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5218 Lawton Avenue
Oakland, CA 94114

510-654-9159

Oliver McCrum Wines has been importing small production Italian wine and distributing to fine retail and restaurant establishes throughout California since 1994. Over time, our portfolio of producers has steadily grown to over 45 producers from 15 different regions of Italy. We look for typical Italian wines with clarity and freshness, usually made from indigenous Italian grape varieties using clean, transparent winemaking techniques and no obvious use of oak. 

Oliver's Barolo & Barbaresco Notes

 BAROLO AND BARBARESCO

Barolo and Barbaresco are two villages in north-western Italy that produce Italy’s finest red wines.  A generation ago these wines were appreciated only by Italian wine geeks, now their reputation is world-wide, approaching any of the classic French fine wines. 

Barolo and Barbaresco are made of the Nebbiolo grape, unblended. Not blending is an article of faith here, although there is a tradition of blending the variety in the Alto Piemonte Nebbiolo appellations like Bramaterra. In some ways one can compare Nebbiolo to Pinot Noir; they both produce relatively pale wines whose color belies their structure, depth of flavor, complexity, and longevity.  In some varieties, such as Cabernet Sauvignon, depth of color is a prerequisite for depth of flavor, but genuine Nebbiolo is never dark in color.  Fine Nebbiolo shows notes of red fruit (wild strawberry and red currant, for example), woody notes like sandalwood, cedar, cinnamon or tobacco leaf, and sometimes hints of tar or mint. Nebbiolo is quite genetically variable, which means that different clones give different results, which is also true of Pinot. 

Fine wines are often grown in limestone-rich soils, and Barolo and Barbaresco are no exception; the soils here are calcareous marls with varying amounts of clay or sand.  The soils of the west side of Barolo (the villages of La Morra, Barolo itself, and Verduno) contain more sand, and the resulting wines are more open and perfumed and less structured (relatively).  The soils of the east side of the Barolo appellation (much of Castiglione Falletto, Monforte, and Serralunga) contain more clay and produce wines that are more structured, less open when young, and very much improved by aging.  The Barbaresco soils are said to be more fertile, and there is considerable variation in character between the villages here too, the wines from near the village of Barbaresco itself (such as Rabajà) being less structured, more perfumed, while those of Neive (such as Gallina) or Treiso are beefier.  Very broadly Barbaresco is less structured than Barolo, but there is a lot of overlap between the two appellations.

The traditional winemaking in the Langhe (the area that includes Barolo and Barbaresco) includes full de-stemming and crushing, fermentation and extended maceration either in semi-conical wooden fermenters or stainless steel tanks, and aging in large wooden barrels called ‘botti’. The minimum barrel aging period allowed in Barolo is 18 months, although 24 is normal; in Barbaresco the minimum is 12 months, although 18 is common. (I am not at all sure that there should be this difference between the two appellations, but there you are.) In my opinion this combination of extended maceration and long aging in large barrels is best for the Nebbiolo variety; in the 1990s a number of producers attempted to appeal to international consumers and wine journalists by using very short macerations (in a machine called a roto-fermenter) and aging in new small barrels, but almost all of these producers have reverted to more traditional techniques, and thank Heavens for that. Traditional producers are experimenting with techniques such as stem inclusion and very long macerations with very interesting results, which is to say ‘traditional’ does not mean ‘stuck in the past.’

Barbaresco and Barolo used to have a justifiable reputation for extremely chewy tannins, and indeed some older Barolos I’ve drunk must have been brutally tannic when young, but this is no longer true.  A combination of improved farming methods and warmer vintages have rounded out the structure of these wines, and the traditional extended maceration in fact leads to a very attractive texture in the resulting wine, reminding one of really good dark chocolate (the wine gets more tannic for a while, then starts coming together as it ages in the botte). Drinking mature Barolo or Barbaresco is still one of the best wine experiences out there, but it is no longer true that you can’t enjoy these wines when they are younger, excepting the most classic vintages like 2010.  ‘Lesser’ vintages make up a substantial proportion of my Barolo cellar, as the wines are more drinkable when young; they are often fresher in acidity, too. 

Nebbiolo is also grown in two other places in Italy, the Valtellina and the collection of appellations called collectively Alto Piemonte. Both of these regions tend to produce Nebbiolo that is lower in alcohol and somewhat less tannic than the wines from the Langhe. If you have fallen in love with Barolo you should definitely try some of these other examples, for another perspective on a fascinating grape variety. 

The Langhe is one of the best places to eat in Italy.  The food is fairly rich, and pretty meat-oriented, and Barolo and Barbaresco are indeed great with red meats or aged cheeses.  Another great option is a plain roast chicken, which really shows off these complex red wines (a very useful suggestion from the great wine writer Hugh Johnson).


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