1996 Barolo Lazzarito

It is amazing to contemplate how far Vietti has come in just few short years. In the 1990s, Vietti was a much more modern-leaning producer. The Barolos were done in a more extracted style than is the norm these days. Luca Currado gave his 1996s a year in French oak barrique followed by a year and half in cask. There was also a fairly dramatic stylistic chasm between the Lazzarito - the most overly modern Barolo in the range - and the other Barolos. Today, that gap has been closed, and the wines are made in a much more classically-leaning style. Readers should note that the 1996 Barolo Rocche di Castiglione was not part of this tasting. A recent note is available in the Vinous database.

Gaja ex-agronomist Federico Curtaz has been consulting here for the past two years, helping the Currado family more closely match clones and vine structure to the specific site, as well as further reduce yields. Even for their dolcetto, the Currados are now doing considerable leaf pulling to get riper fruit earlier. "At today's prices and in today's competitive marketplace, dolcetto can't be a simple, light food wine anymore," notes Luca Currado. Currado told me that in the family's view, '96 in Barolo and '97 in Barbaresco are the top recent vintages. "Nineteen ninety-eight is a very good year for Barbaresco too," he added, "but not up to the level of '97 or '96." Incidentally, the Barolo Brunate was hailed on in '98, so there may not be a Brunate bottling from this vintage.

Alfredo Currado is often described as an enlightened traditionalist, for his willingness to adapt or create new techniques to improve his wines. On my recent visit, he described his philosophy in a nutshell: "Tradition is the sum of 100 years of evolution; it does not mean 'just like my grandfather did it.' It is important to evolve but not to change." Above all, Currado is flexible, varying vinification and levage according to the cru and the vintage. For example, Currado uses a high percentage of barriques for his barberas. As a general rule, Currado does the malolactic fermentation in oak whenever possible, including all of the wines put in new barriques He uses some barriques for his Barolo Lazzarito "to round out such a masculine wine from Serralunga." But no small barrels are used for the more delicate Brunate, which is entirely from the lampia clone of nebbiolo. The '96 Villero, the first Villero since 1990, fermented for 22 days and then received an additional week of submerged cap maceration. This is one of my favorite addresses at which to smell and taste the differences between various top Barolo crus, as the wines offer extraordinary Barolo perfume. x000D x000D x000D x000D x000D x000D x000D x000D x000D x000D Currado describes '97 and '96 as big and round; both vintages, he says, resemble '90. In 1997, it was very difficult to get the acid/alcohol balance right. The '95s, he says, "are elegant and long but not large." (Premiere Wine Merchants, New York, NY; Franklin Selections, Annapolis Junction, MD; M. S. Walker, Boston, MA)