Barbaresco’s Soaring 2020s & 2021s

BY ANTONIO GALLONI | OCTOBER 24, 2023

I was deeply impressed with the wines I tasted on my most recent trip to Barbaresco. Both 2020 and 2021 are terrific vintages with plenty of highlights. Best of all, so many wines remain reasonably priced within the context of today’s market, something that is increasingly evident as wines from other regions become quite pricey.

The Sottimano family, led by siblings Andrea, Claudia and Elena, turned out some of the most brilliant wines I tasted for this report.

The 2020 Growing Season & Wines

The core of this report focuses on the 2020 Barbarescos. A dry winter and warm spring got the growing season started early. The year remained mostly warm and dry, with true summer heat appearing later than the norm by present-day standards. Temperatures remained warm throughout September, but by then, cooler evenings and nights began to set in, ideal conditions for Nebbiolo. Forecasts called for 20mm of rain on Friday, October 2. Instead, nearly 100mm of rain fell. Ordinarily, that much rain in the middle of harvest is not ideal, but temperatures cooled, and conditions remained benign for the rest of harvest. Growers who had already begun picking paused for a few days, but some pushed up their harvest dates to avoid the rain. The majority of the Nebbiolo harvest was finished within the first ten days of the month.

In tasting, the 2020s are beautifully balanced. The wines show mid-weight structure and a fine sense of harmony. Although 2020 was warm throughout most of the year, there were no periods of excessive or prolonged heat, which likely explains why the wines are so harmonious, even in the early going. Overall, the 2020s come across as having less structure than the 2021s. It is a vintage of extreme pleasure without excess or opulence.

The steep slopes of Ovello as seen from Montefico.