Sarah Bray, Associate Director of Wine Education at The Learning Center at Meadowood Estate, lived in Italy for many years and has a deep love for the Nebbiolo grape, especially when paired with truffles. She has compiled a list of Barolo and Barbaresco vintages and wines that are in an ideal drinking window now, in time for the tail-end of the glorious season of tartufi bianchi, or the famed white truffles of Alba.
2015 – The 2015 vintage produced richer wines with great intensity of fruit because of a heat spike nearing the end of the growing season. Gaia Gaja notes, “I really love wines young — when people only drink the wines when they are mature, you are missing a part of the life of the wine. Barbaresco is beautiful immediately, then it shuts down, then opens up at around ten years old, when it starts another life.”
Wine to consider: Gaja’s 2015 Barbaresco is quite classical in its aromas – floral potpourri, pepper, crunchy red fruit – as they leap out of the glass, while the dusty tannins have a cleansing effect on the palate: perfect for food, and an excellent expression of finely crafted Nebbiolo in its youth. Drink now, or put aside for another 5-7 years.
2008 – 2008 was an inconsistent vintage, but the best producers made highly expressive, medium-bodied wines with great intensity and transparency to terroir.
Wine to consider: Monprivato is one of the grand crus of Castiglione Falletto and practically a monopole, and it is the flagship wine of Giuseppe Mascarello, which always shows great breeding, elegance, and depth of flavors. The 2008 is a stunning example, at once lithe with a sweet, red-fruited core, smooth tannins, and explosive floral, herbal, and spice-laced aromatics. It is drinking quite well now, although it can continue to evolve for decades.
1997 – A much lauded vintage for its forward and open nature, 1997’s hot summer produced perfectly ripe wines that were meant for near-term aging and are currently in a fantastic drinking window.
Wine to consider: Giuseppe Rinaldi’s classically style Barolo Brunate – Le Coste is one of the most striking wines I’ve ever tasted, out of magnum; he preferred the tradition of blending sites to obtain natural balance, and the bracing tannins and racy acidity of this wine have softened with time, leaving an explosively floral nose and hints of tar, tobacco, truffle, and balsamic notes.
1990 – The vintage that introduced much of the international market to the glories of Piedmont, the 1990 growing season was a winegrower’s dream, with a perfect September and a healthy harvest in early October without the vagaries of poor weather. The wines, slightly forward and more opulent upon release, have continued to show well as time has marched on given their powerful structures.
Wine to consider: For many, Conterno’s Riserva Monfortino is a peerless expression of Nebbiolo at its most powerful: massively structured, rich, and built for longevity, left to age in large oak botti for seven years before release, when made. The 1990 is showing immense complexity, with an explosive nose of tar, earth, and tobacco, alongside a ripe core of dark red cherries, slightly fading into savory, against a background of graphite minerality and tremendous length.