TN: 1983 Produttori del Barbaresco Barbaresco

Finally made it to Terroir in NYC last night with a couple of friends, which allowed me to scratch the chronic Kabinett Riesling itch I suffer from. The star of the night ended up being a 1983 Produttori del Barbaresco Barbaresco that we took a chance on. We were all very happy we did! To me, this showed no signs of being from a supposedly weak vintage. Moderate bricking at the rim, but less than I expected. Beautiful nose of red fruits, leather, spices, dried roses, some tobacco, and a bit of tar. The tannins felt very well integrated but still very present (I was surprised as to how present they still were for a 39 y/o bottle).

I’ve always loved Nebbiolo but haven’t had a lot of great experiences with older bottles, even when sourcing from Chambers Street Wines or Italian Wine Merchants in NYC. This was by far the best example I’ve had of a 25+ year old Nebbiolo.

Curious as to what producers people have had more “hits than misses” with when it comes to older Barolo/Barbaresco?

Thanks for the note, looking forward to the 1970 and 1974 I’m holding on to. Haven’t had much, but Borgogno’s Barolo has always hit for me (1952, 1967, maybe 1964?). Always go for the red capsule (which isn’t topped up).

Nice post Bryan!

I think I have three bottles left of the ‘67. All so far have been very good, but were had fully mature bricking and were soft compared to yours.

I haven’t had many misses on older Barolo and Barbaresco, but most I’ve had came from cool British cellars.

Recently had a 96 Barolo and 96 Barbaresco and was floored. Vintage unsurprisingly makes a significant impact.

Pio Cesare is a consistently great Barolo. I’m just finishing the 2001 now.

I’ve had a reasonably good success rate on older Piedmont bottles, especially since I’ve bought them all long after release. Of the pre-1997 (arbitrary line, but there it is) Barolo/Barbaresco I’ve opened, about 12% were damaged. Yea, that’s pretty high sadly. Mostly cooked, I assume due to poor storage, transportation, or both. I’ve had the most luck (also made up most of what I’ve sampled) with Gaja and Giacosa, nothing too surprising. I think the more highly regarded producers were handled most carefully. Just a hypothesis though.

Many, many hits from the '50’s, '60’s and '70’s and not just from the great years and great producers.

Same here. Especially with the great vintages one can buy even completely no-name producers nobody’s heard of (at least in the past 30-40 years) and still the hit rate is surprisingly good!

However, a great majority of the older Italian (not just Piedmontese) wines have been sourced by just one guy directly on-site in Italy (from restaurants, collectors and shops specializing in old wines). While the success rate with bottles sourced from auctions and non-Italian sources is relatively good, I’ve had more duds compared to the bottles sourced by this friend of mine (who actually visually inspects every bottle he buys and discards all iffy bottles).

Haven’t had the 1974, but that is supposed to be a very good vintage, so here’s to hoping! I’ve had the 1970 three times - once it was getting quite oxidative and was obviously past its peak, twice it was simply astounding and one of the best vintages of PdB I’ve tasted (currently at 25 different vintages and counting )!

Similarly we’ve done ok with Borgogno’s riservas, though I do recall a 1962 being something of a dud
One other that did us well, but eventually the prices for the remarkable older wines jumped too high for us, was Vallana. Not Barolo or Barbaresco, but every bit as good (whatever was actually in the bottle).
I’ve had plenty of failures, but then I’m prepared to gamble on wines that really ought to be too old.