This is absolutely true for the traditional producers for the most part! I have sampled some G Rinaldi that wasn’t bad, but I can say that opening a 10 year old Bartolo Mascarello is an exercise in masochism. For early-ish drinking nebbiolo I go with Vajra or Ar.Pe.Pe.
Sorta thread drift here, so please forgive me…
but those of you with “mature cellars”, what vintages of barolo/barbaresco are you drinking now?
I don’t have a mature cellar, but am drinking 05/07/11/14 as the 04/06/08/10/13/etc sleep. I try to backfill when I can, but most of what I see come up at auction are pretty heavy hitters.
I think I am an outlier in that I generally agree with the article and love to drink Barolo in the 5-20 year zone. Additionally (getting ready to duck and run!) I don’t think Barolo ages as long or as consistently as Burgundy. This doesn’t mean that it can’t (it surely can!) just that I have experienced much more over the hill Barolo than Burgundy of the same age.
A couple of recent examples in this theme - '61 G Mascarello Barolo and '98 Giacosa Santo Stefano Barbaresco. The '61 was perfectly stored with a high fill but the wine was quite faded and just not really enjoyable except as a history lesson. Meanwhile, the '98 Giacosa has seen better days and is developing the rusty taste of Nebbiolo with one foot in the grave (though still drinkable).
I recently discussed the timing of drinking Barbaresco with Aldo Vacca of Produttori del Barbaresco and he enjoys their wines about 10 years from the vintage. For example he felt the 2008s were in their prime drinking window while the 2001s were doing fine but possible more enjoyable a few years ago.
Personally I love the dry presentation of Nebbiolo but realize that it is somewhat of an acquired taste. For some people becoming acclimated to it might be preferable to holding the wines waiting for the tannins to be completely resolved (which comes with some risks).
Kevin- my experiences align pretty well with yours, though the older bottles I’ve experienced (say 20 plus from vintage) have all come from unknown storage conditions. I’m enjoying the 05s and 07s at the moment, though don’t think they’re showing signs of fading or anything similar- if anything, I wish I’d bought more to enjoy now-ish while other vintages pack on some more age.
I think most would agree that you are on track with the possible exception of 2007 and 2008. Piemonte Emeritus Bill Klapp was/is convinced that 2007 will be the longer lived vintage of the two. Morris will be chiming in shortly to tell you why that’s not the case.
You are progressing in your thinking on the subject. Previously, it was something to the effect: the tannins are there whether or not you realize/acknowledge them.
I believe you mean ‘That’s a moray’.
Dan Kravitz
I’m surprised by Kevin’s post that the 1998 Giacosa was on the downslope.
With far less experience than many members and posters on this thread, I’ve basically decided that I like Barolo at about 20 years. Over the past few years I’ve had a few '99s and '00s and found them in the right place.
Dan Kravitz
I have never had Barolo with more than 12 years of bottle age, so this discussion is lost on me. However, I recently had the 2015 Burlotto Barolo Monvigliero. After having been double decanted six hours before dinner, it was outstanding.
Kevin, I know you have a lot of knowledge and tasting experience here, but I have to seriously question whether or not that '98 Giacosa was a sound bottle, and I am almost positive it was not. I have way too little experience with Giacosa, but I’ve seen quite a few other B/B wines at various points of evolution, and this makes no sense to me considering the producer and vintage. I get your overall point, though, and I’m not against the idea that Burgundy produces some of the most consistently ageworthy reds of the world through the broadest spectrum of quality levels. Still, Aldo Vacca, like many winemakers in the Old World, likes his wines on the younger side, and many people have reached very different conclusions about where the peaks are through tasting many aged bottles, so I’m not sold on his opinion really supporting your point. I guess that gets into how subjective the idea of peak evolution is. I fully agree that basing that stage’s timing on whether or not tannins have resolved makes no sense. I also know that many people like truly old Nebbiolo, and it isn’t generally because they need resolved tannins.
This is effectively what they advised on my recent trip to Vietti. Sure, you could wait decades, but it’s going to be great about 10-15 years from now and after that it becomes a crap shoot as to how the bottle ages.
The '71 Monvigliero I had a few weeks ago was firing on all cylinders after I’d decanted it for about 12 hours. While I drink Barolo at 11-15 years…there is no substitute for aging.
So for those of you who prefer super aged (20+ years), do you buy younger vintages? And if so, why?
Kelly and Dan,
If you pull out a morey you get a Meursault or Chassagne…You pull out a moray…not so much fun,
Barolo has changed so much over the years I hardly know what to think. My basic strategy is to trust people who follow the wines carefully.
When Darrell Corti started advising me on these wines, he suggested ‘open the bottle a day or two in advance and leave by the radiator’. That way all the VA blew off. The wines were leathery and dried out. Interesting wines, we used to say, but not a lot of fun.
Just enjoyed a 2005 La Spinetta Barbaresco the other day…perhaps a little tannic and a bit high in alcohol but the flavors just blew me away. I gladly accept the tannin and the alcohol when the flavor is so sensational.
This may explain why I’ve had so few good bottles of old Produttori…I’ve had many from the late eighties that were very tired. That could just be my bad luck as I haven’t had enough to have a valid sample set.
I really enjoy traditional Barolo from a decent vintage around the 20 year mark where you have some fruit remaining, less tannin, and some secondary and tertiary flavors creeping in. My general approach is to enjoy most of my bottles in that time frame and keep 1 or 2 around in hopes that they will reach true old age in good shape.
I’ve had many fantastic and relatively inexpensive bottles from various producers going back to the 50s, 60s, and 70s courtesy of Chambers Street. Some of the better bottles have been from less heralded or defunct winemakers and sometimes the more famous producers have been relative disappointments. There’s so much variability between bottles at that age that it’s hard to make any blanket statements, though. When they are on they can be absurdly beautiful, and I’m glad that Chambers offered them at prices that made the inherent risk worthwhile.
Doug,
First a big disclaimer. Like you mentioned about Aldo, I too enjoy wines (Burgundy, Barolo, our own wines etc) on the younger side compared to many wine drinkers.
With that said, I purchased 18 bottles of that '98 Giacosa SS on release and after finding a bottle very advanced last year I decided to go through the rest of bottles quickly. So I have opened about 6 bottles this year and all were quite advanced with some minor variation. Most recently I opened one for a thirsty winery crew and it was broadly panned as oxidized. It is possible that my bottles were somehow compromised before I received them but I think that is unlikely as the wine showed quite well in its youth and the bottles showed no signs of damage.
Scott,
People who enjoy older clarets buy young ones and put them in their cellar. Why not do this with Barolo?? Of course, if you are over 60 maybe you are buying wine for your children.
I don’t know if I fully fall into the group of preferring Super aged nebb, but, I do certainly drink youthful and old Nebb. It’s more the mood I’m in and what I’m looking for on a particular evening.
I was eyeing some 2015 Luciano Sandrone, but if I had to wait until I’m in a wheelchair…
I just tasted the 2015 Sandrone Barolos and would definitely not recommend opening them soon (which was surprising to me since many 2015s can be opened now).