2006 Barolo Lazzarito

I sampled a mind-boggling array of outstanding – and often profound – wines in my marathon tasting session with proprietor and winemaker Luca Currado. The 2006 Barolos are nothing short of spectacular and the 2007s may be even better! Readers can check out notes on those wines in my recent feature on the estate posted on this site. I should note that Vietti plans to release a 2006 Barolo Riserva Villero, but that wine is years from seeing the light of day. The Barolos are vinified in stainless steel, then racked into French oak for the malolactic fermentation, where the wines remain for a few months. The majority of aging takes place in medium-sized casks. Over the last few years, the use of French oak has become more measured and the Barolos are now among the elite wines of the region in virtually every vintage. In short, there seems to be no end to this estate's ambition. Frankly I wish there were more wineries setting their sights on this level of quality.

As spectacular as Luca Currado's Barolos have been in recent vintages, consumers should not miss his barbera bottlings, especially those from 2007. On my visit this year, Currado pointed out that his family was one of the first to replant barbera in some of the area's top sites. And their approach to growing and vinifying barbera has changed dramatically in recent years. "Previously we extracted too much," Currado admitted. "Now we're looking to make floral, minerally wines. We used to leave less vegetation on the vines, and the sun worked on the skins and resulted in jammy wines. Now we do a better job of protecting the berries." Currado typically lets his wines do their malolactic fermentation in barriques, then ages them in a combination of barriques and larger Slavonian barrels holding 25 to 40 hectoliters. Currado noted that his family owns or rents vines in all nine villages of Barolo, including 15 cru vineyards, but although they have vinified all of these crus separately since 2000, they generally bottle only five or six vineyard-designated wines, which are selections of casks that most clearly showcase those vineyards. Currado told me he likes the 2005 vintage "because it's old-style Barolo: it reminds me of the wines I drank when I was young. They have acidity and tannins and they're a little aggressive. They're like a Ducati: you feel the power and the emotion. They remind me of the wines of Bartolo Mascarello, Rinaldi and my father." Two thousand six, he added, was a slightly warmer season than 2005. "The wines have less acidity than the 2005s; they're like a blend of '04 and '05. Consumers will probably prefer them to the '05s for their roundness and luxuriousness."