Elio Altare – Portraits in Nebbiolo: 1984-2004

Several years in the making, this side-by-side retrospective of Elio Altare’s Barolo Arborina and Langhe Arborina provided the backdrop for an exploration of the career of one of Piedmont’s most ambitious growers. Known for taking a chainsaw to his father’s old casks in a fit of desperation, Elio Altare is one of the architects of what is often referred to as the “modern” school in Barolo, a movement created by a group of young growers in the 1980s who wanted to shake up Piedmont’s sleepy establishment. Although Altare has made dazzling wines for decades, when all is said and done his most enduring legacy may prove to be inspiring the numerous young growers who were emboldened to start estate bottling their production rather than selling fruit based on Altare’s success.

For this tasting, the Altare family dug deep into their private cellar to present every vintage of Barolo Arborina and Langhe Arborina all the way back to 1984, which is remarkable, considering stocks of many of these vintages are down to just a few bottles. The goal was to explore the use of French oak in Nebbiolo. The Barolo Arborina and Langhe Arborina are the result of the same harvest and vinification, but after that, the wines take two completely different paths with regards to the end of alcoholic fermentation, malolactic fermentation and aging, as explained below. Originally, the plan was to taste through to 2010, but we ran out of time. I hope to taste the remaining vintages on another visit soon. The wines were tasted in pairs by vintage, from oldest to youngest, which is how the tasting notes are presented.  All of the bottles were opened when I arrived at the estate and followed over several hours.

The Arborina Vineyard, La Morra. From left to right: the Renato Corino, Mauro Veglio and Elio Altare estates

Elio Altare’s small estate is perched atop the Arborina vineyard in La Morra’s Rocche dell’Annunziata district. Altare is the first to admit that Arborina is not a truly great site, but in his hands, the wines consistently reach a very high level. Arborina Barolos are marked by their expressive aromatics and tannic backbone, which gives the wines their energy and drive. Incidentally, Altare’s vegetable garden sits on a flat portion of Arborina, always a good sign, as it means the chance of chemicals going in the vineyards is virtually zero.

The oldest Altare Barolo I have tasted is the 1970, which was still in fine shape as recently as a few years ago. That wine was made by Elio Altare’s father and is very much a wine of its era.  The late 1970s were a time of change in Piedmont. Angelo Gaja took over his family’s business and immediately started experimenting with more innovative ideas in winemaking, as did Valentino Migliorini at Rocche dei Manzoni.

In 1983, Altare returned from a trip to Burgundy, deeply inspired by what he had seen and tasted. “I wanted to see if the same wine I used for my Barolo could yield an important result if aged in 100% new French oak barrels, as was the case at all the great Burgundy domaines at the time,” Altare says. That desire led to the creation of a new wine, the Vigna Arborina, in 1984. For his experiment, Altare took the grapes from his Arborina vineyard in La Morra, and divided the wine after alcoholic fermentation. The Barolo Arborina did malo in steel and was aged in cask, with French oak barrels coming into the mix in the mid to late 1990s. The Vigna Arborina finished its alcoholic fermentation in barrel, where it also underwent malolactic fermentation and aged on the lees, with one racking in Spring and another just prior to bottling. Altare also gave the Vigna Arborina less time in oak than the minimum requirement for Barolo. This tasting traced all of the wines that have been made since 1984 through 2004, with the exception of the 1997 Barolo Arborina and 1998 Langhe Arborina, both part of the famous cork taint case that ruined the entire production of these wines, and the 2002s, which were not made because of the disastrous growing season.