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It’s time to hear the case. The books are open, and the coffee is stale. The evidence is being prepared, and the defense is on the podium to open their case. This is not the first time the evidence has been looked over, books sullied, and biases condemned. No, this tort is argued about every four years. Or at least when the vintage is good.
The case of course, is whether Barbaresco, the plucky challenger, has the ability to stand on its own against its older brother commune, across the po, and rolling green landscapes of the city of ALba, Barolo: king of wines. This discussion happens often, but recently with improvements to winemaking, and some realizations about the winemaking philosophy itself, the tides seem to be a-turning once more. What started out as an affordable copy of the King of wines, Barbaresco, a hamlet established only as recently as the eighteen-forties, has become a name synonymous with the heritage of Italian artisanship.
Nebbiolo is the grape in question, and notable examples are seldom grown outside of the department of Langhe: the area containing Alba, Barbaresco, and Barolo. Piedmont is well renown for this grape because of its finicky nature. It is, in fact, evermore finicky than even its finicky cousin, Pinot Noir. The grape is known for its rubbery flavor, high tannin, and smoky attributes - while still managing to retain its aromatics: a rosy-floral, reserved, and soft perception; marred by sing-songy red-fruit essences. Despite the rather harsh undertones, it is a relatively easy pairing wine, and fits delightfully next to a charcuterie board. Newer styles from contemporary producers are often not very difficult to drink at all after vintage release.
Let’s outline the case. Barolo has been extremely famous as the lead producer of Nebbiolo in Piedmont for a long time. It is located next to the village of Alba in Langhe, away from the river Tanaro. It’s a beautiful area on the slopes, and exposed to the sun.
Traditionally, according to DOCG outlines, producers in the area were aging wine in botti, large oak-aging containers, that the wines would spend up to five years in. Because of the size of these containers, often 300Hl and larger, it has always been more difficult for a greater surface area of the wines to contact the air during aging, leading to often slightly reduced wines - think volatile acidity.
The heightened tannin can be attributed to the greater surface area of oak in contact with the wine, which will end up sharing its phenols and tannin with the wine over that five year period of aging in barrel. In traditional Barolo winemaking, greater tannin is also attributed to the weeks, and weeks of maceration, and extended fermentation contact with the skins; this has been used to add color to the often lightly-tinged, fruity wines that result without this extended skin contact.
Most producers still choose to use the botti, but a large portion have switched to new French Oak Barriques in recent years, and following the renaissance of French winemaking techniques which had seemingly laid siege to the vineyards of the world during the late-nineties. This modern technique results in often fresher tasting wines without the tannin, and chewiness of a wine forced to tolerate the same large oak barrel for such long periods of time.
In addition, a lot of producers are now choosing to rack into a few different oak Barriques over time; that is filtering clear wine from the top to prevent sediment - a practice seen as blasphemy in the region just a thirty or so years ago. Typically Barriques used to store wine are mad of old oak, allowing for more clarity, and preservation of fresher fruit. The use of old oak will to protect the delicate flavors of Nebbiolo from the oft overbearing strength of oak flavor that can plague wines aged in new oak.
The new DOCG requirements do not mandate the use of botti, the modern barriques are now welcome in Piedmont. However, the wines do still need to be aged for thirty-eight months, eighteen of which must be in oak or the more traditional chestnut, and they must be one-hundred percent Nebbiolo. For Riserva wines (labeled as such), the highest level of prestige that can be attributed, the requirement is sixty-two months of aging.
There are some more traditional producers that use botti, including the famous Barolo house, Marchesi di Barolo. They believe it adds significant character, and roundness to the wines, without compromising the fruit. It’s a precise metric and risk that they take, using this old style, but they produce some fabulous and stable wines year-after-year, that are even more suited to aging due to their higher tannin. They use new winemaking techniques, and even painstakingly restore these old barrels on a regular basis.
In fact, my first recommendation from Barolo is a Marchesi di Barolo wine, as they are very reasonably priced, and excellent value. They're refined, and burgeoning with lush flavor. Their Barolo (Tradizione) is made the traditional way, hence the name. The restored botti add character, and presence to this old standby. As such, fruit flavors are practically an afterthought. If you like undertones dominating wine, and excellent age-ability, this wine is for you. First you are confronted with flavors of cedar, tobacco, clove; and peat moss, then the expression of the wine shifts to cream, pine nut, dark chocolate; and damp cellar, and then the final act is, of course, a lovely stewed strawberry and lingonberry flavor that lingers on the palette for, and I’m not kidding, three minutes after swallowing.
Other famous Barolo houses choose to stick to the new French Barriques for cautious efficiencies sake; these are newer-style fruitier barrels that can also be drunk young, yet still retain their tannin. Danillo Drocco creates new-style interesting, and complex wines of incredible character, and while he doesn’t deny the arability of the botti wines, he uses barriques to create more perfumed wines that are always in-style, and slender, with complex aromas.
There are five major communes, and eleven total communes in Barolo that produce the sensual-style Nebbiolo. Traditionally, these communes are blended together to produce wines thatr have powere and fruit, with excisable agability. With the advent of Burgundian viticultural practices, some producers have taken to single-vineyard or single-commune bottlings, without the formal ratings for Cru that we see in France. Though it is in the works, unfortunately. The first notable commune is, well, Barolo, then Castiglione Falletto, Serralunga d’Alba, La Morra, Monforte d’Alba - these are the major communes. Novello and Verduno, are quickly gaining a reputation for stellar bottles. The last three are much smaller production areas of, Grinzane-Cavour, Diano d’Alba, Charasco; and Roddi.
Barolo is the commune that shares the namesake of the appellation. Its major wineries dominated trade in the area for a long time. Famous producers here, are the aforementioned Marchesi di Barolo, as well as, Breza, and Mascarello. It has several Crus, the most famous of which being Cannubi. The soil here is calcareous limestone, perfect for keeping heat close to the roots, as well as a silt, and sand layer which offers decent drainage, though hot vintages do seem to suffer from flabbiness, and over-ripeness. The wines overall tend to be less-tannic and more approachable to newcomers and those unfamiliar with Barolo.
Castiglione Falleto may be the smallest of the communes, but it is well renown as one of the top-producing areas. The area is known for making age-worthy, tannic, and traditional reds, and its producers are heavily invested in the quality of their product. This area has the highest amount of sand in the soil, with medium water retention due only to the low water-table. The much-talked about, and staple winery nearly synonymous with this commune, is Vietti. Drainage is fairly good, but this area also offers greatly during summer heat. The most famous Cru here is the ever-praised Bricco Broschis, with its marls of soil, schist and gravel. The wines are extremely complex, and have a delicate minerality.
The last of the communes that you will often see on bottles within Barolo proper, is Serralunga d’Alba, near the city of Alba. Here the soil is a calcareous marl of limestone and sand. The limestone is great for keeping temp, and heating the roots. This towns proximity to the river means that it is the least affected by heat, though still not unaffected. They also have a very high level of calcium carbonate in the soil, which results in muscular, tannic wines. However, high levels of calcium in the soil lead to a lot of unpredictable esters in the grapes that reveal themselves only after fermentation. These are widely regarded as the heaviest wines in the region texture-wise.
Outside of Barolo, La Morra rests to the north of the commune, and is the largest of all communes producing wine labeled as such. La Morra is famous for its graceful, balanced, and floral wines. It’s also the cheapest commune, and may even be the best aging. Producers here are more apt to use French Barriques, and newer winemaking techniques to express interesting symphonies of new and old flavors using Nebbiolo. There are thirty-nine Crus here, the most famous being Roche Dell’Annunziata. The water table here is lower, and the soils are mostly cooling clay. In fact, La Morra has the highest percentage of clay of any commune in Barolo. This also means that the soil is poorer-draining, and retains moisture.
Monteforte d’Alba is also a producer of fabulous vintages, particularly in its Cru Bussia. Soils here are even limestone, clay, and sand. The area is known for being slightly more consistent than its counterparts. Its wines are balanced, slightly more acetic, with chewy tannin, and the majority of producers here are traditional-style botti-makers.
Let’s turn our attention to the smaller commune of Barbaresco, across the town of Alba. Barbaresco is regarded to have more balanced, fruitier wines with less of the tannic nature, and harshness of Barolo. Originally founded as a cheaper copy of Barolo, this DOCG is truly having its day. In the past, bottles were also thought of as not sitting quite as well on the shelf. This may be a bit of a misnomer however, at the detriment of Barbaresco in general.
The wines are often looked at as Barolo’s cheaper younger brother, and the soils here through the communes run pretty similar in texture to those of Barolo, though with not as much Cru diversity: which can be a good thing. The commune has managed to shear its chacles of this aging reputation, and producers are making incredible wines that compete rather directly with the stallwarths of Barolo - a lot of Barolo houses over the years have taken notice, and purchased estates of their own across the Po.
A lot of this shifting in reputation, and percieved quality is due to the pioneer evangelist of the little town, Angelo Gaja, who, among other things, went on a major PR run to different English-speaking wine-media outlets, like Wine Spectator, and prophesied the greatness of Barbaresco. He was a fan of drinking fine wines, having accumulated a collection of some of the finest, but regarding his home commune in such high auspices, that he helped reinvigorate the Produttori del Barbaresco, now a fine-wine co-op that allowed producers to sell their grapes at very reasonable prices and offered beneficial modern winemaking and viticultural guides for its members, bolstering the reputation of Barbaresco by miles.
The soils are more mineral-laced and richer, being on the banks of the Tanaro. These minerals, and the soil's fertility lead to a juicier fruit. The area also retains a lot of its balance, which is a wonderful thing, as even in a hot year, unlike Barolo, Barbaresco has much more consistent vintages due to the cooling properties of the river.
The river’s banks provide cooling in the summer, and higher water retention in the soil. 2011 was a terrible, dreadful, awful; no-good, very-bad year in Barolo, wherein Barbaresco, the year was just fine, because of cooling properties of the Tanaro. Wines from Barolo were jammy, and flabby with no acid, where the wines in Barbaresco were still well balanced, albeit lacking complexity.
If you’re looking for a high quality version of Barbaresco, I would recommend any Barbaresco from Gaja, obviously. I would also recommend Castello de Neive Barbaresco 2015. This wine is bold, with sharp acid, laden with black cherry and raspberry, preceding undertones of leather, burnt rubber, and smoked mackerel. It’s definitely less traditional, beyond the pale, and a great choice for food of all types. I think this would go great with seafood pastas, and perhaps even some haute Thai cuisine.
In regards to DOCG requirements for Barbaresco, winemakers must make the wines of one-hundred percent Nebbiolo. Wines must spend two years aging, and at least nine months in new oak. Barriques being the norm is far less-common. Producers today in both communes have been moving back to botti. Some producers are also experimenting with clay pots, amphorae, for increased oxidation, without the tinge of oak.
The Croatian oak is much more common, and botti are ideal for most producers these days, especially as consumers waking up from their French oak comas, and are seeking out new, and interesting, characterful wines with emphasis on indigenous varietals, and older winemaking methods. For Riserva, the highest denomination of quality, the wines must be aged for four years total or more in oak - thankfully, typically neutral.
These days, producers all over the region of Langhe have holdings in different communes throughourt the region, allowing them to provide consumers with a range of different styles of wine depending on preference. The rilvalry between the communes seems to have ceased, and producers all over the region are in cooperation to enhance the local reputations of both communes as a whole. This turn away from mass-manufacturing and looking towards smaller scale family-run vineyard operations by the consumers of the wine world, has resulted in the foundation of new wineries, especially affecting Barbaresco, wehere land is slightly cheaper, and vineyard ownership has remained in the same hands for generatrions.
A lot of new operations, from families previously growing grapes to serve the needs of the Co-Op, now only use it as a way to sell off un-needed crop, to bottle their best product under their own name. One such newer winery, Tanuta Barac, established just a few short years ago, is operating as an agro-tourism lodge, and has built a beautiful new winery amongst its Barbaresco Nebbiolo a stone's throw from Trieso in which they are making incredible Barbaresco, Barolo, Nebbiolo Rosé, Barbera, Spumante, and my favorite white grape, Arneis. The vineyard and production are totally certified organic by the EU.
Though the winery, and guesthouse overlook the picturesque rolling hills of Barbaresco, their stunning 2016 single-vineyard Barolo from Cerviano-Merli in Novello was the best wine I tasted during my exhaustive travel through the region. Smooth enough for early drinking, and lacking the dumb-phase of most ines its age, this wine had all the typical complexities of Barolo, including the unique pink-rose petal, and road-tar aromas.
There was hints of vanilla-bean on the nose, some gamey prosciutto, pleasant notes of alcohol, black truffle and dry red cherry. The finish was long-lasting and the wine was as smooth and ribbony on the finish as duck fat - the balance of this wine is the most impressive feature about it. Nothing was out of place, I have no doubt it will age incredibly well. This is a winemaking operation to be on the lookout for in the coming years. Notably, the Barbaresco is also fabulous.
There are three communes that make Barbaresco wines, they are, Neive, Treiso, and San Rocca Seno d’Elvio. All of them are super-performers, and a lot easier to remember than the eleven on the other side of Alba. The soils in all three do not vary much as they’re not spread very far apart and all rest on the banks of the Tanaro. Soils aren't necessarily alluvial, but reflect more sand and some heavy clay-limestone blends that give the wines a layered structure and clean, complex finish.
In Neive, the soil is mainly limestone with a higher level of sand, and higher water table. The commune is however, a bit higher on the slopes for grape growing areas. There is good drainage here, and the soil stays cool. There is generally more acid in the wine as it’s harder for grapes to ripen in the lower lying banks. This can be a good thing some vintages, though. It’s wines are generally variable, some being full-bodied, others not so much.
In Treiso and San Rocca, The higher altitudes mean cooler temperatures with more sun exposure. The primarily limestone soils here mean that the temp in the soul keeps with the heating of the sun. Winemakers here are able to harvest a week earlier than in Barolo, as the early seasons are filled with more sunlight. There are cooling breezes and cold nights with hot temperatures during the day. This leads to impressive fruit-forward wines that are the envy of the region. The wines here, are very perfumed and expressive.
Case adjourned,
~K