I thought it was Roberto Conterno who said 2018 was better in Alto Piemonte than in the Langhe.
I’ve not tasted those vintages extensively, but my (unoriginal!) take is that they are less prone to the excesses of heat in those two vintages than wines from the Langhe may be. I’ve enjoyed wines I’ve had from those regions in '17 and '18 more than I have those from the Langhe and would be more inclined to buy. Like you, I’ve also read several sources suggesting they are perhaps both very good vintages in Alto Piedmonte. Galloni seems to have scored many wines from the region well. Nothing too groundbreaking there, but many producers release these late and I’m still eyeing and buying '15s '16s and even some '13s from the region. Having said all of that, from a comparative standpoint I’ve found Vallana’s '16s were much better than the '18s. I have some of their '17 Boca but have it buried.
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Well luckily for him he has wine from both regions to sell! And the price increased sharply on his Gattinara for the '18 vintage. It does seem that statement is likely true though.
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A lot of good information here. Count me in the camp of anticipating that I will enjoy the ‘19 vintage more than ‘20. The warm/dry weather trend in the Langhe, to me, has not been favorable for Nebbiolo as the alcohol trend line keeps climbing close to an uncomfortable level. When I read the ‘19 vintage as cooler and more classically structured, then I will load up the truck for that. If I want sexy sweet red fruit, I will drink a Barbera.
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Thank you. I still am mainly seeing '15s and '16s, so have been doing the same type of buying as you (w/r/t Alto Piemonte and Valtellina), but some of the '18s are finally hitting my market. I may pick a couple up.
Your feedback is much appreciated!
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I hosted a blind tasting of 18s on Tuesday and found many disappointing. So, as much as I hate to admit it, Galloni may have been right.
I was hoping for a vintage like 2012, which I liked, but these weren’t as satisfying as the '12s were at the same stage. On the positive side, they were quite approachable.
The line-up was:
Fratelli Alessandria - Commune di Verduno
Oddero- normale (which included fruit from several crus they didn’t bottle separately in 2018)
Cavallotto- Bricco Boschi
Francesco Rinaldi - Cannubi
Giacomo Fennochio - Cannubi
Brezza - normale
Aldo Conterno- Bussia
Baudana - Baudana
Group favorites and mine: F Rinaldi, Baudana, Oddero (great value). I liked the Brezza, but the group put it 7th.
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Yeah I think 2018 is the weakest vintage since perhaps 2009, based on what I’ve tasted.
At the La Festa masterclass, I thought the standout was the Vietti Cerequio, which to me remains the only wine I’ve tasted in 2018 that’s truly “great”. I don’t think its super complex, but it’s got great density of fruit and the purity of the red fruit and floral notes are beautiful.
The Francesco Rinaldi Rocche dell’Annunziata, Benevelli Mosconi, Giuseppe Rinaldi Brunate, Oddero Brunate, Castello di Verduno Massara, and Burlotto Monvigliero were also good to very good wines, in my opinion. At the going prices in the U.S., the Francesco Rinaldi Rocche seemed like the best buy. I’m also intrigued by the Castello di Verduno - my prior experience with them was a dirty, undrinkable 2010 Monvigliero. The Oddero normale is also really good in my experience…they are doing great stuff at Oddero these days.
I guess reading my list of good to great wines above, it sounds more positive than “weakest vintage since 2009”, but in a tasting of 15 wines from 2018 it becomes relative. When I tasted a 2014 Massolino Rionda and 2015 Conterno Arione the day after La Festa, it was immediately clear that those wines were in a different league than any of the 2018s, and next to those wines any of the '18s would have appeared diluted.
I know what you mean by dilution (Galloni’s term). They seem to lack concentration.
The funny thing is, from what I’ve read (including the article Guillermo linked to at the top of this spread), there weren’t any heavy rains after early June. So, whatever the issue is, it isn’t the dilution you get from rain late in the season. Maybe the heavy growth on the vines, compensating for the stress in 2017?
Galloni’s article talked about the likelihood that the stress of 2017 coupled with the wild weather in 2018, such as the huge rains in May & June, were an issue.
In terms of rain at the end of the season, Masnaghetti’s overview of the vintage says that the weather forecasts called for rain the weekend of October 7, and a number of producers picked early because of that - the rains ended up not arriving that weekend, but this still had an effect of forcing an earlier pick. Not sure what % of producers did that. The Masnaghetti charts do show an above normal amount of rain in October.
Masnaghetti also mentions that it was unseasonally warm late in the season in September, and the fluctuations in temperature between day and night were minimal, which is bad for Nebbiolo.
It sounds like the vines were in a bad place to start the year, the middle of the season was a mess (literally, I guess with big rain storms) in terms of rain and mildew, and the end of the year lacked the conditions needed for good Nebbiolo, possibly coupled with a bit of rain or fear of rain in October impacting things.
That’s interesting. Masnaghetti’s account is a little different from the consorzio’s summary of the vintage, which makes no mention of rain in October.
Over the years, I’ve found the consorzio’s summaries pretty honest, mentioning setbacks, though stressing the positive somewhat, as one might expect. To quote:
[After the May-June heavy rains} Flowering and subsequent berry set took place regularly and in optimal climatic conditions, immediately suggesting that it would be a plentiful vintage, as proved to be the case following the closing up of the clusters of grapes. Green harvesting became necessary for nearly all varietals in order to curb production to within the limits provided for under the various production regulations. Development was gradual during the summer, with temperatures rising considerably from mid-July on, and a long period of constant fine weather helped the grapes to ripen without the harvest needing to be brought forward. …
Dolcetto was the first red varietal to be picked, and it is showing an average sugar content, while the acidity is lower than in recent vintages, even though the levels of pH in the musts are as usual. This is due mainly to the ratio between the two main acid components: indeed, the malic acid degraded thanks to high daytime temperatures in late August-early September, while a good concentration was preserved in the grapes of the tartaric acid which formed early in the season when lower temperatures helped its synthesis. This phenomenon was also seen in the later-ripening red wine varietals.
… [T]he weather in September was good for the vines, contributing to the quality of the wines produced using medium-long vegetative cycle varietals, which were able to benefit to the full. As a matter of fact, the Nebbiolo grapes were ripe for harvesting as per tradition in early October, with picking operations taking around three weeks in all. Unlike the other varieties, Nebbiolo yields were limited, with certain situations in which there were few clusters in parts of vineyards.
Perhaps some of the wines reflect insufficient thinning/green harvesting, and/or the unusually low malic acids.
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John, I recall, maybe inaccurately, that the heavy rains in May and June caused a lot of mildew/disease in the vineyards, and there was an implication that many of the growers were not as diligent combatting it.
Speaking of the Consorzio, they limited access to the 2022 numbers to the press. I honestly think Wine Berserkers acts essentially as the press from a consumer perspective, especially in topics like this one. I think, as of this early point our predictions have held up and there’s value here.
I’m considering requesting press access for WB to keep this going (I forget who it was that got essentially press treatment at a couple of Bordeaux chateaus based on their WB posting so there’s precedent). Otherwise the four years of 2018-2021 may be the only ones we can do this exercise on.
You may be right about that. From the Consorzio’s last sentence:
In conclusion, we can say that its has been a vintage in the traditional mould which demanded the attention of vinegrowers in their management of the vineyard in order to achieve results which were better than had been expected at the beginning of the campaign.
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Hi John,
Do you have notes from the tasting? What did you find very disappointing about the wines. What was Galloni’s view?
Sorry if mentioned elsewhere I couldn’t find it in the thread. I am really curious to learn more about how the 2018s are showing.
Thank you
Not John, but I’m pretty sure there is a thread on Galloni’s view on the 2018 vintage somewhere. Search Galloni and 18 and you should find it. To summarize my understanding though, it’s that while there are some nice wines the vintage overall is not very successful. Comparatively dilute wines which may show early but aren’t for the long haul. While I’ve found some sources online claiming the vintage is better than that, they are mostly coming from sources with a vested interest in selling the wines. The views on this board seem to confirm that it’s simply not a very good vintage. The only '18s I have are a few Fratelli Alessandria because the price was right, and I don’t plan to buy any more. I’d much rather backfill '16s where possible (and '15s and '13s and older when I see them), and keep my powder dry for the '19 through '21 vintages.
I’m having a crazy week and don’t know when I’ll have time to post notes.
Galloni likened the vintage to a hangover from the difficult 2017, and said “the market will soon be awash with … weak, emaciated 2018 Barolos.”
Hangover from 2017. Interesting. 2017 was an incredibly dry year. I wonder if we are going to have a similar experience with 2022 and 2023. 2022 was another significantly dry year in the Langhe, with record droughts in the Po River Valley just to the north. And there has been very little snow fall this winter to date.
You’d have to know localized rainfall figures and temperatures to know if there’s is any parallel in later years. Evidently 2017 was both very dry and very hot, so the vines overproduced in 2018 after a wet winter. There was something like this in Bordeaux one year back in the 1980s. I think it was 1984 – a bad frost in the spring followed by prolific production by the vines in '85.
So a little update.
I had a tasting today with Francesca Vaira and asked her about 2021 vs others. She had plenty of different vintages to sell at the tasting and played it a bit coy but her eyes lit up and she said all the collectors are already circling around 2021, which might be partly due to this thread of course.
What was more interesting is what she added after. She said that 2021 was the first time in her experience that the Nebbiolo juice had smelled so potently and so good during crushing and fermentation. She said Nebbiolo is normally a shy grape at that point in terms of smell.
She also added that in 2022 the same smell thing happened. She wasn’t sure about the 2022 alcohols though and water management was a big issue in 2022 so I’d expect a spottier performance with high highs but potential pitfalls.
So my expectation right now, based on the analysis above and this new input, is that 2021 might even be better than 2016 and 2010. A real back up the truck vintage. I even hesitated before posting this.
On a separate note, she was also waxing poetic about Conterno’s Sensory glass. Said it is bar none the best for Barolo and specifically said it’s way better than Zalto which in her opinion was the prior best.
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Thanks for the notes. I’m attending a dinner with her next week in LA.
For Zalto was she previously recommending the bordeaux or burgundy glass?