2008 Barolo Gavarini Chiniera

I could feel my heart racing as I tasted Gianluca Grasso's 2008s. Both 2008 Baroli are drop-dead gorgeous wines that capture the purest essence of hillside Monforte brilliance. The 2008s have begun to shut down since I first tasted them from bottle in November, 2011. The focus, length and sheer pedigree, however, have always been on full display. My advice? Buy the wines and forget about them for a good decade-plus. Two decades would be better. These remain some of the most fairly priced, ageworthy 2008s on the planet. Congratulations to the Grasso family for two monumental wines that embody everything that makes Barolo so magnificent. These are both must-have wines.

Gianluca Grasso, who has taken his family's wines to a higher level in recent years, has made a couple of extraordinary Barolos in vintage 2008, a vintage he says is the best for Barolo since 2001. "The long vegetative cycle, with cool nights, allowed us to get 100% ripeness," he explained. "But 2009 is just okay for nebbiolo due to irregular weather." The family's view of the vintage is obviously colored by the fact that they lost some vines around the edges of their Gavarini vineyard during mudslides in March and April. I got the impression that Gianluca's father Elio is thrilled to be able to devote full time to his vineyards, although when I asked him if he still controls 51% of the vote when it comes to cellar decisions, he said, "oh yes." Since the 2008 harvest, the Grassos have been testing out a new conveyor-belt sorting table made by a company in Veneto, which uses a plastic hand and an adjustable net that allows them to prevent bits of stems from falling through. "We can even block the larger berries, if we want," said Gianluca. "It's necessary to go slowly, but we get nothing green in the juice." Gianluca, a long-time Burgundy lover, told me "in my next life I want to be born in Burgundy." (Importers include Martin-Scott Wines, Ltd., Lake Success, NY; Sussex Wine Merchants, Moorestown, NJ )