Recent visit in Piemonte - some thoughts

[J_Henson]

I am surprised to hear that Alan Manley rates the '16 vintage as only very good. In my discussions with others in the Barolo zone, it should be a top-notch vintage.

[Robert_Pavlovich]

Andreas
You mention that Bartolo and Brovia both did not hype the 2016 vintage as much and preferred the 2013 in comparison. Is that the general sentiment with other producers too.

This struck me as interesting as well. Could be some reverse producer hype to better sell the neighboring vintages 15 and 17, and/or to more easily spread out allocations of 16’

Also the 16’s may not be so easy to drink at the moment?

[AndreasB]

Andreas
You mention that Bartolo and Brovia both did not hype the 2016 vintage as much and preferred the 2013 in comparison. Is that the general sentiment with other producers too.

No I wouldn’t say it is a general sentiment among the producers. Both Luigi Oddero and Produttori del Barbaresco was very passionate about the 2016 vintages and rated them both higher then both 2013 and 2010 as they find it more balanced. Burlotto and Brovia was a bit more cautious in their judgement. At Mascarello they told us that they saw both 2010 and 2013 as great vintages and that 2013 was more like 1989. They were also impressed by 2016 but for them it doesn’t reach the heights of 2010 and 2013. I guess we will have to see and taste for ourselves, but bear in mind that of all these produceres Mascarello are the one that has the least incentive to hype any vintage as their wine will be sold out anyway.

[John_Morris]

Comparing '13 to '89 seems odd since '89 was ferociously tannic, which is not a characteristic of the '13s.

[Markus_S]

Comparing '13 to '89 seems odd since '89 was ferociously tannic, which is not a characteristic of the '13s.

Really? I thought it was more like 2015 in terms of easy-to-please ripe voluptuousness. Or at least it seemed that way after the stern 88’s.

[John_Morris]

Are you being facetious? “Easy-to-please ripe voluptuousness”? 1989?

It’s been a long time since I had an '88. That was a lesser vintage, and the wines were less concentrated than the '89s, but some evolved very nicely. An Aldo Conterno and a Giacosa I had in the mid-2000s were excellent.

[Shan_A]

Interesting comments on '16 vs '13. I exchanged notes with Fabio in May, and he said “we are satisfied about the quality of the 2015 and we think that together with 2013 and 2016 are the best vintages from 2011”.

[Markus_S]

Are you being facetious? “Easy-to-please ripe voluptuousness”? 1989?

No, not at all. They came out around the time I began exploring Piedmont wines, and I found them quite lush. Of course, I was younger then, so perhaps tannins didn’t bother me!

[Patrick_Stella]

This is my third time that I visit Piemonte and this was another great trip with the family.
We recently got our second kid, so I new that I couldn’t get to visit many wineries this time, but we still managed to visit Bartolo Mascarello, Luigi Oddero, Burlotto and Brovia. Some thoughts from the visits that I wanted to share:

Bartolo Mascarello:
The first thing that really struck me, when we got a tour through the winery was how small the place actually was. There was nothing pretentious about it and I really enjoyed it. I’ve read a lot about the vinification, so I was obviously not surprised by the strickly traditional methods Maria Teresa and her team were performing, however it was news to me that they try not to do any green harvest. Alan explained that it doesn’t work to speed up the grape ripening, because the tannins also needs to be ripe, which you can’t speed up the same way. We tasted both the langhe Nebbiolo 17 and the Barolo 15. We were told that in addition to their younger nebbiolo they actually buy some grapes for the Langhe nebbiolo, which I didn’t know. Furthermore Alan explained that 2017 was difficult as it was a very hot year, which you also noted from tasting the wine. The 2015 Barolo was excellent, however it wasn’t the best wine of the trip for my taste. I also asked Alan about the 2016 vintage in which he replied that they see it as a very good vintage but not great. He didn’t thought of it as on par with 2010 and 2013.

Luigi Oddero:
We were welcomed by Alberto who gave a very thorough tour of the winery. He explained that they tried to stay true to traditional vinication as it was Luigi’s prefered style. Compared to Mascarello this is a huge and very modern(not vinification style) winery. I noticed they used french oak instead of Slavonian oak for their botti, which we were told gave more soft tannins. Also Dante Scaglione is still working as a consultant, but now his left hand Francesco is fully employed at Luigi Oddero. We tasted a great number of their wines and I must say I was very pleased with most of it. The Barbaresco Rambone 2016 was terrific and for 30 euros I bought some bottles. The Vigna Rionda 2013 and 2014 was both amazing with 13 having the edge here. However I am not sure that the price tag of 120 euro is justified compared to what other Baroli you can get for that price. This is definitely a place I will visit again and follow their wine with great interest.

Burlotto:
My father in law and I visited Oddero and Mascarello alone but this time we all went. Therefor we had to skip the cellar and went straight to the tasting. We were all very impressed with the lineup from the Barbera to their Barolo, but the 2015 Monvigliero simply knocked off our socks. This was the wine of the trip for me (with a Brovia Rocche 2012 coming in very close). Unfortunately this estate has become so popular that it is virtually impossible to find their Barolo in Piemonte for a reasonable price. You can order the Monvigliero at the restaurant for about 65 euros, but not for take away.

Brovia:
I booked this visit very late, so unfortunately Alex told me they didn’t have time for a proper tour of the winery, which was completely fair. I really enjoy the wines from this estate with Rocche and Garblet Sue as the best ones in my opinion. We had a 2012 Rocche at a restaurant that was just flat out gorgeous. We were told that they expect great things from their 2016’s but Alex still thinks their 2013’s is their best Baroli to date. I wish I had some more.

All in all a lovely trip and you really get the feeling that more people are coming to this area, which was also confirmed by the above estates. I don’t know if you can say “it is the new burgundy” but I can definitely see price increases across the board and wines getting sold out very quickly. Also it seems to me that most producers are also trying to make wine that is charming in its youth and at the same time age well (primary example is obviously Burlotto) a bit like Burgundy. I started my interest in wine to late to really stock up on the great producers in Burgundy, so I’m trying to build a decent collection from Piemonte before that also gets too expensive.
I ended up buying some bottles from B. Mascarello, Produttori del Barbaresco, Alessandria Fratelli, F. Rinaldi, Brovia, Luigi Oddero and Sandrone (I have a soft spot for their Nebbiolo D’alba Valmaggiore 2016). I’ll drink 2015’s while waiting for more traditional vintages to come around and like many others save some money for 2016.

Andreas: Can I ask how the truffle season is going? I’ve heard it’s starting early this year. Is that true? Are there already good truffles available there?

[AndreasB]

Andreas: Can I ask how the truffle season is going? I’ve heard it’s starting early this year. Is that true? Are there already good truffles available there?

Well we had white truffles but it was still very early in the season. They are not fully grown yet as we were also told at a restaurant. But they are still very delicious .

[AndreasB]

Comparing '13 to '89 seems odd since '89 was ferociously tannic, which is not a characteristic of the '13s.

Interesting. I thought that there was a common agreement that 2013 is a very tannic vintage with wine that needs plenty of time in the cellar.