2020 Barolo en Primeur Charity Auction

 BY ANTONIO GALLONI | OCTOBER 18, 2021

I am delighted to host the first ever Barolo en Primeur Charity Auction, being held simultaneously in New York City and Grinzane Cavour on October 30 at 12pm New York time and 6pm Piedmont time. This is a rare opportunity to acquire a barrel of 2020 Barolo while supporting your favorite charity. I have created an NFT for each barrel, which will remain with the winner of each lot. 

Barolo En Primeur is a charitable initiative being led by the Consorzio of Barolo, Barbaresco, Alba, Langhe and Dogliani and the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Cuneo (CRC), the foundation of the local bank in Cuneo, Italy’s 8th largest foundation, with assets of €1.6B. In 2020, the CRC acquired the Cascina Gustava through CRC Donare, its Piedmont-based charitable foundation with the goal of ensuring the vineyard would always remain sort of real-life laboratory for the students of Alba’s school of oenology. Gustava is located in Grinzane Cavour, right next to the castle, the former home of Camillo Benso di Cavour, Italy’s first prime minister.

That resulted in the creation of a charitable auction inspired by the Hospices de Beaune that the organizers hope will grow in the coming years. Donato Lanati, one of Italy’s most respected consulting oenologists, was brought on to oversee the wines, which are made at the Ascheri cellars in Bra. There are a total of 15 barrels of 2020 Barolo, two of them from historic old vine blocks. The auction will be hosted by Christie’s in Italy and yours truly in New York. Interested bidders can register here. The live-stream of the auction will be held at Il Gattopardo Restaurant, 13-15 West 54th Street, New York, NY 10019. To RSVP, please send us an email at events@vinous.com. Please note seating is extremely limited.

Cascina Gustava map, courtesy of Alessandro Masnaghetti. Used with permission. © 2021 Enogea, Alessandro Masnaghetti

Needless to say, I was very interested to taste the wines. With one or two exceptions, Grinzane does not have much of a track record for producing distinctive single-vineyard Barolos. Traditionally most of the fruit here has gone into blended Barolos. I was struck by how different the fifteen wines are. Then again, that is the magic of Nebbiolo, the ability to transmit the essence of place. The Barolos were all vinified in barrique, where they spent 10-15 days on the skins, with manual pumpovers and punchdowns. The malolactic fermentations were also done in barrel. Aging is projected to be approximately 24 months in wood, depending on the wine.

Tasting through the wines for Barolo En Primeur. 

My notes on the fifteen barrels in the auction follow. In keeping with the nature of this event as a charity auction, I have provided tasting notes, but no scores. Much of the attention is likely to center on the two old-vine lots (barrels 1&2), but shrewd interested bidders will also want to pay special attention to barrels 10 and 14, followed by barrels 9, 11 and 12.

For Vinous readers attending the New York City lunch on October 30, I look forward to seeing you there. I will be opening a few special bottles from my personal cellar to mark this very special occasion.

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