1998 Barolo Gavarini Chiniera

This was my first visit to the Grassos' beautiful estate tucked into the hills behind Monforte d'Alba, overlooking the Gavarini vineyard. Elio Grasso's son Gianluca has joined his father since getting a degree in economics, and now does most of the cellar work while Elio handles the vineyards. The Grasso wines have long boasted strong material, but today's bottles appear to be more consistent, and perhaps finer, than the wines of the mid-'90s, with a more obvious emphasis on fruit than formerly. The Grassos offer three single-vineyard Barolos, two made in a more traditional style and the third, the Runcot, aged for 30 months in all new barriques The Barolos are fermented in vertical stainless steel tanks in which automatic pumpovers are done, and spend 10 to 15 days on their skins. The cellar is warmed to 20oC to facilitate the malolactic fermentations, which normally finish in December. Gianluca Grasso uses micro-oxidation to avoid racking his barbera and nebbiolo cuvees but prefers more traditional racking every three months for Barolo. Grasso describes 2000 as a warm, alcoholic style, from a rather low crop level. (2001 was a bigger, fruitier crop in comparison, he adds.) Like a number of his colleagues in Monforte d'Alba, Grasso compares '99 in style to '96, and feels that this vintage will be capable of long bottle aging. (Importers include Sussex Wine Merchants, Moorestown, NJ and Martin-Scott Wines, Ltd., Lake Success, NY)