Accomasso

Hello people

I have a question!

Has anyone ever tasted something from the producer called Lorenzo Accomasso from Piedmont/Barolo?

If so what are your thoughts?

He’s rather old, uber traditional, but has gotten somewhat ‘culty’ in the past few years. The rep is that the wines can be fairly inconsistent.

I’ve recently had a few of the 09 barolo riserva and Rocchette. The riserva is surprisingly approachable right now.

When the wines are on, they are wonderful, old school renditions of their terroir in Annunziatta. That said, I have had a lot of flawed wines of his, probably higher than any other producer in the Langhe I have drunk. Lorenzo Accomasso is a one man show, and the cellar it very low tech, with very low production, and he sells out to whom he wants. Cellar door prices if you can get them are very affordable, but don’t show up thinking you will get a visit or be able to buy the wines unannounced or even get an appointment without some help. I do not think they are worth what the secondary market runs for them. The man himself is a funny, crotchety, old school Piemontese man near the end of his career. He is in his 80s and he is slowing down. He looks a little frail. Part of the whole cult thing with his wines I suspect is his age and that he is near the end of his career. He is very well respected in the local community. The cynical part of me wonders if some of the hype is people knowing he is a well respected man of a time gone by, who is in his last couple vintages, and that other people, clearly not Cavaliere Accomasso, are driving the hype in a Gentaz, Truchot, Juge mode.

Todd nailed this - nothing to add but I fully agree

Agree with Todd regarding Accomasso’s reputation and reasons for it, but I wanted to add that in my experience (limited to 2009 & 2010 vintages only, but tasted maybe 10+ times on different occasions) the wines are delicious and fantastic, but nothing at all like the other “traditional” Barolo producers eg. G. Rinaldi, B. Mascarello. Accomasso’s wines can be almost insanely rich and full-bodied, brimming and overflowing with concentration. It’s not a style I’ve encountered anywhere else in Piemonte. Sometimes the alcohol exceeds 15%. And while it may give a noticeable waft of warmth, the wines remain balanced and delicious.

I did read Monica Larner’s recent TWA review and found it humorous enough as a piece of portrait journalism, since the “Cavaliere”, as he is affectionately known, is definitely quite a funny character and fits her description.

I’ve heard a lot of talk of faulty wines and off-bottles from him but I have never experienced this. I admit that I do have a relatively high tolerance for bretty wines e.g. Bernard Levet’s style in the N. Rhone, so it may just be my nose and preferences.

I have visited Accomasso several times, and I have tried a fairly large number of the wines both at the winery tasting area, in Alba, and in New York. I came to a realization awhile ago that the Accomasso wines I was sampling in the tasting room and the wines I was trying elsewhere were different, in the sense that when you taste at the winery the bottles have typically been open a long time, and they taste volatile and rustic. Accomasso keeps the cardboard wine boxes in the same room, and I think that cardboard and the dust in the room sort of affects the open bottles and how they taste. When I taste at Accomasso I taste wines with a lot of VA, not a lot of fruit, and with a bloody rusticity of rebar and iron. When I taste his Nebbiolo elsewhere I get lifted wines with beautiful red fruit and even some supple character. Sometimes there is a gravelly tone in there, but integrated.

I steered clear of Accomasso for a bit because his reputation was for highly volatile wines. I think that reputation comes from people who have visited him and tasted with him, as opposed to drinking the wines at, say, La Libera in Alba. I think because the wines aren’t in distribution and are rarely exported (outside of Japan), that most people’s experience of Accomasso wines is in the Accomasso tasting room. I don’t have a lot of problems with the wines outside his tasting room. I do think it is helpful to get the wines off the sediment and to drink them with a slight chill when serving. That chill came help bring into line some of the highish alcohol and (to me, I don’t know if this is scientifically true) mask some of the slight VA.

Some quick takes:

His straight Nebbiolo can be very good, and ageable in the under 10 years type of range.

His Barbera can be good, in a rustic, dark fruit fashion, but I wouldn’t pay over $80 for it. I see it going for over $160 sometimes.

He typically does really well in warm vintages when it comes to Barolo. You can partly understand why when you see the vineyard pruning (or lack thereof).

I think if you want to see the glories of his wines, you should be thinking about Barolo from the 1980s and 1990.

I see Le Mie Vigne described as a special bottling in some places, but it is a vineyard (which is near the winery).

Accomasso sometimes aged wines for long periods in glass demijon as opposed to botte. I think doing that gives a kind of Peter Pan effect to a wine. It can seem younger (ie., less exposed to oxygen) and the fruit more intact than the vintage might indicate.

He would top up empty headspace within cooperage with marbles/rocks. I think when you do this there can be a specific taste that develops in the resulting wines.

In sum, I would say that I regularly drink the wines when I see them on restaurant lists in the Alba area. They often have little mark up attached in the home zone, and you can sometimes find vintages with age on them.

Todd and Levi covered most of the bases regarding Accomasso. I find the wines variable, and often slightly dirty, but they are unique expressions of the region. He bottles later than most producers, having just bottled 2011 Riservas and 2012 Barolo, he was racking his 2013 when I visited last month. He doesn’t remember exactly, but believes that 2000 was the last vintage that the Riservas were aged in demi-john. The price ex-cellars is now up to 55 euros, pretty rarified country but in my opinion worth it.

Lorenzo made a name for himself in the early 1970s when he was amongst the very first to green harvest and undertake a cellar hygiene program that very forward looking for the time. The wines he made in his prime, 1974-2000 were and remain something special. As mentioned I enjoy his more recent releases, but think the tariff is a bit steep for the quality of the wines, though you are buying much more than simply a bottle of wine when you buy his.

If you are fortunate enough to take the time to get to know him, and he affords you that opportunity, you’ll find that he is crotchety, but also quite warm and wry in a very Italian way. Though it’s not easy to do and takes years before he opens up even a little.

And to Todd’s point, Lorenzo has done nothing to drive the cult perception of his wines. In fact he is quite surprised by it, happy with the results of course. As a consumer of his wines I have to say I am less happy. One used to be able to go and buy cases of whatever was laying around, which included 2-3 vintages but now the wines sell out in a matter of months and if you are lucky enough to buy directly from the man you get much less than even 3 years ago.

We visited a good few years ago, without any introductions, but with the usual pre-arranged appointment that is common in Italy.

I am very glad we visited.

My Italian was a lot weaker than it is today (I am still a long way from fluency), but we persevered. I think the visit lasted between 90 mins and 2 hours, sat down at the simple wooden table in a spartan tasting room, with IIRC no tour of the winery, barrel store or vineyard I think we tasted 3 wines in total, but (despite it being a linguistic challenge for me) it was very much about the discussion. He was interested, as many were at the height of the modernist vs. traditionalist stylistic battle, about who else we were visiting. No judgement or criticism offered, even though it was a broad cross-section. We discussed where he sold to, as I saw wines packaged up (for Japan IIRC) and I mentioned where I’d first seen his wines in Scotland.

We ended up late for the next appointment, but no complaints at all from me.

I find it rather ironic that his wines are priced as / viewed as ‘cult’, as anyone sat at that simple rustic tasting table would see this as nothing like what we think of as ‘cult wineries’. He himself came across very understated, very much seeing himself as a wine farmer, somewhat distanced from the swish modern wineries with family members / winemakers traveling the globe to present their wines. He seemed very happy at home and happy he didn’t have that lifestyle.

At cellar door prices, I’d say these are really interesting wines, well worth a taste/try. It helped having a positive experience from visiting, but then that’s been common across a number of visits elsewhere. At the open market prices… well that’s silly money, and I think he himself would agree.

The wines are special…and as others have noted, well worth it at the cellar door price. There does seem to be a correlation between these wines and some speculation. It’s a producer I keep hoping folks will forget about…if you want the cellar door price start looking outside of Piedmont in some of the less traveled parts of Italy. The few shops I found the wines in were allocating the bottles only willing to sell one bottle at a time…but when a wine store is only getting one case that makes sense.

Kirk sed it best! The wines are special…

Tasted the 2002 Le Migne Vigne with a friend back in April (he brought it back from Piedmont in May of 2017) and we were very happy with how it showed given the vintage. Aromatics were lifted, palate was bright and airy. Tough vintage, and we both thought the wine over-delivered. That said, grey market pricing is far too aggressive for me right now.