2008 Barolo Riserva Le Rocche del Falletto

I was thrilled to receive an invitation to join a group of august Piedmont lovers, many of whom I have known personally since the early days of Piedmont Report, for this remarkable tasting of wines from Bruno Giacosa. We all brought bottles from our cellars organized around several loose themes and enjoyed them over a delicious dinner at DeGrezia in New York City. Founding Vinous has been incredibly gratifying for many reasons, not the least of which is seeing the lifelong friendships that are formed by wine lovers with shared interests.

Production of cult Barolos and Barbarescos is down here as Giacosa has pulled up his Rocche for replanting and stopped buying Santo Stefano fruit after 2011. He also decided not to bottle any 2010s, which will further limit the number of releases here over the next couple of years. It's worth pointing out that on my latest trip, Giacosa's fellow growers in Barbaresco were less upset by his decision not to bottle 2010s than they had been when he similarly skipped 2006, another vintage rated highly by many Barbaresco producers.Young Francesco Versio came on board as winemaker in November of 2010 and vinified his first set of wines in 2011. Long-time enologist Dante Scaglione continues to provide experienced advice to Versio. Meanwhile, Giacosa himself continues to prowl the vineyards; he was off to inspect the vines in Serralunga on the afternoon I visited the winery in Neive. Versio describes 2011 as a warm year that produced elegant, velvety wines that are not classic--a bit like 2000, which was actually a splendid vintage for Giacosa. The '11s, he told me, will be ready to drink on the early side. Given the expense and difficulty of purchasing prime vineyard land in Barolo or Barbaresco crus these days, Bruna Giacosa was thrilled to announce that her family had recently been able to buy a prime 0.5-hectare piece of Rabaja and plans to make 4,000 bottles or so from these vines in 2013. (Note that I have included a couple of reviews of wines released last year, as I had not previously tasted these wines.)

It's hard to know what to make of Bruno Giacosa's 2008 Baroli. Over the years I have had the privilege and pleasure to drink virtually all of Giacosa's wines from both legendary and weaker vintages all the way back to 1961. These wines don't match anything in my previous experience.

The good news here is that Dante Scaglione, Giacosa's long-time enologist before leaving in March of 2008, is now back as a consultant, to help out young winemaker Francesco Versio beginning with the 2011 harvest. But I did not have a chance to see Giacosa himself, as he was in the hospital following a recent fall. Scaglione described 2009 as "similar to 2007, a warm vintage that's between the more structured 2008 and the less classic 2007 in style." The wines, he went on, will drink well early. "The 2008s are more classic and fresh and will have a longer life. But they're very young today. The 2007s were more drinkable at the same stage."