2003 Barolo Brunate

Beppe Rinaldi's 2003 Barolos are gorgeous today. The wines are ripe, flashy and exotic, in other words, typical of the year, but they will satisfy the urge for readers looking for super-classic Barolos that are ready to drink.

Rinaldi was the second winemaker I visited on his birthday in September (he was born in '48), but it was just another workday for this traditionalist, who, as on all of my previous end-of-day visits here, looked like he had just come in from the vines. Rinaldi told me that he hasn't changed his style of winemaking in the 21st century but that the weather has indeed changed. The grapes always spend 20 to 25 days on their skins "if the grapes are sound," he told me. "I used to wait four years to bottle [today's wines are bottled after three or three and a half years], and even then the wines were impossible to drink for several years. But today, because of our warmer climate, the tannins are less strong and the wines are less rough. " So even one of Barolo's last remaining strict traditionalists admits that things have changed in the new millennium. "The last two vintages that produced really strong wines with severe tannins were '96 and '98," he went on, making it clear that this is his preferred style. The '04s here look to be superb, but Rinaldi told me that they won't match his '98s. He then opened a magnum of the '98 Cannubi to prove it.

I always look forward to v isiting th is small, family-run property as Giuseppe Rinaldi is one of the most entertaining producers in the zone. Armed with a wicked sense of humor, he is apt to keep v isitors engaged for hours. Walking into the cellar is like stepping into the past, a time when the pace of life was much slower and still rooted in a more human tempo. Like all producers Rinaldi was faced with the prospect of an unusually early harvest. “I absolutely refused to pick my Nebbiolos in September, so I waited until the first of October,” says Rinaldi. I have never seen anything like 2003. It was so hot that summer that on many evenings I would take a candle and good book and go sleep in the cellar.” Rinaldi's 2003s are more successful than I had originally env isaged, yet h is 2004s were rapturous when I tasted them from barrel a few months ago. Giuseppe Rinaldi's Barolos remain among the most rigorously traditional wines being made today. They will appeal most to readers looking for pure, unadulterated wines, that while not always perfect from a technical standpoint, never fail to deliver a memorable drinking experience.