TN: 2017 Burlotto Dolcetto d’Alba

I am not usually a huge dolcetto fan, but this is quite nice. Reminds me of a good Cru Beaujolais - nice mineral and grapey nose. Good grip, balance of sweet young fruit, minerals and acid with a pleasant herbaceous note on the finish. Very good Monday night wine with leftover bucatini bolognese.

Thanks for the nice note Jud. I think his dolcetto did well in the warmth of '17. It’s a fun pretty enjoyable wine made for the table. Thanks again.

Have long held that Dolcetto is the ultimate Tuesday night red sauce pasta kind of wine. Have never tried the Burlotto for some reason, which is odd as I’m a fan of their Barolo.

I love meself some well-made Dolcetto, but I’ve noticed that often the variety needs some time to settle down.

Very often the wines can be very sweetly-fruited with their primary aromas of blueberry juice and boysenberry jam and some wines can be surprisingly lactic in their youth, since the light fresh style they are made into doesn’t always mask the MLF characteristics that well. Through some trial error I’ve come to the conclusion that the sweet spot with Dolcetto tends to hover around 5-8 years after the vintage; this is usually enough for the wines to drop their most youthful, sweet primary characteristics but not enough to make the most delicate wines to become too old or tired (although the best examples can age for several decades).

We had a short while ago a large tasting of ~15 créme de la créme Dolcettos including a small mini-vertical of Serafino Rivella, which only seemed to corroborate my impression: the vintages 2017 and 2016 felt all too primary, the 2015 was pretty nice and the 2013 was in a perfect spot.

I’ve had that Burlotto Dolcetto only from the 2013 vintage. A terrific wine and definitely among the more serious expressions of the variety.

Came with a package deal including Burlotto Barberas, otherwise never would have tried it. May have to seek out some more with age on them Otto. Still have much to learn about Italian wines.

Just tried the '18 last week, and it’s delicious, too. It’s in a lighter style, not the darker, more tannic style, and is already pretty, but should improve for a few years. I can’t ask for more for $16.

Glad to hear this was drinking well. I had the 2017 Barbera ‘Aves’ a couple of weeks ago, listed as 15.5% on the label, and it was the hot mess you would expect at that level. Then I had the 2017 Langhe ‘Mores’ this past weekend, which was listed at 15% and it was similarly disjointed. These are the first disappointing wines I’ve had from Burlotto, going back to the 04s (back when the Monvigliero could be had at retail for $45 and was just sitting on the shelf). Maybe the Mores will come together with a couple of years more bottle age, but that Barbera was just not good. It reminded me of a Martinelli Zin from the late 90s / early 00s.

I had the 2004 Burlotto Monvigliero a couple
of months back and it was delicious.I have One Moore bottle, but i’am NOT in a hurry.

I could see that. The grapey, pitty, barrel-sample character of the wines has always turned me off. Maybe with a few years, they would become more like a finished wine and agree with me more.

This year’s release of the Langhe is really great. I enjoyed that and the Barbera more than the Dolcetto.

This exactly. The old adage goes that Dolcetto is a wine that can be drunk while the Nebbiolos age, but that doesn’t mean that the bottles need to be drunk too young!

While almost all the Piedmontese reds can be wonderfully fresh and crunchy in their youth, I still prefer to give them at least a few years of age just to tone down that primary fruit character I’m not a fan of. You can see how Barolo and Barbaresco benefit from the extended aging regime during which they shed most if not all of their sweetest primary notes before they even hit the market.

Dolcetto and most red sauce makes for a nice combo. Tasty and reasonable cost also makes it an easy choice.

Tom