1998 Barolo Ginestra Vigna Sorì Ginestra

Based on the 1996 through 2000 vintages, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that Guido Fantino's Barolo Sori Ginestra is one of the Piedmont's great wines, with its exhilarating combination of power and perfume. Fantino has added a new Barolo to his portfolio, from leased 40-year-old vines in Parussi, in Castiglione Falletto (his first vintage was 1997). The improvement in this cuvee between '97 and '99 was striking, and Fantino admitted that it took until 1999 "to get the vineyard right." I ventured the opinion that this wine may soon surpass Fantino's Vigna del Gris, which also comes from the Ginestra vineyard; Fantino reminded me that this latter 45-year-old parcel is in the process of being replanted (in 2000, he had just 30% of a normal crop here due to the replanting program). Fantino describes '98 and '99 as two very similar vintages "in the character of the nebbiolo." Two thousand, he went on, is a very elegant, feminine style of wine. But a moment later he told me that it's also massive and structured, with plenty of sweet tannins.

According to Guido Fantino, Barolo yields at this estate were in the very low 30 to 35 hectoliters-per-hectare range in '98, '97 and '96 (Fantino routinely drops a good percentage of the fruit in early August), and the small crop levels are reflected in the density of these wines. Fantino describes '98 and '96 as "more important" vintages, while '99 and '97 are "more elegant." I find that Fantino Barolos offer extraordinarily silky textures, especially considering their relatively low pHs (roughly 3.3 in '98, 3.4 in '97 and between 3.25 and 3.3 in '96, according to Fantino). Fantino relies on barriques to age his Barolos, but is flexible on duration and percentage of new oak, sometimes using a combination of new and used barrels, or moving the wines out of new barrels at the end of the first year. "The '96s spent a full two years in new barrels, but one couldn't put a mediocre vintage in new oak for this long." Fantino's Sori Ginestra is from a blend of 30-, 20- and 10-year-old vines planted in rich soil and normally producing very mature fruit, while the Vigna del Gris is from southeast-facing 45-year-old vines on sand and chalk soil. For the first time, I found myself gravitating toward the Vigna del Gris, which may have benefitted more from the very warm late summer conditions in '97 and '96 than the full south-facing Sori Ginestra.