Conterno makes Monfortino in 2002. Giacosa makes his wines in 2003. What type of weather is really suitable for optimal Nebbiolo?
First thing to understand is that Roberto and Bruno are wizards. So they can almost make great wine when they want to. And they can deal with a tough vintage. By being selective and restricting the yields enough great wine is always possible.
Don’t forget '07 and '09…
All of that said, the wines that Michael refers to are not among the greatest of either producer, and neither year was a great year for Nebbiolo, rain and hail having wiped out much of the 2002 vintage and a 200-year heat wave having wiped out or degraded the quality of most of the 2003 vintage. Nebbiolo is finicky, and tends to thrive when all of the weather pieces fall into place: no extreme winter conditions, adequate rain in the spring/not too cold/normal budbreak, warm, sunny summer days but not the extreme heat of 2003 and 2009 (1997 having been only a little better than those two), with moderate to cool nights and periodic rain (2003 and 2009 having been drought years) and then warm, sunny weather and increasingly cool nights leading up to the harvest, with periodic and well-spaced refreshing rains prior to harvest time, and enough hang time to produce fully ripe fruit with balanced and balancing acidity and tannins but no cooked or stewed notes. Not very scientific, this, and maybe equally applicable to pretty much all grapes, but it is what I have for you today!
I have a little 2007 and no 2003 or 2009. I am doubtful that the wines of any of those three vintages are built for the long haul (although the best case could be made for 2007, which was not an extreme year like the other two). I feel the same way about 1997, save Gaja’s wines. It is still not clear to me what he did in the vineyards in 1997, but he pulled off something even more amazing to me than the 2002 Monfortino, as death-defying winemaking goes. That said, even Gaja could not pull off the 1997 miracle in 2003 or 2009. There are always some appealing, early-drinking wines from the hot years, so they are not always to be shunned (especially for younger fans who need something to drink while waiting for the classic Nebbiolo in their cellars to come around), and, Nebbiolo being Nebbiolo, they are generally going to last for a good while anyway. Peter’s tasting note on the 1997 Giacosa Le Rocche is an excellent data point. Still good, great with food, but missing something. That wine has been the same since day one, always missing the same something. I had a case and drank it up.
Thanks for the insight, Bill. It just amazes me that the generally considered 2 top producers can have such disparate views of what acceptable weather is to “declare a vintage”.
Two more things to understand: Monfortino stands alone in being something of a contrarian. Conterno has made Monfortino in generally mediocre to bad years like 2002, 1993 and 1987, but did not make one in one of the all-time great vintages, 1989. Secondly, the 2003 Giacosas are mediocre wines by Giacosa’s traditionally high standards, and you should not read too much into the 2006 and 2010 no-wine debacles. Neither has anything to do with the vintages. It has to do with Giacosa’s daughter taking over for the aging, ailing legend, making an ill-advised change of winemakers that ended up having to be reversed and running the enterprise into the ground, which may continue to be a problem going forward. I would backfill whatever 2004 or earlier Giacosa you can afford. 2007 OK, too…
One factor is that Monfortino is in Serralunga, in the southeast corner of the appellation, which was not hit by hail in September. The hail did a lot of damage in La Morra and parts of Castiglione, but not further south and east in Serralunga and Monforte.
That said, it was a cold, wet summer, so it was a challenging year nonetheless.
Microclimates are very real in Piedmont. And a little luck never hurts. These two do things that most would/could not do. That is what makes them special. The future of Giacosa is in doubt. Sadly. There will never be another person like Bruno in our lifetime. If you have the money and like the wines, backfilling is a must.
An interesting thing now that I live here is not only the microclimate phenomenon and the arbitrary and capricious nature of hail and rain, but also how radically different the Barolo zone in general can be from the Barbaresco zone BEFORE you add the microclimate issues within each zone. And by “microclimate” in this context, I refer only to weather, not to soil and other factors…
Yes, very different places. I am always struck by the differences. Only 25km apart but sometimes it seems like a world away. Spent the last decade trying to understand it. Have enjoyed my “struggle”.
So is the 07 Giacosa Rocche one for aging ?
Are you talking about “Le Rocche del Falletto”? The red/riserva label?
O yes!Another great example of Rocche Riserva and surprising given the vintage…
The last recent Giacosa Rocche I bought and will buy…
Gary yes. Is there another ?
Thanks Bill.
I know that it’s all subjective, but is it really worth $400 a bottle?
It is all subjective. And relative too. If you drink other bottles at that price, Giacosa belongs right there with them. He has made some of the greatest wines in the world over the last 40-50 years.
I read somewhere, don’t ask me where, that Conterno have no problem with wet cool vintages, it is the hot vintages that are the problem.
Sage advice
Correction: above, I may have inadvertently denigrated the 2002 Monfortino. It is surely a unique one, but in suggesting that it is not likely one of the all-time great ones, I am measuring a young wine against many the greatest Baroli ever made. As I do not expect to be around to apologize if the fully mature 2002 becomes a legend, I am doing it now! It did thread a badly damaged needle, however…