Criminal (EDIT: or silly, if you like) pricing on 2016 Produttori Crus

WINE TALK
61

Vinfolio sent out an email blast last week offering the wooden box for $799 (9 x 750mls), expected arrival 4-6 months.

Also, just saw that Wine Enthusiast published their vintage chart and it ranks the 2016 vintage for Barbaresco & Barolo “both” at 99pts. I’m really looking forward to reading Kerin O’Keefe’s reviews of the PdB Crus! Also interesting to note, WE gave the 2019 vintage 98s scores for both regions. Start savings those pennies.

62

Here’s the thing…most of us know that’s a major hike up in pricing from the last few vintages. If the wines sit long enough, the price will come down.

63

Never thought I would buy Barolos as the cheaper option.

64

Rabaja, Asili and a couple others will sell at $80+. The rest will sit and come down. Nobody is buying Rio Sordo at $80.

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Galloni’s reviews state the release prices are $72 each. Not sure if that’s reliable. Time will tell.

66

I’m with you 100%. When the price is right (i.e. $50-$60), these represent good values and, on occasion, a specific wine can be truly outstanding. Most often, they wind up being “fine” (i.e. very good) wines. However, they are also somewhat inconsistent as between the crus, and too often, they never truly “shape up” as hoped, often winding up just brooding and monolithic, even as they age, giving the sense of an appropriately serious wine but not ultimately offering any real joy or pleasure…But I certainly understand that people’s preferences are different here.

And for pure pleasure, I would rather have the cru bottles of La Ca Nova, which are terrific wines that are consistently enjoyable/pleasurable (probably at the expense of not being long-term agers, although the jury is still out on that and they are quite balanced wines, just without a huge amount of “heft”).

2 Likes
67

La Ca Nova are the new good value.Eccellent
Barbaresco.

68

As others have noted, the 2016 normale is both fantastic and a relative bargain so I’d just load up on it. I have never had a young Produttori that was that good, and I’m pretty sure it’s the best Produttori of any age I’ve ever had - although in my experience I find Produttori a little lacking versus my favorite producers of nebbiolo and I probably don’t have as much experience with older bottles as many on this board. The 2016 normale, in contrast, stacks up well with other, more expensive 2016 nebbiolos that I’ve sampled (I rarely drink them young but this vintage has tempted me to pop a few.) My main question is how this vintage ages because it is so open, graceful, and relatively low in tannin at a time when I would expect it to be shutting down.

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It looks like the 2017 Produttori normale got the same score as 2016 from AG (94) and a higher score than 2015 (90+). Is this grade inflation? Or is there another factor here? Everywhere I look 2017 appears to be a more normal vintage compared to 2016’s amazing vintage.

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Is this possibly because they’ve decided not to release Riservas in 2017, so the Normale has the Riserva material? (I haven’t heard one way or another about whether they’ll be releasing '17 Riservas).

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It’s also possible that his scores don’t mean much.

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72

That’s certainly true. And going a step further, you can say “scores don’t mean much” (whether they’re his or anyone else’s). But I think many of us all kind of pretend they might mean something, up until that point when you taste the wine and realize they didn’t, since otherwise we’re operating with a complete lack of information.

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I always saw the scores as tiers, like grades in grade school. A, A-, B+, etc. Thus, grade inflation.

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[winner.gif]

75

Was just offered the 9 pack owc set for $675. Probably as cheap as I’ll find it. Should I buy it???

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Seems like a good deal, certainly relative to everything else I’ve seen. If more are available, would love to know where.

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Envoyer is going to sell the owc 9 bottle 2016 produttori Barbaresco riservas for $675 today. Cheapest I’ve seen.

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I can’t find that on their site, is it email link only? I’m not on their list.
Thanks!

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seems to have sold out

80

that deal was sold out in an hour. Think they had 18 of them. Don’t worry, there will be plenty more. However, I expect the individual bottle price to be $85-100. Maybe Rio Sordo will be $75. Don’t expect 2015 or earlier pricing here. At some point Monica from Parker will review the Riserva’s. Considering she gave the Normale a 95, I would expect 96-99 on all of them which isn’t going to help anyone looking for a “deal”.