlotto uses stems in its Monvigliero (which few producers do), plus a 60-day maceration, and yet the wine is still feminine and not particularly tannic by Barolo standards.

25

There was a long thread on this six or eight months ago.

There are several dimensions – oak usage (including barrique style, percentage of new barrels, length in barrel), maceration times, rotofermentation) and lots of people in the middle: Vietti, Silvio Grasso, Ghisolfi and Aldo Conterno come to mind quickly.

26

Thanks John, this is extremely interesting.

27

Another factor is probably vineyard practices. Barbera and, to a lesser extent, dolcetto have been transformed over the last generation by reducing yields and picking later. I’ve seen some references, too, to canopy management for nebbiolo, trimming leaves to ensure the tannins in the skins are riper, and to reduced yields.

Ripeness may be a big factor. By analogy, I was amazed at how approachable the 2009 freisa was at Burlotto. Freisa is genetically related to nebbiolo and, when made dry, can produce pretty hard, charmless wines. Fabio Alessandria at Burlotto told me that ripeness is the key. And I would guess if it can make young freisa drinkable (without residual sugar), then it would do the same for nebbiolo.

But Greg, I’m sure, has way more knowledge about the changes in the winemaking beyond barriques.

28

John - you haven’t been over for some reason but wait till you see what’s in MY bathroom for reading material! [wow.gif]

Thanks for the link tho.

29

I think in large part, that’s Monvigliero terroir that is speaking.

30

This looks to be a good read… I thought based on some visits in the early to mid 90s that temperature control during the winemaking was also an important element

31

I shudder to think.

32

Yes, though I think that’s complicated. In the old days, there was no temperature control, so things could run hot and you’d get VA or stuck fermentations. I’ve forgotten the vintage, but Giovanni Conterno (of Giacoma Conterno) installed temperature control for fermentation after losing Monfortino one year to a fermentation that ran away.

But the extreme modernists whose macerations were shortened to three to five days, had to have quite hot fermentations to get any extraction in that time, as I understand it.

Belfrage’s Barolo to Valpolicella and Bastianich and Lynch’s Vino Italiano also talk about improved vineyard practices such as green harvests (unheard of until recent times) and better clonal selection, and those would seem to be independent of the techniques in the cellar.

What I take away is that there were lots of ways that Barolo/Barbaresco could go wrong in the old days. Still, there were a lot of terrific wines.

It’s interesting to me how contemptuous the new generation was of the older wines. Altare, Ratti and others talked as if no one had every made a good wine in the region. I wonder if they had never tasted an old Giacosa or Conterno or Macarini.

33

I suspect the whole cluster fermentation is at least as responsible for the fruitiness.

34

Good read.
Thanks for the link to the research paper.

35

It’s not whole cluster, it’s tread by foot. The lack of the stress of mechanical crushing is what Fabio attributes the elegance to, and that allows for the longer macertaions. And that the terroir is naturally on the feminine side.

As to long maceration, it’s my understanding that with Nebbiolo, and perhaps other tannic wines, tannins in the wine tend to decrease after a certain point as polymerization begins. Which also accounts for some of the lighter colors in these wines.

36

I guess I misunderstood on the clusters.

Perhaps the uniqueness does owe something to the terroir. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a winery boast that its vineyards have a “slimy/muddy tendency.”

37

I just wish he would wash his feet before crushing the grapes and after crushing his olives. [snort.gif]

38

The treaded foot-in-mouth disease.

39

When you have a wine that is really tannic like Barolo—and this feature is very typical, you have to accept Barolo as it is. You do not have to make a wine for everybody. If you don’t like it, don’t drink it. The main problem is the interference with the nature of the wine just to make it more attractive for the market. The thing is that traditional wine must be done in the traditional way, not following the market way… [The modernists] made it into a typical mass product instead of distinguishing it from the others. It is a damn bad thing, because a land like this, with a history, a tradition, and an old identity, erased everything it had to become more attractive on the market.

Love this quote from Giuseppe Rinaldi.

40

It was interesting how emphatic the new wave winemakers were that their wines should be drinkable on release. You really do have to go to extremes to achieve that with nebbiolo.