2000 Barolo Lazzarito

Two years ago, even before I had a chance to taste this estate's 2001, Luca Currado told me that 2001 at his family's winery was a 100-point year. I am happy to report that the 2001 Vietti Barolos and Barbarescos are indeed a stunning group of wines, as complete as any I tasted in the Langhe in September. "This vintage offers the essence of Barolo," explains Currado, "a rare combination of power and freshness of fruit. The wines are beautiful now and will be beautiful in 15 to 20 years. " The Currados have redone and expanded their vinification facility and barrel cellars, and now can work virtually entirely by gravity (the barrels can even be brought up to the bottling area via an elevator). Since the 2001 vintage, the Currados are starting their Barolos in barriques and finishing them in botti, which they believe allows for the best possible combination of controlled oxidation and retention of fruit. But the use of barriques remains critical here:that's where the malolactic fermentations take place, and the lees are stirred until the March after the harvest-very unusual for the region. The dying yeasts release stamens, says Luca Currado, which are antioxidants and work in favor of wine longevity. Currado noted that the family carried out four green harvests in 2004, including a pruning just before the harvest to get more natural concentration in the fruit, a technique he described as Burgundian. "We don't use concentrators to get more color and extract," he explained. Vinification takes place almost entirely in vertical steel tanks, where frequent mechanical pumpovers are gentle enough not to break the seeds and stems. The macerations last 10 to 15 days, including a bit of cold maceration in the same steel tanks, with the Villero and Rocche cuvees spending closer to three weeks on their skins. Currado says the estate sold off its rotofermenters, keeping just one for possible use in an emergency. But the rotofermenters, he believes, do too much extraction and yield unbalanced wines.