2017 Barbaresco Sorì Paitin

Secondo Pasquero-Elia was one of the remaining fixtures of Barbaresco's old guard, always present every time I visited the property with a colorful anecdote or two to share. He had an incredible recall of growing seasons going back all the way to 1943 (when he was just 15 years old), a vintage he compared, along with 1947, to 2017 because of similar conditions of heat and drought. His passing earlier this year is a huge loss for Barbaresco and the values that informed these hills in simpler times.

I was quite pleased with the three Barbarescos I tasted, as they are terrific, especially the 2017s given the challenges of the years. Hail and frost wiped out half of the production, but only first generation fruit was used. The Barbarescos were done with submerged cap fermentation for some lots, which saw a total of four weeks on the skins, about 30% of the Serraboella and 70% for the Sorì Paitin in 2017. The other lots saw about two weeks on the skins. Malolactic fermentation was done in steel before the wines were racked into mostly large format oak. Earlier this year Marco Dotta, previously of Dosio and Marchesi di Grésy, joined the team. It will be interesting to see what his arrival brings. There have been some bumps along the road at Paitin in recent years, but the potential has always been evident, and it is significant.