Finishing up 6 days in Piemonte and it’s looking like 2002 all over again. We’ve had incredibly good sleeping weather, something you don’t expect in July. We’ve had one day of glorious sunny weather with high in low 80s, lows around 60… Every other day it’s been rain and the current storm in La Morra is tinged w hail and it’s only 70 degrees.
Running out of time as summer has not come to Barolo/Barbaresco as of yet!
Fixed the typo in date…
Sorry to hear that, love me some barolo
FWIW, Antonio Galloni posted (on Twitter) that it’s way too early to write off this year’s Barolo/Barbaresco.
Jonathan
Looks like back to back troubled vintages…but a good run before '13 and '14.
I think they could use a rest. Just too many older years in the stream, plus the big kahuna (2010) has just begun…
Then it should be a good year for truffles!
Yes it should! I hear that 2002 was a banner year for truffles…
No one I talked to was ready to concede the vintage and supposedly 2002 turned brilliant in August and September until the last huge hail storm at the end of September wiped everything out (expect for Monfortino). Still, no one is very confident and most also agree that having a off-vintage wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world given the string of high quality vintages.
Barolo producers could use a less than ideal vintage. There is so much product in the system, sometimes an off year will be good to clear it out.
The hail was mainly in La Morra and the west side of Barolo and it didn’t damage everything in those areas. (I was there in mid-September, shortly after the storm.) The real problem was a miserable, rainy summer.
Bosco Agostino list all if their grapes in La Serra by that storm. Folks are saying that this is the coolest, rainiest “summer” they have seen in 50 years. The road two bends below Rocche Castamagna heading into La Morra was breaking away as I was leaving town for MXP late this afternoon. Nothing new for spring, but July!?!