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!!!

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