Understanding Barolo

Barolo is an appelation in Langhe Piemonte and is one of Italy's great wines. The name is of Celtic origin as "bas reul" means low place. This is a bit of a contradiction as the town Barolo is at around 300meters, but it is surrounded by higher hill tops which may explain the "bas reul".

Barolo is made entirely from the Nebbiolo (meaning foggy) grape which has a long growing season which makes it challenging to grow. There are no premier cru or grand cru classification in Barlo, but the wine is subdivided into two, those with just Barolo on the label (can come from anywhere in Barolo) or those with Barolo + the name of the field (like Cannubi for ex). The ones with field names are of higher quality and more expensive.

Which fields that are the best are not evident and further confusion is obtained by the fact that one field can have different owners and thus making a different wine from the same field.

The areas around the towns La Morra, Barolo, Cherasco, Verduno, Novello and Roddi have a sandy marl and tend to give a more feminine style while around the towns of Monforte, Diano d'Alba,Serralunga d'Alba Granzane Cavour have more sandstone clay giving more muscular wines. The town of Castioglione Falletto has a mix of the two.

Knowing this and then having a map should make everything easy you think, but the you have the producers. Lately a group of modernist producers have emerged in the region trying to make a fruitier more approachable Barolo that can be drunk without excessive storage. In the forefront you have Aldo Conterno, Luciano Sandrone, Paolo Scavini and Robert Voerzio.

Among the more traditional producers you will find Giacomo Conterno, Bruno Giacosa, Giuseppe Mascarello etc.

Not easy and all this requires a lot of tasting to find your favourite Barolo.

The nebbiolo grape gives a wine with high tannins, high acidity and can often smell of rose and violet, tobacco, truffles, red and black berries, mint, chocolate, tar etc

All of course pending on from when, where and by who!!!

Comments

Chambolle Musigny 2006 by Patrice Rion

I am still in Burgundy mood, which is a very expensive mood to be in wherever you live but especially when stuck in Norway. Luckily the selection is quite good and Friday my eyes landed on a Chambolle Musigny 2006 by Patrice Rion. Patrice Rion is a small bio-dynamically family run winery in Nuits St George and was created in 1990. According to what I was told previous weekend in Paris, Volnay and the Chambolle are the two most elegant and seductive wines from Burgundy. The wine is not unlike a Beaune Premier cru with a medium dark red colour but perhaps slightly less "fat" with a lovely delicate smell of raspberries and cherries. The taste was soft, elegant, silky , smooth, velvety with lovely fruit, balance and creamy tannins. Very yummy indeed and so is the price at around 40€, but when you need Burgundy its worth every penny! Chambolle Musigny 2006, Patrice Rion P+ and drink between 4 to 6 years old. Domaine Michele et Patrice RION, vins de Bourgogne and please

Leoville Lascases 1988

Last week was a special week for me as I received my last pay check from my previous employer. An event that required some sort of celebration with some good friends. Of the many bottles opened during that evening was a Leoville Lascases 1988. This Bordeaux wine from St. Julien is second Grand cru classee but it has the quality of a first growth. This chateau was also the wine that made me change from beer to wine as I had the pleasure of tasting a Leoville Lascases 1945 back in 88. The 1945 just knocked me off my guard and I remember thinking what a fantastic wine it was and what an experience to drink this wine from the year when world war 2 ended. I was in shock and I then just decided to enter into the world of wine. I have always had a soft spot for this chateau ever since. And to my pleasure it has been performing well at much more reasonable prices than the much more expensive first growths in the 1855 classification. Nowadays a bottle of this wine costs around 180€ while a p

Wiston BdB 2011 - England

This is a fantastic 100% Chardonnay (Blanc de Blancs) from Wiston estate in England. Below are some remarks from the estate itself and Decanter: Selected from the chalkiest and steepest part of our vineyard, Wiston Estate Blanc de Blancs 2011 is elegant and expressive, with enticing notes of white peach, apricot, brioche and crushed oyster shells. Awarded the very top prize of ‘Best in Show’ in the Decanter World Wine Awards 2019 (the equivalent of the Wine Industry’s Oscars!), this decadent single vineyard, single vintage, single varietal Blanc de Blancs is perfect for immediate drinking and will also age beautifully. “Time spent on lees after secondary fermentation pays huge dividends for English sparkling wine, endowed as it always is with high natural levels of acidity. That’s a lesson triumphantly proved by this 2011 Blanc de Blancs, with its soft mousse, lifted, almost floral aromas and deft weave of apple, tangerine and pear fruits rippled through with yeasty, bready rich

Life is too short to drink bad wine

Search This Blog