Perhaps because in 1 or 2 of their labels, they use French barriques.
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I checked the Barale website and it looks like all of the Barolo and Barbaresco is aged in 15-30 hectoliter French oak casks. Iām not seeing barrique (though it looks like the Langhe Nebbiolo and Barbera are aged in French oak tonneaux)
Iām actually guessing Barale was originally categorized as lean traditional because of the French oak, but if Brovia and Burlotto are still classified as ātraditionalistā despite using French oak, it seems a little unfair to Barale.
It might be that Barale uses newer oak? Or other winemaking methods that would not make them fully eligible? I donāt know, havenāt tasted.
And Brovia and Burlotto are not using French oak exclusively. Iāve understood Broviaās bottis are built using both French and Slavonian oak and Burlotto uses both French and Slavonian oak bottis. I remember reading French oak is his preference when it comes to botti.
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As I recall when this thread was prominently in the front pages, Baraleās website then was clear as to which label used French barriques and which used Slavonian. I canāt recall which was which, but when I tasted 2010 Barale during an appointment visit years ago the distinction between one with the French barrique and the other that used Slavonian was obvious.
added: Oh, and the barriques that I saw in the aging cellar looked new and fresh.
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A number of producers use French-coopered, French oak botti, or foudres, for Barolo. This is obviously not the same at all as using French oak barriques. You have to make the distinction between barrels that contain 225-odd liters and those that contain maybe ten times as much; and between toasted and untoasted oak. There are some French cooperages that specialize in larger barrels, and they can be excellent.
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Giacosa used French Botti, would anyone dare classify his wines as anything other than Traditional or Classic?
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I love traditional Nebbiolo wines as much as the next guy and have fretted for decades over the traditional/modern battle. But while this thread has gone on for over 500 posts, the forced effort to determine exactly what makes a traditional producer feels like a tedious exercise similar to medieval clerics trying to decide how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. No French oak! Oak? A real traditionalist only uses chestnut. And makes only a single blended bottling with no cru designations. And doesnāt do any green harvesting because the goal is quantity. And only uses actual horse power and foot pressing. For that matter, Nebbiolo use to be fermented as a sweeter wine with leftover residual sugar and sometimes even frizzante. There is your real traditional Nebbiolo. What we drink today has less than a century of history. My point? All current Barolo and Barbaresco producers are āmodernā to an extent.
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As for the roto-fermenters - on their website it says submerged cap, nothing about rotoā¦ But if correct that they use roto-fermenters then I would be very surprised if used as modernista would do. It is probably done at a very low frequency/interval.
Would be interesting to hear from someone who visited and discussed in more though.
*Edit
Was too fast - saw this on another section of the website:
āCrush is according to modern practices with the sole exception that the grapes are not passed through a crushing machine during the destemming process. The slow rotating action of the blades (made specifically for this purpose) in the horizontal rotofermentors allow us to keep the floating skins below the level of the fermenting liquid for a long, semi-submerged-cap maceration.ā
I guess the key focus is on the āslow rotating to keep the skin below the liquidā, while a more modern work it more hard for the extraction. I imagine something like frequent dipping the tea back over and over versus more gently over a longer period leave it in with very gentle slow movement.
Anyway out of curiosity it would be interested to hear from someone who knows.
In the section about the vindication room, the website says it uses horizontal roto-fermenters to keep the cap partially submerged. Itās not used to maximize extraction.
So, definitely not modernist.
EDIT: whoops, just saw your edit. I think Oliver wrote a post about this upthread if you want more detailed information.
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Thank Yule for pointing me there, makes sense.
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Do you have historical context as to used French wood, whether in barriques or botti, before the Barolo Boys did?
In case you happened to miss these, Chris listed only a few message ago names like Gaja, Ceretto and Ratti.
Oliver could confirm, but my recollection is that the Cavallottosā customized rotofermenter only turns once a day, or something like that. It really is sloooow.
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I think it is also worth noting between GD Vajra and Cavalotto that Cavalottoās Bricco Boschis generally has 30-35 days maceration time, compared to 25-27 for GD Vajraās Albe.
I believe maceration time was fairly heavily weighed in the creation of the list.
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Yes, these were the deciding factors.
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Iām looking at the Barale website and I donāt think they use barrique anymore for any of their Barolos and Barbarescos. All of the Barolos and Barbarescos say they use 15-30 hectoliter oak casks.
Might be important to figure out since when if the list is to be helpful.
Alfio Cavallotto says the Nebbiolo skins tend to stick to each other, the roto-fermenter allows them to very gently move the cap without breaking up the skins or seeds. I would assume the details on their website are gospel, they are that kind of family.
I was there a few days ago, Alfioās brother Giuseppe says that they borrowed one roto-fermenter for a vintage and liked the results, then over the following few years tried them out on other varieties, then on Nebbiolo. It seems to allow very good extraction of tannins without bitterness.
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The real beauty is that they were willing to experiment. Despite the traditional focus, they were open minded. I am headed there in about a week and excited to see/hear/ taste more!
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Has anyone had recent experiences with Sottimano? The note says they may be shifting to more traditional around 2010.