I’m interested in learning more about Barolo, but I’m not sure where the best place to start would be. Is there a good place to read about which are the top producers in the region, which are traditional vs. more modern, and which vintages in the last few decades were excellent?
Also, information about the various vineyards would be helpful as well (Bricco Roche, etc). Thanks!
Bump.
Probably no better resource than this board or the various blogs that cover the Italian scene. There are good Barolo books, but they’re dated now and you certainly couldn’t use them as a producer or vintage guide.
I really like The Atlas of the Langhe and The Mystique of Barolo.
The Wine Atlas of the Langhe is a great coffee table book with information on vineyards and beautiful vineyard photography. Unfortunately, it won’t help you at all with respect to rating producers or vineyards, but it is nice to look at.
I think Keith has a good suggestion, though - if you search the various Barolo/nebbiolo threads on this Board, you will inevitably uncover multiple discussions on the modernist vs. traditionalist theme/debate, as well as general vintage commentary. In terms of current releases, 2008 is considered more classic that 2007 (a riper, hotter year).
Here’s a link to a thread earlier this year that discussed recent vintages in Piemonte.
I would add Nicolas Belfredge’s book on Northern Italian wines. I find his Barolo and Barbaresco sections intelligent and pleasantly opinionated without being closed-minded.
The best way to learn is to drink different wines side by side. Have them with food – red meat, a rich pasta or risotto – to tame the tannins, particularly if you’re trying current releases. Decant them (or double decant them back into their bottles) some hours ahead.
In choosing, apart from vintages, I think there are two dimensions to understand: style and subregion.
Below are some pretty readily available wines that capture these distinctions. In recent years, I haven’t sought out the modern producers, so I’m less helpful on those, I’m afraid.
Style:
–For strong modern approaches (short maceration times, new oak aging, etc., yielding dark, dense wines), try: Scavino, Azelia, Ceretto/Bricco Rocche, Valentino/Rocche di Manzoni.
–Middle ground (some barriques in most cases): Vietti, Ghisolfi, Aldo Conterno, Elio Grasso, Sandrone.
–Traditional: Giacomo Conterno, Giuseppe Mascarello, Brovia, Burlotto, Marcarini.
Subregion:
This aspect isn’t discussed much – certainly not here on WB. But there is a marked difference in the soils and thus the wines from the eastern half of the appellation (Monforte, Serralunga and the eastern side of Castiglione Falletto) and the western side (Barolo, La Morra, Verduno and the lower western side of Castiglione). Also, there are differences in altitude, with most vineyards in Monforte relatively high and the eastern slopes of La Morra quite low). The wines from Serralunga, Monforte and vineyards such as Rocche in Castiglione tend to be more masculine and wines from Barolo/La Morra/Verduno lighter and more feminine.
Marcarini and Burlotto represent the traditional style from La Morra and Verduno very well. Giacomo Conterno’s Cascina Francia and Brovia’s Ca’ Mia are great examplars or traditional Serralunga. Aldo Conterno, Ghisolfi and Elio Grasso produce good somewhat modern interpretations of Monforte.
This is where the Wine Atlas of the Langhe and the new Enogeo vineyard maps (available in an iPhone/iPad app) are very useful.
(Footnote: The hotbed of modernism in its most extreme form was in a small area on the lower slopes of La Morra and across the main road at the base of Castiglione. Marco de Grazia, the negotiant who steered these winemakers to use roto-fermenters and barriques, signed up neighbors in that area. You won’t find such a concentration of modernists in Monforte or Serralunga.)
Well, on this board you have guys like John above, and Bill Klapp and Ken V and those are great resources. But I’m curious as to why you’d want to learn who’s “modern” vs “traditional” as that’s not meaningful until you find some wines you like. Learning the labels and then tasting the wine always seems like a bad idea to me - I’d just try a few and ask for things that are similar if you liked those, or dissimilar if you didn’t.
Try some basic Nebbiolos from here and there and even save yourself a few bucks and try some Barberas from various producers and regions. And have fun! Barolos can be great wines.
Find a retailer which has made a major commitment to the region. I have learned a lot about Italy through MacArthurs in DC.
If you want to understand the most discussed issue in the region, it’s only natural to want to taste wines from both sides of the wine. It’s perfectly fine to do as you say, and simply taste randomly and find over time the patterns in what you like. But it’s also legitimate to structure your learning.
I know I only appreciated the different subzones when Luciana Currado at Vietti was kind enough to leave me with about 15 open bottles of 98s and 99s once back in 2002. (Tanzer had been there the day before, so I got to taste the full range after they’d been opened a day.) It was extraordinarily educational to taste wines ranging from Novello (on the far western edge) to Lazzarito in Serralunga side by side, and in two vintages of each so I could see the vineyard signature through the two vintages’ personalities. That wouldn’t have been possible tasting blindly. (It was also convenient that I was staying in the hotel next door so I could stumble home later.)