2010 Barolo Villero

This is another fabulous set of wines from the Brovia sisters, Cristina and Elena, and Elena's husband, Alex Sanchez. What else is new? Over the last few years Brovia has carved out a place among Piedmont's elite. The 2010 Barolos live up to all of the promise they showed as young wines in barrel. Simply put, these are among the wines of the vintage. Over the last few years, the estate has moved towards less intervention in the vineyards. Leaf thinning, once common, is a thing of the past. In a small departure from previous practices, today the Brovia Barolos are aged in a combination of both Slavonian and French oak casks, while up until vintage 2008 the single-vineyard Barolos were aged exclusively in French oak casks.

The first visit on my September tour of the best Barolo and Barbaresco addresses gave me my first taste of the potential greatness of the 2010 vintage for Piedmont nebbiolo."For us it's an epic, historical vintage," said Cristina Brovia."But the wines are hard now and will need time to find their balance.""It has the potential to be a 30-year vintage," added her sister Elena.I tasted these wines from tank, where they were awaiting bottling, and they indeed have the potential to be one of the best set of Barolos ever produced at this address.In comparison, added Alex Sanchez, Elena's husband and general manager, "the 2011s are more typical wines than the hot-year 2007s, but also have a lot of fruit."Alcohol levels for the estate's 2009 Barolos were actually lower than those of the 2008s, and the '09s maintained good freshness, he added, noting that some Barolos at other addresses show more evidence of the warmer year.