As I said above, the '95 Burlotto developed very well over two decades plus, and that wasn’t a terribly strong vintage. So I’m not sure there’s any cause for concern about the Burlotto’s longevity.
That said, the Monvigliero site tends to yield more elegant, less powerful wines. It is at a relatively low altitude (250m-300m) and near the Tanaro River, which cools the site. There’s an extended exchange in a thread five years ago with photos, maps, details and arguments about Monvigliero’s terroir and Burlottos’ techniques: https://www.wineberserkers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2101296#p2101296
Ravera is nearly at the other end of the DOCG zone, and at a higher elevation (mostly 350m-400m with parts up to 480m). I think Monvigliero has more in common with many wines from La Morra, which is fairly close.
FYI, I have bottles of the 2012 Burlotto, Alessandria and Scavino Monviglieros that I plan to open together at some point.
I had the 2015 in April. Very similar I think to the OP’s notes on the 2016. Here are the tasting notes I wrote at the time. Also bought two more bottles that are sitting in the cellar. The comment about footstomping being more gentle and resulting in some uncrushed berries that semi-carbonically ferment feels spot on.
This was the WOTD for all three of us. Ripe strawberries and red cherries explode out of the glass. There are subtle smoky and white floral notes as well, but the fruit really is the star of the show here. Could easily sit around smelling the wine all day without taking a sip. Tannins are silky, smooth and well integrated such that you don’t even notice them. At just 6 years of age, the fruit is a touch too ripe but should settle down with more bottle age. Delicious now, even better in 5 years. 96/100
Interesting to know (or hard to know respectively): if you have an allocation with a fair retailer, who receives the wines directly from the producer you can still get these wines for around $65!
As far as I understand, the submerged cap for whole cluster with no punch downs or pump overs was also used traditionally in the N Rhone to prevent harshly tannic wines while still extracting anthocyanins and other desired phenolics. Leads to more elegant Syrah.
Precisely. People might be taken aback by exceptionally long maceration times, but the method of maceration matters a lot and extended maceration times don’t necessarily mean tightly-knit, tannic wines or short maceration times translate to soft, fruity and easy wines. For example Vintage Port wines see only a few days of maceration, yet they almost invariably have huge walls of tannins.
In my somewhat limited experience with Monvigliero with significant bottle age, it ages just fine. Looking back the last few years, the '85, '90 both were at peak when drunk at 30 and 24 years respectively. The '95 and '97 at around 20 were still youthful. Considering none of these vintages were really stern vintages to start, I suspect that that more structured vintages would go a long way. Obviously Fabio did not make the wines back to '85, but I don’t think he is really changing things up at the address too much, aside from maybe some more detail and finesse. He is not making a forward polished wine to drink young. He had been making terrific wine well before AG anointed his '13 100pts. What was most impressive for me was in off vintages and the level of balance he achieved. I think Fabio’s Monvigliero is a particular wine and one that has terrific balance, finesse, power without weight and that harmony is often misunderstood to be forward and soft.
Thanks Todd, I suspect you’re right and the 16 Monvigliero will just be a unicorn wine. I certainly hope you are because I bought quite a bit and have also been loading up on the straight Barolo. The latter is super expressive and wonderful to drink now and probably for many years ahead. It’s not super long but I could drink it all day and that says a lot to me…
Which shows that it’s not Burlotto being opportunistic, in the same way that many other sought after Barolo wineries carried on charging reasonable prices, despite the secondary market / distribution chain forcing overseas retail prices way higher.
What do I think is reasonable? Much closer to $65 than $189 that’s for sure, but I guess that’s the price of chasing the high points scorers.
That must be the wholesale price. I was last there five years ago, and the cellar door price to individuals was higher than that or I would have loaded up!
It’s often true that middlemen drive up prices in the US on sought-after wines, particularly those with very high scores: the importers and distributors, first, and then retailers, who may not discount these wines.
Over the years, I’ve found that the provincially run liquor stores in British Columbia sometimes had substantially better prices on in-demand Barolo and Barbaresco than you could find in the U.S. because they charge a fixed markup over price. In fact, I got the '12 Burlotto Monvigliero I mentioned above in Vancouver. By that time, Galloni’s 100-point rating for the '13 meant the '12 had disappeared in the States. (I paid the equivalent of US$68 in late 2017, including B.C.'s very hefty taxes on wine.)
Are people truly paying $500+ for these wines? I mean it is one thing to see them listed and available at those prices, but are people actually buying them for that much?
IME, the distributors/importers don’t take any additional mark-up through official channels (KL may be an exception, the prices on highly allocated wines are really high compared to where they were a few years ago and I’m not sure that’s at the cellar door, e.g.the wholesale for Allemand Reynard 2016 is 222% higher than the 2013*). You have to buy a lot of other wines to get allocated these though (like other wines). I think that the prices you see on Wine-Searcher and from e-commerce retail is driven by the very active secondary/grey market for these wines. I think most of the Monvigliero (and Cannubi) from the official channels is sold to customers that are on some sort of list at retailer who get allocations without ever hitting the shelves. Whatever else that’s sloshing around the grey market get’s marked-to-market (and the margin may actually be slimmer than traditional retail, I don’t really know the cost basis). This is the other side of the newfound efficiency of the wine market. It drives down prices for some items either through discounting or grey markets but the reduced friction for information drives highly desirable wines through the roof.
On a separate note (and I think I’ve made a similar point elsewhere), I find it kind of curious that a wine like this (or Levet) becomes so cultish. If you drink this wine expecting an experience like Conterno or Vietti or other high end Barolo across the style spectrum, you will be shocked. It reminds me of when I was in retail in the mid-90s and Parker reviewed the Pradeaux Bandol VV and gave it 97 points. Big customers bought cases of it even after an explanation that this wasn’t like the high scoring Bordeaux/Napa/CndP that they were buying. I had those same customers call the store cursing me out claiming I’d given them the wrong wine.
and that’s a calculated business decision. They’re counting on you wanting Allemand SO BAD that you suck it up.
Doesn’t need the air time. In fact, some in the group thought it was better earlier and lost some of the fruit with too much air. You don’t have to rush to drink it, but no need to decant.
edit: should note the tannins are very silky and hardly noticeable. If the meat course you are thinking about is on the heavier side (ie a steak, or something heavily sauced), then the Burlotto may not be the right pairing.
Kermit Lynch has probably increased pricing to distributors on things like Allemand and Coche (as they have with almost everything), but that doesn’t necessarily mean the distributors have increased their margins to retailers/restaurants. I think that really varies by distributor. When I was dealing with KL allocated items when I was in distribution we didn’t mark up allocated items beyond our normal margin. So Coche, Allemand, Clape, etc. were allocated to accounts that had supported a lot of other KL items from the portfolio. But we didn’t jack up our wholesale just because we knew they were desirable.