1995 Barbaresco Gallina

Giacosa is enamored with the '96 vintage, which he compares in quality and balance to the fabulous year of 1971. The Giacosa '96s I tasted are legends in the making, among the high points of my recent tour and truly great examples of traditional winemaking. Aromatically speaking, they are truly exhilarating wines, and they appear to have the sheer material and sweetness at the core to outlast their powerful, palate saturating tannins. The '97s, says Giacosa, will not be as great as the '96s. The grapes were too dry, he explains; they would have been better for a bit of well-timed rain. 1996 was a more regular year, yielding wines with superb color and structure, thanks largely to sound acidity. They also offer a rare degree of flavor development. x000D x000D x000D x000D x000D x000D Giacosa, who bought a prime five hectare parcel of Barbaresco Asili in time for the '96 vintage (he previously owned a single hectare here), produced a sizable 21,000 bottles of this wine in '96. Incidentally, Giacosa made Barolo Villero in both '96 and '97, but will not offer a Rionda.