2004 Barolo Riserva Le Rocche del Falletto

It is an absolute thrill to revisit Bruno Giacosa's 2004 Barolos. When all is said and done 2004 will go down as one of the truly epic Giacosa vintages, joining the likes of 1961, 1964, 1971, 1978, 1982, 1985, 1989, 1990, 1996, 2000, 2001 and 2007, for Giacosa and his then long-standing oenologist Dante Scaglione gave the world a stunning set of Barolos and Barbarescos that continue to deliver the goods. Although I did not taste the 2004 Barbarescos for this article, I have tasted them informally over the last year or so and found them every bit as impressive as my original reviews suggested. Among Giacosa's 2004s, only the Barolo Croera falls short, which may explain why it was only made once.

This wine was tasted over dinner at Bar Boulud in New York City, Oct 2010.

Bruno Giacosa stirred up a shitstorm in the Langhe when he was quoted by a wine journalist saying that he didn't much like the 2006 vintage and did not plan to release any Barbarescos or Barolos under his own label. Giacosa, after all, is an icon and an opinion leader in the region, and many of his colleagues in Barbaresco were immediately concerned that they'd have trouble selling their 2006s-wines that many of them consider to be outstanding. What Giacosa actually said may never be known, but what's clear is that the year has bad associations for him. He suffered a stroke early in 2006 and was hardly in shape to worry about vineyards and harvesting in the subsequent months. Happily, he was in much better form by the time I tasted with him in September 2007 and on my most recent visit he was quite excited about his young 2007s. The best proof of this enthusiasm was his feeling that this vintage will yield two riserva bottlings. He compared 2007 to 2000, which fans of Giacosa's wines know was a great vintage for him. In 2005, all of his Barbarescos and Barolos were bottled with white labels (i.e., not riserva) but I had the impression that he now views these wonderfully perfumed wines in a better light. "At the beginning," said Giacosa, "we didn't think the 2005s could be long agers. Now they still don't have hugely concentrated color, but it's clear that they can certainly age." Giacosa admitted a preference for Barolo over Barbaresco in this vintage, despite that fact that a higher percentage of fruit was harvested in Barbaresco before the damaging early October rains. Incidentally, long-time winemaker Dante Scaglione left in March of 2008 and was replaced by Giorgio Lavagna, who was previously head winemaker at Batasiolo in La Morra.

Bruno Giacosa created quite a stir when he announced this spring that he would not bottle any of his 2006 Barolos and Barbarescos. While I wasn't surprised he would pass on bottling a few wines – as early as spring 2007 Giacosa did not present the 2006 Barbaresco Santo Stefano and Barolo Croera in my annual barrel tastings – the decision to skip an entire vintage prompted a back and forth volley of polemics that is such an integral part of the Italian way of life. Clearly Giacosa had a difficult emotional relationship with these wines from the start, as they were made in the year he suffered a stroke and was absent from the winery for long periods of time. Perhaps Giacosa simply wanted to cancel the entire year from his memory. Or maybe it is a case where the vintage quality in Giacosa's vineyards and later of the wines themselves in the cellar did not live up to his exacting standards. Given the emotional weight attached to this year I am not sure anyone – even Giacosa himself – will fully understand all of the circumstances behind the decision not to bottle the wines. After having tasted Giacosa's 2006 Barolos and Barbarescos on numerous occasions I am convinced he has bottled lesser wines in the past. It is important to remember that virtually all of Piedmont's top estates are essentially small, family-run wineries, and in that regard Giacosa is no exception. What seems pretty obvious at this point is that under normal circumstances without emotional duress, Giacosa and his team would have been better equipped to deal with the challenges of the harvest. Giacosa's decision is more a reflection of the estate's inability to deal with a difficult harvest (for understandable reasons) rather than a commentary on the intrinsic quality of the vintage itself. Giacosa may also have been prompted to skip an average year for his wines based on the exceptional juice he put into the bottle in the surrounding 2004, 2005 and 2007 vintages. Sadly, prices for the top bottles – the Red Label Barolo and Barbaresco Riservas in particular – continue to climb as collectors throughout the world recognize the quality of the wines. Still, at the risk of sounding out of touch with today's economic environment, it is pretty clear that Giacosa's finest wines remain relatively well-priced within the context of the world finest and most collectible wines. A recent bottle of the 1989 Barbaresco Riserva Santo Stefano stood shoulder to shoulder with the 1989 Haut-Brion and Rousseau's 1990 Chambertin....in fact, it may have even surpassed those icons!

Bruno Giacosa's profound 2004s, which I first wrote about in Issue 173, continues with these superb Barolos, all of which merit close attention. I also had a chance to re-taste the 2004 Barbarescos and they were every bit as impressive as they have been on previous occasions.

Bruno Giacosa has been responsible for many of the most memorable Barolos and Barbarescos I have enjoyed through the years, so I was thrilled to be able to taste with him again in September. After all, Giacosa had suffered a stroke in early 2006, but he was slowly on the mend in September and was quite excited to show and discuss his young 2004s. He described this vintage as great, having produced elegant, structured wines with superb fruit, especially in Barolo. He added that he never expected the 2003s to be outstanding but that they have turned out to be "very good," even if there was a lot of stress on sandier sites in Barbaresco. Two thousand five, he went on, is a good normal crop of wines, from a summer that was "not great. " My tasting with Giacosa, his daughter Bruna and long-time enologist Dante Scaglione once again turned up some epic bottles that remained in my mind, if not on my palate, through my entire stay in the region. I tasted on a warm day in a room with a broken air-conditioner, but Giacosa's Barolos and Barbarescos have a way of focusing the mind and body.