1998 Barolo Cerequio

1998 has always been an interesting vintage for Barolo. Caught between the more hyped 1996 and 1997 on one end, and 2000 and 2001 on the other, the 1998s have often been overlooked. It also didn't help that the wines were first released during a period global economic malaise. While 1998 is not a truly iconic, legendary vintage, these Barolos are great choices for medium-term drinking as a number of wines are entering their early maturity, making them great choices for readers who are cellaring wines from Piedmont's sturdier vintages such as 1996, 1999 and 2001.

Piedmont experienced mostly warm weather in 1998 with spells of drought, though nowhere near the extremes seen in 1997. The wines have always been perfumed and accessible, with an attractive softness to the fruit. Even better, the vast majority of the wines have never shut down to the extent that wines from cooler vintages often do. The 1998s are extremely consistent across the board, and that level of outstanding quality may very well end up being the vintage's strongest attribute. As is typically the case, the Barolos of La Morra and Barolo are the most forward, while those of Serralunga are the freshest. Most of these wines were from my cellar, purchased and cellared since release, although I tasted a few of the wines a second time with the producers.

While some critics of this domain fault Voerzio's very deeply colored wines for being overextracted and tannic, not to mention high in alcohol, I must confess to being genetically predisposed to Voerzio's bottles. Very low yields and complete phenolic ripeness are the keys to high quality here. Voerzio fancies the slightly jammy style of 2000 and 1997. He prunes to get just a kilo of grapes per vine, and thus, even in the large '97 harvest, crop levels were not excessive here. "A lot of '97s lacked acidity and structure due in part to the size of the crop," noted Voerzio. "Many of these wines are already in decline." Alcohol levels in the 1999s are in the 14.5% to 15% range, but there's little sign of heat in the aromas. Interestingly, Voerzio did his malolactic fermentations in barriques in '97, '98, '99 and '00 but went back to doing the secondary fermentation in stainless steel tanks in 2001. Voerzio, a longtime jazz lover, always has music blasting in the winery; on this occasion I tasted his bottled wines to the sound of Ennio Moricone's spaghetti western music - not a bad choice.

The key to the deep colors and extraordinary richness of these wines is Voerzio tiny yields, among the lowest in the Langhe region at less than one kilo of fruit per vine, which yields less than a bottle of wine. I saw it with my own eyes: a week prior to the start of the harvest, the vines to either side of Voerzio's Capalot holding below the town of La Morra carried more than twice the crop load as Voerzio's, with many more bunches per vine and larger clusters. As there's less volume of fruit for Voerzio's vines to ripen, potential alcohol levels tend to be high, and Voerzio is often in a position to harvest earlier, a major advantage if weather forecasts are grim. And Voerzio emphasizes that just 6 people work his 12 hectares of vines, giving him better control over the raw materials-"like a great chef." x000D x000D In Voerzio's view, the '97 vintage has great polpa(flesh), but also as much tannin as '96, though considerably lower acidity. "The '97s show a rare roundness for our region," he notes, adding that he also likes the slightly jammy quality of the fruit in '97. "If people in the area say their '98s were better, that's because they brought in too many grapes in '97."