Barolo wines shine anew in Nebbiolo Prima
(First of two parts.)
IT WAS a rare pleasure to be tasting hundreds of wines from the great Barolo region, the home of the best Nebbiolo wines. I did this the second time around just a few months back during my return stint at the annual Nebbiolo Prima in Alba, Northern Italy. While admittedly, it was blind tasting, and had a more “scholarly feel” to it as I was among the close to a hundred international wine journalists given the rare privilege to preview the Nebbiolo wines, nevertheless. I was still quite enthralled.
To be exact, I tasted 316 Barolos split into four morning sessions. This even excludes lunches, afternoon drinking and dinner time where I also had significant quantities of Barolos from older vintages.
I saved the best for last, with my last two columns of the series based on my Nebbiolo Prima coverage focusing on the new Barolo releases: the Barolo Classico 2012, and the Barolo Riserva 2010.
STILL THE KING
Barolo is the undisputed king of Piedmont wines, and perhaps even the best red wine from Italy. (Don’t fret my Sangiovese loving fellow wine lovers, the Brunello di Montalcino from Tuscany will also be in this best wine conversation...) Barolo has to be made from 100% Nebbiolo. Tasting Barolo wines was my real motivation in participating at the Nebbiolo Prima — and I was once more impressed no end. Barolo is the bulk, or around 59%, of all Nebbiolo harvests in the Langhe region. In terms of vineyard size, Barolo has 1,992 hectares. This is over 10 times the size of fellow Piedmontese Roero DOCG, and almost three times bigger than Barbaresco DOCG. Barolo got its DOC ( Denominazione di origine controllata) and DOCG ( Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita) designations in 1966 and 1980 respectively — similar to its little brother Barbaresco.
The Barolo blind tasting wine flights were clustered by the different Barolo communes — the same that was done for both Barbaresco and Roero. This way each terroir is sort of highlighted, like for the Serralunga d’Alba commune, soils are higher in limestone, sand, and phosphorus, as differentiated by, for example, the La Morra commune, where soils are higher in clay and magnesium oxide. There are 11 communes within the Barolo wine growing region, including one named Barolo itself. The bigger ones are Serralunga d’Alba or just Serralunga, La Morra, Barolo ( the commune), Monforte d’Alba, and Castiglione Falletto — contributing 87% of total Barolo volume.
Barolos have the longest aging period required prior to commercial release among all Nebbiolo made wines. A Barolo can only be released after 38 months in cellar aging, of which 18 months should be in oak barrels. The Barolo Riserva on the other hand requires a longer cellaring period of up to 62 months before commercial release, of which the same 18 months should be in oak barrels. Also, like Barbaresco, Barolo makers often extend their cellaring/aging periods beyond those required by the Barolo Conzortio. A Barolo Classico is normally oak aged for 24 months — six months beyond the required minimum, while the Barolo Riserva is aged up to 36 months in barrels. While these may sound extremely extensive, especially on the oak influence, almost all Barolo producers age part of their oak requirements in large Slavonian oaks known as botti (vessels that can contain as much as 600+ liters), and the other oak part in small, normally French Bordeaux size barriques of more or less 225 liters. The huge Slavonian oaks add the delicate elements to the normally more powerful smaller barriques, and Barolo winemakers get to choose the ratio of aging between these two types of oak vessels based on their stylistic approach to each vintage.
Barolo is the undisputed king of Piedmont wines, and perhaps even the best red wine from Italy.
(To be continued.)
The author has been a member of the Federation Internationale des Journalistes et Ecrivains du Vin et des Spiritueux or FIJEV since 2010. For comments, inquiries, wine event coverage, and other wine-related concerns, e-mail the author at protegeinc@yahoo.com. He is also on Twitter at www.twitter.com/sherwinlao.