2005 Barolo Percristina

I still remember tasting Domenico Clerico's 2005 Barolos in the old tasting room, a place that is filled with many memories of amazing tastings over the years. The 2005s are mostly worthy follow up to the stellar 2004s. The wines are rich, super-concentrated and powerful. Readers might want to give the 2005s a bit more time in the cellar, but I would be concerned with the fruit drying out and would prefer to drink the wines on the younger side, but opened well in advance. I tasted the 2005s twice, one at the winery and on a second occasion in my office with bottles purchased on release. Bottles from my cellar were in far better shape than those from the winery. The only 2005 that is not impressive is the Percristina, which is totally covered by French oak. I had hoped that wine would one day emerge, as so many wines have here over the years, but it has never happened, and I don't think it ever will.

Domenico Clerico's 2009s are very good, but also show the limits of the year. My sense is that the estate is still in a bit of a transition phase, and as with all things in life, it takes time. New oak continues to come down, and that should be a positive, as Clerico owns some of the very best vineyards in Barolo.

It was served after the 1982 Conterno Monfortino and 1982 Giacosa Collina Rionda. A wine very few of us had ever seen, much less tasted. I thought I might have tasted this vintage once before, but it wasn't a great bottle. This one was. No, it was monumental. The wine? Domenico Clerico's 1982 Barolo Ciabot Mentin Ginestra. Talk about stunning. Clerico's 1982 had no problem hanging out with the big guns. It is amazing to think how the 1982 was made. The 1982 Ciabot was fermented in an outdoor shack. For the malos, Clerico used three used 14-hectoliter casks he bought from Aldo Conterno. The wine was subsequently aged in used 30-hectoliter barrels that were reconditioned from their first life, when they had been used to make beer. Fast forward to today. It was a bit of a shock this year to see Domenico Clerico in his huge new winery, which is still under construction. I have so many fond memories of tasting in the old cellar. No one is as passionate or generous as Clerico in showing his wines. And that's the way it has always been. Even when I was just a young consumer visiting Piemonte on the weekends, the door was always open. Any day, any time. Back to the present. The massive steel and concrete building not only seems out of place in the landscape, it is also far removed from traditional Piedmontese values. The scale alone is just bizarre, making it difficult to find someone, much less communicate. As for the wines, 2008 was clearly a difficult vintage here. Some of that is probably because of Clerico's health struggles over the last few years, but the new cellar has also been a massive undertaking made all the more difficult by the poor timing of the project. The 2008s are underwhelming wines that fall short of the standard Clerico has established over the last three decades. The day to day is clearly much more difficult for Clerico now, so it is up to his team to step up and prove they are up to the challenge.

Domenico Clerico's spectacular new winery is finally close to completion after several years of construction, and the 2011 harvest was vinified there. In recent years Clerico has backed off on some of his more modern techniques and says he is now making wines with more structure and grip. Even as far back as the outstanding 2001 vintage, Clerico told me, he thought his wines had too much oak, and he considered his past dolcettos to be too big. "Sometimes we had to wait three or four years to drink them, which is not the point of dolcetto," he told me. According to Clerico, 2008 stands out for its overall freshness. "It's not just a question of acidity. And it's not an easy-drinking vintage like 2007." Incidentally, Clerico's Pajana fruit was already in a rotofermenter by the time of my visit, having been harvested early, on September 16. He was giving it a shorter maceration for fear of getting dry tannins. Cellarmaster Gianmatteo ("Jimmy") Raineri compared vintage 2009 to 2007. "It was great for barbera because that grape likes warmth," he said, "but the nebbiolo could be better. And the 2007 has rather soft tannins. "We're more Piemontese: we like grip and tannic structure."

Cellarmaster Massimo Conterno, who since my September visit has just left Clerico after 25 years, considers all the Barolo vintages from 2004 through 2008 to have large structures but finds 2004 and 2006 the most powerful of this group-as well as the best balanced. "The '07s and the '05s are a bit finer, with less body for their tannins," he told me. "They will need time in bottle to find their balance, especially the 2005s, which can be aggressive. The dividing line in 2005 was the last rain. Wines made from fruit picked after that are much less successful." Incidentally, the extraordinary 2004 Per Cristina bottling is a worthy successor to the 2001, and the beat goes on with the 2005 and especially the 2006. All the Barolos here are aged for 24 to 26 months in a blend of 70% new and 30% once-used barriques, then go into stainless steel tanks for the rest of their elevage. Clerico's monumental new winery outside Monforte, which reminds me a bit of Dulles Airport during its construction, is still a work in progress but is scheduled to be completed in time to handle the 2010 harvest. (Marc de Grazia; numerous importers, including Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, NY; Robert Houde Wines, Bensenville, IL; and Estate Wines Ltd., San Rafael, CA)