2004 Barolo Lazzarito

Vietti's 2004 Barolos are absolutely stellar. I remember tasting these wines from barrel and then just after bottling. They are every bit as superb today. As is often the case, the Rocche is the flagship. I found the Brunate a bit more delicate than I expected, while the Lazzarito, which was a much more modern, French oak-influenced wine than the other Barolos in the range during this era, was more complex than at the outset. The Villero is superb, but I don't think it is Vietti's best site. If it were, Vietti would probably bottle this wine in every vintage, Riserva or not.

Like his colleagues, Luca Currado's biggest challenge in 2004 was dealing with abnormally high yields. (Despite doing several aggressive green harvests we still ended up with more fruit than we would ideally like,( says Currado. (We performed a number of saignées to get the wines to a more optimal balance.( The estate's 2004 Barolos have been impressive on every time I have tasted them from barrel and the bottled wines are just as exceptional. These are without question the most complete young Barolos I have tasted at Vietti, yet they are also the most concentrated are likely to require patience.

Following its recent purchases of more barbera in the Asti area, the Currado family now owns 43 hectares of vines. Luca Currado noted that this entitles Vietti to make 650,000 bottles per year, but in fact their actual production is less than 200,000-a testament to careful control of yields and strict selection for their top bottlings. According to Currado, "2004 and 2001 are two of the best vintages of the century," and I assume by that statement he was trying to say something stronger than merely "two of the best vintages of the past seven years"-particularly as I recall him describing 2001 as a "100-point vintage" a year after the harvest. "The dry, warm fohn wind in 2003 made for a lot of amarone-style wines in Piemonte," Currado added. "We were lucky to pick very early that year. " Incidentally, Currado told me that he ages the sheets of bark from which his corks will be made outdoors for two years. "This tightens the grain of the cork and kills the bugs, but it costs us up to 25% in lost volume. "