1997 Barolo Brunate

This recent retrospective of Giuseppe Rinaldi’s Barolo Brunate from magnum going back to 1990 was special for so many reasons, most notably the rarity of the bottles we opened. Gordon Ramsay’s maze was the setting for what turned out to be a truly unforgettable evening.

Rinaldi, a strict traditionalist who makes wine very much like his father and grandfather before him, strongly believes that Barolo must remain at least three years in the barrel to become complete. (He normally bottles the fourth August after the vintage, when the weather is warm and the wine has less sediment.) "The interesting aromas develop only after three or four years in barrel," he maintains. "Barolo is about tertiary aromas," he explains. "Nebbiolo is not simply about fruit aromas; it not like cabernet sauvignon, which is a full fruited variety in comparison." x000D x000D x000D x000D x000D x000D x000D x000D x000D Rinaldi Barolo is about 70% Brunate, the rest from vines located near his house on the La Coste hillside just outside town. (In the past, there was often a separate Brunate bottling.) He believes that the blend of the two yields a more complete, more complex wine. In dry years, he notes, Brunate can be low in acidity and benefits from the addition of a higher acid parcel. Brunate is also rich in extract and tannins, says Rinaldi, and needs time "to ripen in barrel." My experience with Rinaldi's wines is that they are often hard to assess early on but age extremely well. They are not especially deeply colored in their youth but manage to retain most of their color, and vigor, for 20 years or more.