Piedmont Report
- Barbaresco 2004: Barbaresco Comes of Age; Barolo 2003: Better Than Expected 

by Antonio
Galloni

After a series of poor 2002s and uneven 2003s
Barbaresco bounces back with its stunning 2004s. It is a vintage that happily
coincides with a growing maturity and seriousness among producers. The most
striking developments taking place in Piedmont are a return to larger barrels
for aging, a reduction in toast levels and a generally more refined style of
winemaking all of which are very much in evidence in the 2004s. For many
estates the 2004s are without question the finest wines they have ever made,
although as always, there are a handful of disappointments. The best 2004
Barbarescos are wonderfully complete, with the sweetness of the 2000s and the
greater aromatic complexity, detail and finesse of the 2001s. If that sounds
particularly appealing, believe me, it is. The 2004 Barolos will be released
next year, but the above applies to those wines as well.

The 2004 vintage gave producers
picture-perfect conditions, but with some challenges thrown in just to make
things interesting. The long, cool growing season unleashed the energy plants
had kept in store during the torrid 2003. Growers were forced to green harvest
more aggressively than normal to keep the plants from overproducing, although
lamentably a few estates didn’t have the discipline and foresight to do so.
Cool evenings towards the end of the season resulted in a gradual maturation of
the fruit which allowed for the full development of aromatics and color, both
of which the wines have in abundance. The Nebbiolo harvest took place in
October.

The vintage was very promising from the
start. I spent ten days in Barbaresco that year towards the end of the harvest
and the smell of Nebbiolo musts in fermentation was heady. The wines are
immensely appealing for their combination of fruit, aromatics and structure as
noted above. Many wines are approachable today, but should also develop well
over the coming years. Stylistically 2004 is closest to 1996, 1999 and 2001
although the wines in general possess more sweetness, generosity and finesse
than any of those vintages. Simply put, 2004 is a vintage that has the potential
to redefine many consumers’ views of the heights Nebbiolo can achieve.

Moving south to Barolo, the 2003 vintage has
turned out to be better than expected although it remains highly irregular in
terms of overall quality. The best wines tend to come from Serralunga, Monforte
and parts of Castiglione Falletto, on the eastern part of the zone, where the
more compact soils were able to provide the plants with access to at least some
moisture. Older vines with deeper root systems, and therefore greater access to
water, were also favored. The most variable wines come from the western part of
the zone, and in particular, La Morra, where the soils tend to be more loosely
packed and contain a higher percentage of sand. The town of Barolo falls
somewhere in the middle. A number of the finest wines in 2003 come from
unexpected sources. Sites considered less favorable due to their exposures
offered the plants respite from the scorching heat in 2003 and have yielded
surprisingly good wines.

The scorching hot, dry growing season was
without precedent. Bruno Giacosa, one of the very few people with first hand
knowledge of vintage conditions, told me the only year like 2003 was 1947. The
unrelenting heat and lack of water caused the plants to go into hydric stress.
The cool evenings that serve to develop perfume and color in the wines did not
exist in 2003. As result, the grapes reached alcoholic ripeness well in advance
of phenolic ripeness (the ripeness of the skins and seeds). Growers were forced
to pick their Nebbiolos several weeks earlier than normal. The defining
characteristic of the 2003 Barolos is the hard, unripe tannin that is found to
varying degrees in nearly every wine. I have been tasting these Barolos since
late 2003, and the wines have undergone a remarkable transformation. Many are
surprisingly fresh and have found a sense of balance in bottle. As outstanding
as some of these Barolos are, however, when wines start to lose a sense of
identity with regards to the vintage, producers are treading on a very slippery
slope.

It is tempting to group 2003 with other
recent hot vintages, but this is a vintage with a personality all its own. In
warmer years such as 1997, 1998 and 2000, the aromatic qualities and the
delineation in the wines are diminished, but in exchange, the wines gain body
and volume from the additional ripeness of the fruit. These vintages tend to
attenuate the differences among sites, robbing the wines of some of their
character. On the plus side, the wines have historically been more approachable
when young yet have also proven to age well. Fresher vintages like 1996, 1999
and 2001 are characterized by an additional level of aromatic complexity,
nuance and detail. At their best, the wines have notable transparency and are
much more expressive with regards to site. These Barolos are often massively
structured when young and require significant bottle age before they fully
blossom. Although Nebbiolo is not a variety rich in color, cooler growing
seasons give the wines vibrancy and liveliness in tonality which are often
compromised in warmer years.

The 2003s don’t fit neatly into either of
these categories. The wines are very ripe, but not cooked, yet also structured.
The main question is how and to what extent will these wines develop and age.
That is difficult to answer, but my impression is that the hard tannin that the
wines possess will never entirely melt away. Many of these 2003 Barolos will
require patience. Wines that have the stuffing to provide balance to the
tannins should age best. Those that are skimpy on fruit, however, will suffer.
As those wines lose their baby fat, the tannins are likely to become more
accentuated. Among the surprises of the vintage are a number of very strong normale
bottlings. Many of these wines are blends from vineyards in different
communes, which is how Barolo was traditionally made by past generations. The
ability to blend fruit from sites with different characteristics was a huge
advantage in 2003.

Readers can look forward to a number of
promising vintages that are currently aging in producers’ cellars. As in
Barbaresco, the 2004 Barolos are extraordinary. They, too, are the finest wines
many estates have ever produced. In 2005 the growing season was characterized
by a slightly early harvest. Producers were forced to pick before a spell of
rain that ended up lasting an entire week towards the end of the season or risk
significant damage. The Barolos are on average 1% lower in alcohol and are made
in more slender, smaller-scaled style. The best 2005 Barolos have lovely
balance and harmony even at this early stage. 2005 looks to be a relatively
early maturing vintage, never a bad thing given the age-worthiness of other
surrounding vintages. The 2006s are big, structured wines. At this point they
appear to have more stuffing than the 2004s, if perhaps slightly less elegance.
Unfortunately several important vineyards were damaged by hail in 2006. As I
write this in late September 2007, the Nebbiolo harvest is drawing to a close.
2007 is a year which amply proves the importance of not jumping to conclusions
too early. The winter was the warmest and driest in living memory. Bud-break
was a full month early, a freakish occurrence that had many observers worried.
Spring brought with it violent hailstorms that damaged a few vineyards, most
notably Bussia, which was decimated. Bouts of rain and colder weather in the
summer slowed the rhythm of the plants. The summer became hotter, but the
weather turned in early September, with evenings that were chilly – conditions
in which Nebbiolo thrives. The weather held until the end of September, when
some rain fell, but by then most producers had finished harvesting their
Nebbiolos. Unlike 2003, where the growing season was shorter than normal, in
2007 the entire cycle was anticipated, but not compressed. Growers are thrilled
with the quality of the fruit. Many have reported thick skinned grapes with low
yields of juice, which typically makes for very structured wines. Early
indications, at least on paper, seem promising. I will know more when I make my
annual trip to taste the first wines of the vintage and indulge in a few
truffles in November. All of the vintages back to 1970 have been carefully
re-assessed and re-evaluated with a current perspective. Tough work, but
someone has to do it. It is impossible to apply a single number to a vintage in
Piedmont given that the main varieties have very different maturation cycles
and thus results for Dolcetto, Barbera and Nebbiolo can vary within a given
vintage. Ratings should be interpreted as applying to Barolo and Barbaresco.

Readers will find a large number of excellent
2006 Dolcettos and 2005 Barberas on the market. The 2006 Dolcettos are for the
most part big, concentrated wines, whose richness has been achieved at the
expense of some varietal character. For Barbera, 2005 is an excellent but not
outstanding vintage. The best wines are well-balanced and easy to drink, even
if they don’t have the sheer opulence of the 2003s or the definition, clarity
and freshness of the 2004s. In addition, I also include notes on wines from
Roero, Asti, and the northern districts of Piedmont, which offer interesting
bottles worth discovering.

Now, for the not so good news. Readers
scanning through these pages are likely to experience sticker shock when
looking at pricing. For US consumers, the precipitous fall of the dollar has
been especially painful and there appears to be no end in sight, at least not
in the near-term. The dollar’s loss of value is especially noticeable in
lower-prices bottles. Wines that used to sell below $20 are now priced in the
mid- to upper $20 dollar range, a situation which is increasingly becoming
untenable for consumers, producers and the trade alike. I will not be surprised
to see producers raise prices for their top bottlings in order to remain
competitive on the entry-level wines that for most estates represent the bulk
of production. On a more positive note, vintages 1996-2001 yielded a large
number of outstanding Barolos and Barbarescos, many of which remain available
at reasonable prices. Consumers will want to snap up any remaining stocks of
well-stored Barolos and Barbarescos purchased with a stronger dollar.

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