Suckling is reporting that Giacosa has sold their 2010 wine off in bulk and will be bottling no 2010s. By contrast, Conterno apparently reports that 2010 is a legendary vintage. I’d also heard positive reports of the 2010 vintage. Anyone know what’s going on with Giacosa?
http://www.jamessuckling.com/differing-views-in-piedmont.html
wow, this is surprising news given how strong the vintage is. I was in the region last November (did not visit Giacosa) and uniformly people were very excited about the promise of 2010.
I remember A.G. making rumblings that 2010 was going to be special.
Surprising.
Here are the vintages since 1975 in which Giacosa has not bottled any Barolo or Barbaresco, at least according to CT:
2002
1994
1992
1984
1981
2010 would certainly stand out from that list of horrid Piedmont vintages. Plus, Giacosa has already bottled and sold 2010 Barberas, but did not appear to bottle any barbera in those five years listed above, with the exception (surprisingly again) of 2002.
I think 2006 should be added to that list (a decision I also found puzzling).
Also, no 1991, 1973, 1972, but those are all widely considered to be weak to terrible vintages. What separates 2006 and 2010 from the rest of these is that these are excellent vintages.
This is a very sad state of affairs.
Is 2010 supposed to to be great in BOTH Barolo and Barbaresco? I thought it was only the former> That may explain why Conterno is ecstatic but Giacosa may not be (in part).
Pretty incredible that 2 of the greatest winemakers in the region could have such differing opinions (and the same in '06). Would love to get them on camera, at the same time, to discuss. Youtube history!
From what you can read elsewhere it’s not a quality problem but a health problem. Neither for 2010 nor for 2006 vintage Giacosa was able to oversee the wines in the cellar due to health problems and therefore decided to sell them in bulk.
Barbera is harvested some weeks ahead of the nebbiolo, so to the extent the decision was based on quality as opposed to health grounds, that could explain the bottling of the barbera.
Maybe it has something to do with that this is from the period where Dante Scaglione was missing? the 08, and 09 has already received mixed reviews, atleast indicating that if nothing else the style of these wines differ from traditional Giacosa style. Just guessing, but certainly nothing related to the vintage can be the reason
So, a question. How would one go about buying a barrel of this ‘decommissioned’ juice? So say the Rocche Riserva, for a bulk price? Maybe 3,000 Euro for the barrel??
It would be interesting to know which vineyards are involved in the 2010 selloff, i. e., which wines would have been produced. Ken, do you know if Giacosa is still buying grapes for any of his Baroli or Barbareschi, or if we are dealing exclusively with his own grapes for those wines?
There is one other historical curiosity that might shed some light on Giacosa’s thinking. Remember the 1996 Barolo Falletto Riserva, exclusively from the Rocche subparcel, followed by 1997, 1998 and 1999 Rocche white labels? When Bruno was queried about the string of white labels with no riservas (and maybe it was only with regard to the 1999, but it could have been for the 1997 first), he made an oblique remark, perhaps intended as humor, perhaps not (no telling wioth a poker-faced Piemontese), about not being able to afford to have the wine sitting around long enough to become a riserva. Not the same facts in 2010, but maybe at his age, in his physical condition, not to mention the bizarre Scaglione “You’re fired, Dante! You’re hired, Dante!” business (RIP George Steinbrenner and Billy Martin) and the fact that his erratic daughter Bruna is at the helm these days all add up to turning juice into cash quickly unless Il Maestro is completely happy with the product. Given the historical Giacosa style, it is easy to imagine him struggling with the huge, ripe quality of the grapes of some of the hot vintages of the past decade, including 2003, 2007 and 2009. That would not, of course, explain his extreme satisfaction with his 2000 wines, nor his decision to punt in 2006 while others made classic nebbioli, but you have to wonder if the fact that hot, dry weather and extremely ripe fruit has become the norm rather than the exception here since 2002 is not a factor in his decisions.
But all is not lost. Suckling reports that it makes his job as wine critic all the more interesting and IMPORTANT. Personally, I would rather have a barrel of lame 2010 Giacosa nebbiolo than a barrel of Suckling reviews. Or even one, actually.
Maybe Bruno simply sold the wine in bulk and bought himself a new Tesla S…
Tuscany was great in 2010, but there was some rain and hail to contend with. Those that picked at the opportune moment are going to be rewarded.
I know there was hail and storms in Piedmont too. That could have been partially the case for Giacosa’s decision. Stefano Conterno mentioend something to me about a recent vintage and not bottling a Granbussia because 2 of the 3 vineyard components were decimated by hail. I can’t recall which vintage he was referring to.
Interesting. But not really unexpected that Conterno and Giacosa do well in different vintages. It has been that way in the modern era for some time. Except for some commonality of performance in, for example 1990 and 2001, they really seem to march to different drummers. Generally thinking of Conterno’s Monfo and Giacosa’s Riservas, 1985 and 1987 were strongly in favor of Conterno. 1989 and 1996 were strongly in favor of Giacosa (and Monfo wasn’t even made in 89). The warmer vintages of 1997 and 2000 strongly favored Giacosa, with the cooler sandwiched vintage of 1999 strongly favoring Conterno. And in 2002 and 2006 Conterno made amazing wine, while Giacosa was absent…though to be fair, he suffered a stroke in 2006 and so that may not be representative.
Overall, though, I think Cascina Francia is a vineyard that seems to perform very separately from its bretheren.
2011 is the last vintage of the contract with the Stupinos to buy grapes from Santo Stefano and (assuming they make it) the 2011 Santo Stefano will be their last single vineyard wine from a non-estate vineyard. They may still buy grapes to include in the base Barolo or Barbaresco.
If 2010 was sold off like 2006, then no one will know where the juice went except whoever bought it.
1999 Falletto is a stunning wine.
1999 Montfortino must have knocked the ball right out of the park.
Giacosa’s white label Rocche was great for a white label. It probably verged on red label quality. But that fact that Bruno didn’t make it a red label tells you something, i.e., that he didn’t think it was quite strong enough at the time. Who knows how he might view it now.
The 1999 Monfortino is probably the best Monfo since 78. The 85 and 90 give it a run for its money, but I think the 99 will rise above those two wines.
Anyone have an idea why they chose to bottle the 2010 Nebbiolo Valmaggiore?
Total speculation on my part, but the Nebbiolo (along with the Barbera and Arneis) may have been sold and out the door before the B&B’s had evolved to the point where they decided not to bottle them.