2013 Barbaresco Rabajà

Every time I taste the Giacosa wines I think maybe this is the year. Maybe this is the year things get back on track. There have been some promising signs in recent vintages. Sadly, this set of current releases will create notable angst among Giacosa fans, as the wines fall well short of the mark.

The first Red Label Riserva I bought on release was the 1989 Barbaresco Santo Stefano Riserva. The price was $55 a bottle in the mid-1990s, about $110 in today’s dollars. It was the most I had ever spent on a bottle of wine, a sum so high it seemed almost shockingly irresponsible. Today, a new release of Giacosa’s Red Label Riserva will set readers back 6-7 times that. Unfortunately, the quality is just not there. These new releases are an easy pass for the serious Piedmont consumer and collector.

Bruna Giacosa has done an admirable job in bringing a sense of consistency back to her family's top wines. Quality has improved markedly over the last handful of years. The magic of the wines Bruno Giacosa made in his prime will never come back, but I am not sure that matters, because the reality is that as time passes fewer and fewer consumers have those reference points. Today's wines are certainly respectable, but also far from the emotional wines of the past.

I was very happy to taste these two Barbarescos from the Bruno Giacosa winery. No, the wines don't quite have the magic that Bruno Giacosa himself was able to coax from Nebbiolo, but they are the best wines the estate has made since 2007.

Bruno Giacosa's 2005 and 2004 Barbarescos were nothing short of magnificent on the two occasions I tasted them recently. Giacosa, along with his long-time winemaker Dante Scaglione, did a tremendous job with these wines. Sadly the estate has not yet come back to this level after Giacosa's health issues and Scaglione's departure. Readers who own Giacosa's 2004s and 2005s should be thrilled. All of these bottles came from my cellar and were purchased on release.

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.

My May visit with Bruno Giacosa was significant in many ways. It was the first time in many years that recently departed long-time oenologist wasn't on hand to lead the tasting. At the same time, Giacosa appeared to be in higher spirits than I have witnessed in previous recent visits. Oftentimes change can be invigorating, and I certainly hope that will be the case here. New oenologist Giorgio Lavagna has his work cut out for him, but I can only wish him the very best. As for the wines, we spent several hours surveying all the 2005s, 2006s and 2007s from cask, after which we re-visited several of the 2004s from bottle. The 2004s confirmed their stature as masterpieces, yet Giacosa fans will delight at the prospect of a number of potentially outstanding wines in the pipeline. The 2005 Barbarescos have always shown tons of harmony and elegance from cask, so I was happy to find the wines just as outstanding from bottle. Although there are no Red Label Riservas from Giacosa in 2005, the wines display remarkable quality across the board. The rest of the line-up is solid as well.

Bruno Giacosa's 2005 and 2004 Barbarescos were nothing short of magnificent on the two occasions I tasted them recently. Giacosa, along with his long-time winemaker Dante Scaglione, did a tremendous job with these wines. Sadly the estate has not yet come back to this level after Giacosa's health issues and Scaglione's departure. Readers who own Giacosa's 2004s and 2005s should be thrilled. All of these bottles came from my cellar and were purchased on release.

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.

At a time in life when many of h is colleagues have begun to slow down, Bruno Giacosa continues to make stunning wines of the highest level. Of course Giacosa has the good fortune of having the services of long-time oenolog ist Dante Scaglione, who is one of the most prodigiously talented winemakers in Italy. Although age has slowed Giacosa down somewhat, he was in fine form during the several hours we spent tasting h is 2004, 2005 and 2006 Barolos and Barbarescos from barrel earlier th is year. Simply put, 2004 will go down as one of the all-time great Giacosa vintages for both Barolo and Barbaresco. The Red Label Riservas are the Barbaresco Asili and the Barolo Le Rocche del Falletto, but h is other wines aren't too far behind in terms of quality. From cask, the Barolos revealed slightly more prom ise, but that may be splitting hairs at th is level. In 2004 Giacosa also fulfilled a long-standing dream by making h is first Barolo from La Morra, the Barolo Croera, which will be released next year. The Croera is made from a newly-acquired vineyard in the Serradenari d istrict of La Morra, an area best known for its Dolcettos. So far Giacosa's 2005s appear to be well-balanced, yet smaller-scaled wines that will likely drink well relatively early, while the 2006s are decidedly bigger and more powerful. I also noted a marked improvement in the quality of the Barbaresco Santo Stefano, which is the only single-vineyard wine the estate still makes from purchased fruit. Our tasting ended with the 1967 Barbaresco Riserva Asili. It was, in a word...sublime. The world will have to wait for the 2004 Barolos and Barbarescos to be released, in the meantime readers will find no shortage of compelling offerings among th is set of new releases from Bruno Giacosa. The 2006 Dolcettos are excellent to outstanding, while the 2005 Barberas reflect the more modest qualities of that vintage. Giacosa is among the producers whose views on the vintage for Barolo and Barbaresco have changed dramatically in recent years. While many producers draw compar isons with 1947, Giacosa is one of the very few who can speak from personal experience. At first pessim istic, he initially thought he might not bottle any of h is top wines but as time has passed h is stance has changed, and today he is much more enthusiastic about the vintage.

Bruno Giacosa is known for his stone-faced mien, but as I tasted through his line-up of 2000s I had a hard time keeping a stupid grin off my face. Those who consider 2000 to be an outstanding vintage for Langhe nebbiolo must surely have tasted these wines. Giacosa has scored big-time in this vintage. Increasingly, it seems to me that the great traditional producers of Barolo and Barbaresco of the '70s and early '80s are no longer quite so obviously in a league of their own. But Giacosa has not missed a step. At the same time, in recent superripe vintages like 2000 and 2001, Giacosa's Barbarescos and Barolos strike my palate as a bit less austere than previously, with a decadent sweetness that's hard to find elsewhere in the zone. This is hardly a complaint!

This wine was tasted at La Festa del Barolo 2011 at Del Posto, New York, in March 2011

Bruno Giacosa has long been a fan of the 2000 vintage. I found his 2000s quite forward when I tasted them at the winery in November 2010, but far fresher when I opened the same bottles from my cellar in the US.

I found it at least slightly surprising that ultra-traditionalist Giacosa prefers the 2000 vintage to 2001. "It's best when a vintage is great and easy, like 2000," he told me, adding that 2001 produced a tougher style of wine. "Two thousand is similar to 1998, which is easy to drink now or in the future but has better acidity than 2000. In fact, 1998 combines the best traits of 1996 and 1997. Nineteen ninety-nine, in comparison, is difficult to drink now and needs aging. Sugars were actually a bit lower than those of 2000 and 1998, but this vintage is the deepest in terms of coloring matter." At the time of my visit, Giacosa did not expect to be able to make Barolo or Barbera in 2001 (unlike most of his colleagues in the Langhe, Giacosa has never been loath to express reservations about a vintage): "Even before the hail, the season was terrible. We had no warm sun since the beginning of June and we had a lot of rain for a full month during the middle of summer."

The '98s have higher sugars, says enologist Dante Scaglione, but the '99s boast firmer acidity. In fact, adds Scaglione, pHs in '99 are as low as those of the classic '96 vintage, the recent vintage that was highest in polyphenols. The '97s, he adds, are almost drinkable right now. Sunny, dry days and warm nights in the weeks leading up to the '97 harvest resulted in substantial loss of coloring matter in the skins. Some of the fermentations were difficult (in a couple of instances the malos finished before the sugars were completely fermented), with the result that volatile acidity levels are at the high end of the acceptable range, which has the effect of making the wines even more expressive early on. Giacosa has somewhat shortened total maceration times in recent years, to about 15 days. The current crop of wines, thanks in equal part to shorter time on the skins and the ripeness of recent growing seasons, will not be quite as austere and forbidding in their youth as Giacosa wines of even a decade ago, but this magician's Barolos and Barbarescos from the best vintages still have fruit of steel.