2020 Barolo: quarantine, balance, and a growing contrast
In 2020, amidst a growing global pandemic, quarantined winemakers in Barolo enjoyed the second vintage in an impressive trifecta, concluding for some with next year’s 2021 release. Following treacherous heatwaves and damaging hail the year before, 2020 was comparatively mellow and mundane, despite being warmer overall, and only marginally drier. Importantly, the vintage was defined […]
2019 Barolo: a modern vintage, classic wines and changing tides
2019 beckons welcome acclaim and widespread success in Barolo. Amidst an undeniably modern vintage, two important insights define the vintage.
Irrigation at Paolo Scavino: confronting drought in Barolo
2022 was Italy’s driest recorded year since 1800, 2023 has been equally dry. In Barolo, irrigation trials are firmly underway at Paolo Scavino.
Carema: heroic viticulture, sudden demise, and a fervent revival
Some two thousand years ago, the first Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus, instructed the construction of Via delle Gallie, a significant road enabling Roman military and political expansion towards the Alps. Carema occupied a strategic position along the road, which intersected the small town at the southern end of the Aosta Valley. Some historians suggest the […]
Timorasso: origin, viticulture, winemaking, and more
Between 1489 and 1493, famed Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci occasionally worked as a wedding planner, organising lavish, eccentric weddings and operetta for wealthy Italian nobility. At the marriage of Duke Giovanni Galeazzo to Isabella of Aragon in Naples, Da Vinci gifted the couple a large wheel of montebore, an ancient cheese of Val Curone, […]
Oddero: historical foundations, substantial contributions and greater heights
Between 1835 and 1846, Barolo went dry. Before then, winemakers vinified nebbiolo as a sweet wine. And while grapes had been cultivated in Piedmont for many centuries prior, it was during this period that some locals understood winegrowing to be a serious, potentially lucrative endeavour. The Oddero family lived in La Morra at least a […]
2019 Barbaresco: unhurried vines make classic wines
Enticing maxims aside, the best winegrapes are seldom grown in extreme environments. Whereas mild water and nutrient deficiencies can help reduce excessive vegetative growth—which may compete with fruit and buds for resources—severe climatic perturbations make grapegrowing impracticable. Intense rainfall encourages rampant canopy growth, promoting disease and retarding ripening; meanwhile, prolonged, intense drought limits photosynthesis, delays […]
Burlotto: Arctic expeditions, Monvigliero and the ‘jewel of Verduno’
Giovan Battista Burlotto bravely reorientated his family business. Today, Fabio Burlotto has taken G.B. Burlotto to new, exemplary heights.
2018 Barolo: challenging conditions and gratifying wines
The vintage maketh the wine, at least perhaps in part. It is, of course, true that the growing conditions of any given vintage—as well as those of the previous year—impact grapevine development, stimulate disease pressure and influence berry chemistry. The ‘ideal’ growing season is absent of extremities and irregularities. Reasonable precipitation between December and March, […]
Langhe Chardonnay: origin, viticulture, winemaking, and more
Dramatic change characterised the late twentieth century in Piedmont. By 1980, Altare et al. had thrown tradition to the wind in Barolo, so too had Angelo Gaja in neighbouring Barbaresco. Angelo, a recalcitrant, audacious young man, began working at the family winery in 1961, aged 21. Following several trips to France, Angelo set about revolutionising […]