2004 Barbaresco Riserva Asili

Produttori del Barbaresco's Aldo Vacca is among the producers who believe that climate change has resulted in wines that drink better at an earlier age than was the norm a generation ago. To be sure, farming and winemaking have also changed, which makes that view less blasphemous than it would have seemed a generation ago to Nebbiolo lovers. The 2005s and 2004s are in a very good place now. Overall, the 2004s I tasted have more finesse and pedigree than the 2005s, but the 2005s have a very distinctive if slightly unpolished vein of tannin that might help the wines last longer in the cellar. Even so, I don't think the 2005s will match the finesse of the 2004s. All that said, the Produttori did quite well in both vintages.

x000D x000D In a worldwide recession, the recent string of excellent vintages in the Piedmont has provided a challenge for this excellent co-operative, which made the full range of Barbaresco cru bottlings in vintages 2004 and 2005 and has a very strong set of 2007s in the barrel as well. At the time of my visit, commercial director Aldo Vacca was not sure whether the Produttori would release a set of cru bottlings from the 2006 vintage. He described the wines as "fleshy and easy to enjoy" but wondered whether they would have enough complexity for the long run. And no matter what the quality of the vintage here, this co-op has never faced the challenge of selling four consecutive "declared" vintages. In my coverage in this issue I have provided notes on the full set of 2004s, which I tasted in finished form for the first time in September, as well as the 2005s, which will be released in 2010 (all the crus here are released late and labeled as riserva). Vacca describes 2004 as a classic vintage: "on the elegant side, with medium body and less power than '99 or '96 but more silkiness than those years. But they are also precise and ageworthy, and not soft. Two thousand five is a pleasant surprise," he went on. "We finished before the third rainy period, but we still picked in a rush. The wines are a bit rougher than the more refined 2004s but they have spine and penetration and should age for a long time." With their definition, structure and cooler minerality the 2005s remind him of the '99s, which he believes are the best set of wines produced by the Produttori since 1971. The Produttori Barbarescos remain popular in the market because they are classically made wines that offer an excellent opportunity to compare the styles and merits of nine crus in the same village.

Managing Director Aldo Vacca had some interesting things to say about the 2004 vintage in Barbaresco. (I wasn't initially convinced about the quality of the vintage until I had the wines fermenting in the cellar, something I also experienced in 1978,( says Vacca. ( The summer wasn't especially hot, but the Fall was gorgeous, and our harvest took place during the second half of October. Given that yields were on the high side, I felt we needed to be especially selective in the cellar, so we produced roughly 30% less of some of our Riservas by using only the best individual lots for wines like our Ovello, Montestefano and Moccagatta Riservas. Any lots we weren't thrilled about went into our non-Riserva Barbaresco. In 2004 vineyard exposures were a huge factor in determining maturity, while 2005 was perhaps a touch more consistent throughout, but without the complexity and structure of the 2004s.( Readers who have a hard time finding the 2004s, shouldn't fret, as the Produttori will also release Riservs for the 2005, 2006 and 2007 vintages, so there will be plenty of wine in the pipeline over the next few years. Given the weakness in the US dollar, readers may want to quickly snap up any remaining stocks of the 2001 Riservas as well.

My Piedmont tour this fall was ill-timed when it came to the Barbarescos of this superb co-operative, as the Produttori's 2001s were released last year and the 2004s, of which I tasted a selection, won't be bottled until next spring (there were no cru bottlings here in 2003 or 2002). But the 2001s noted below are still widely available at the retail level, and a number of them are classic examples of traditional Barbaresco at relatively reasonable prices. Commercial director Aldo Vacca describes the 2004s as wines with less body and more acidity than the 2001s. "They're more like the 1999s; they seem brighter and tighter today," he explained. "The 2001s combine all the elements of top Barbaresco, like the 1990s. You feel the ripeness in 2001. In comparison, the '99s are sharper wines with more tension. " Vacca noted that the members of the co-op now deliver 10% less fruit than the maximum allowable yields, and that although the Produttori essentially pays on the basis of grape sugars, it has amended its formula since 2003 to pay a bonus for fruit with better "color intensity and phenolic quantity. "