2010 Barolo Brunate

This recent charity dinner at Saison was easily the finest meal I have had there and also one of my best dinners of 2018, period. The evening came together as a charity lot that was auctioned off at the most recent La Festa del Barolo to benefit children’s oncology at The Mount Sinai Hospital. Saison donated dinner and I contributed the wines from my cellar. It was a spectacular night of food, wine and conversation, all for a great cause.

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.

This wine was tasted during the Festa del Barolo at the Four Seasons Restaurant in New York City, February 2015.

Beppe Rinaldi's 2010 Barolos will go down as some of the most epic wines of this historic vintage. Today Barolo is generally thought of as a wine informed by an artisan spirit to viticulture and winemaking, which it is. But Barolo is also deeply rooted in nobility. Those two seemingly disparate worlds collide in this small cellar in the town of Barolo, where exquisite, captivating wines will bring readers to their knees. At their best, Rinaldi's Barolos speak to both the intellect and the heart, yet another of the contrasts that makes these wines so profound. This year, the wines have changed a bit. New regulations forbid the use of two vineyard names on a label. However, producers can bottle a single-vineyard Barolo with up to 15% juice from another site, which is idiotic beyond belief. So, this is what we have: Rinaldi's Barolo Brunate includes 15% juice from Le Coste. The remaining juice went into the former Cannubi/San Lorenzo-Ravera, which is now called Tre Tine (three vats). All that said, both wines are fabulous. I did my best to work through the inventory of 2010s at several local restaurants during the five weeks I spent in Piedmont this past summer. Alas, I did not succeed. For those worried about the next generation, Rinaldi daughters Marta and Carlotta are increasingly in charge. Marta Rinaldi is just as fiercely outspoken as her father, so there is every reason to believe the future is in very good hands.

It's always a treat to visit Beppe Rinaldi. You never know exactly what you are going to get, as a tasting here usually involves a mixture of wine, philosophy and culture, all delivered with Rinaldi's signature dry humor. As for the wines, well, they are almost always special. This is my third time tasting the 2010 Barolos from cask within the last six months. On this visit I tasted five different barrels, which ranged from outstanding to transcendental. There is still some question as to how the wines are going to be bottled and labeled. A few months back it looked like the Cannubi/San Lorenzo-Ravera and Brunate would be bottled separately, and be joined in the range by a third Barolo made of fruit from Ravera and Le Coste that had previously gone into the Cannubi and Brunate bottlings respectively. It now appears Rinaldi might not be able to bottle the Cannubi/San Lorenzo-Ravera alone for bureaucratic reasons, so we are likely to see a pure Brunate (well, pure in that the law allows 15% of fruit from another vineyard, in this case Le Coste, in a vineyard designate) plus a second Barolo that will include fruit from Cannubi/San Lorenzo-Ravera and the part of Le Coste that does not go into the Brunate. Sound confusing? Beppe Rinaldi thinks so too, which is why he would prefer to blend all the casks together and make just one Barolo to keep things simple. I can't tell if he is serious or not, but Rinaldi's wife and daughters will probably prevail and the most likely scenario is that there will be a Barolo Brunate and a straight Barolo composed of all the other juice in the cellar. We will see. For now, I have included notes on the Brunate casks I tasted, but as mentioned above, all the wines in the cellar are special in 2010. I would buy any of the wines I tasted in a heartbeat. At its best, Barolo is a truly special wine, with complex aromatics, layers of flavor, structure to burn, and most importantly of all, the ability to captivate the taster for hours on end as the wine constantly changes in the glass. When I think of the wines that embody those qualities, Beppe Rinaldis Barolos are at or near the top of the list.

Rinaldi is now getting a major assist from his two daughters, Marta and Carlotta, who have both had wine experience outside Italy.While Marta was a bit more organized in presenting the family's new wines than her more casual father usually is, she made it clear that her philosophy is in line with his ultra-traditional winemaking style.Incidentally, Rinaldi will have some decisions to make about how he will label (and perhaps even blend) his Barolos beginning with the 2010 vintage due to the recent changes in labeling regulations.