Barolo vintages 2022-2025
2022
While this vintage is the hardest to generalize about, lets start off with some generalizations!
Barolo most are a bit short, many have unripe tannins making them crude, almost all have a hint of extra ripeness but not cooked character or overt over ripeness, no really fine grained tannins are the exception, rare exception. Site was super important. I noticed several less advantageous sites, lower on slopes, outperforming their more famous neighbors, that’s a water access issue primarily. The other issue was the heat, and this is where western facing vineyards really suffered the most. I found lots of wines that had a jellied like character, not jammy, but if you make jelly you’ll recognize that warm cooking fruit smell as you get everything hot enough for the addition of gelatin. Most wines retained firmly in the red fruit end of the spectrum, and in general I would say that producers managed to bottle wines with nice fruit and good acid levels. There are some standout wines that really do a fine job of expressing terror in spite of the imprint of the vintage. I think these are mostly old vine plots, or, counterintuitively, vines on looser soils that are old enough to have roots that reach past the sandy soil layers into deep, water retaining layers. It’s an interesting thought that these wines almost always have to search for water, so they were better prepared in some cases than vines planted in “better” soil.
Barolo classicos as a group were simpler, plumper and more tannic than most previous vintages. For the purist this might be seen as a negative, but on the whole for the average consumer the wines are really not bad. Blending helped ease the edges of the most overt vintage excesses. The tannins definitely gave many wines an old school feel, albeit with more fruit. This too is a bit of a double edges sword. We’re not used to these more unripe than ripe tannins anymore, so they react do stand out, but these were the tannins of Barolo pretty much though the mid 90s. I think some of the wines will always be marked by dry tannins, but most will develop into pretty calls wines, though with some added heft. It is not a vintage for elegance and nuance, but neither is it clumsy nor incomplete.
One thing to note regarding the 2022, the lack of rain caused the whole vegetative cycle to be stunted and resulted in tiny bunch of grapes with numerous producers mentioning how ight they were and how little juice came out of the press. Given that I would have expected wines with much more dry extract and weight. It’s a testament to the best producers how well they handled the extremes of 2022.You can imagine how close to disaster they actually were had the rains in September and October not arrived, along with the change in weather with important diurnal shifts that saved the acidity of the vintage.
2023
The 2023 Nebbiolo for Barolo that I tasted generally showed more of a cooked fruit character than the 2022s with a bit of a jammy nature and a notably darker complexion.. The extreme heat spikes of the late summer shut down the vines, but in most cases that did not cause the fruit to ripen slowly or evenly once they were able to take a breath again. That was primarily due to the ”never ending summer” that followed. Temperatures in the high 70s persisted through the beginning of harvest in early October, that’s about 10 degrees above normal, but the night time highs were also way above average, and that lack of diurnal shift was what really compromised quality. The wines have the potential to be quite good, but it’s another vintage with power not elegance, richness not complexity. I think site mattered less in 2023, almost all the wines seem to carry the mark of this hot vintage, but we won’t have a clear idea of the quality of the vintage until the wines are released next year. The few wines of Barbaresco I had do seem to indicate that Barbaresco might outperform Barolo in 2023.
2024
The story is obviously rain, rain, rain, and heat to boot. Great disease pressures. This is an early opinions but, here goes.
Dolcetto is really a disaster. There are some nice examples made, but too many are shrill, hard, unpleasant to drink. I think this is of course a symptom of the vintage, but it’s also because Dolcetto has really been relegated to relatively poorly positioned vineyard plots. I had three impressive 2024 Dolcettos. Cascina Delle Rose in Barbaresco, which was arguably the best, Dolcetto planted in an excellent position, Principiano, where production was greatly reduced, and who produced a very good example of the vintage from vineyards that received less rains than those in Barolo, and Barrels Dolcetto which was not great in one sense, but was perfect in another. It was absolutely the Dolcetto people talk about when they speak of the old school, everyday wine. I like the fruity, aggressively bright Dolcetto that is becoming more common and the standard for the varietal, but the barrel wine, is deeper, softer, easier to drink and exactly what I think of when I think of having Dolcetto. Not surprisingly it also comes from great vineyards within Barolo
Barbera on the other hand is fairly successful in 2024. It avoids the excesses that we’ve become used to in warm, dry vintages when “great” wines are produced. In generally the wines are completely ripe, but more transparent, they are a group of elegant Barberas. I like quite a few, and while Dolcetto has been generally relegated to less advantageous vineyard plots Barbera needs the sun and thrive in the heat, so much of the relatively little Barbera vines that remain in the langhe are planted on pretty good pieces of dirt. Generally perfumed and balanced, much easier to drink than your average great vintage Barbera, but still wines of 2024 so if you like that more powerful style there are plenty of 2023s and 2025s that you would prefer. They are wines that remind me of the Barberas of 20 years ago, which is a good thing in my book, though more than one had me thinking “Dolcettoesque!” Which is not a good thing.
Nebbiolo 2024 is a crap shoot. You had to have well exposed, well drained vineyards. The great crus reminded us why they are famous in this most difficult of years, and yet still, the wines are rough going. I thought more than once while tasting 2024 Barolo that “this is very good Langhe Nebbiolo”. There are exceptions, there will be more exceptions, but this is a vintage to absolutely try before you buy. And if you buy have very realistic expectations. Most producers still have the separately ferments Barolo in tank, so there is a possibility that many will be bottled as Crus, but I expect that we will see a very large declassification of these wines with good Barolo Classicos, and very good Langhe Nebbiolo, for such a difficult vintage.
2025
It’s early days but this is a return to normal. An easy vintage in the vineyards and wines that are balanced, great fruit, good expression of terroir and very lively in the mouth.
While this vintage is the hardest to generalize about, lets start off with some generalizations!
Barolo most are a bit short, many have unripe tannins making them crude, almost all have a hint of extra ripeness but not cooked character or overt over ripeness, no really fine grained tannins are the exception, rare exception. Site was super important. I noticed several less advantageous sites, lower on slopes, outperforming their more famous neighbors, that’s a water access issue primarily. The other issue was the heat, and this is where western facing vineyards really suffered the most. I found lots of wines that had a jellied like character, not jammy, but if you make jelly you’ll recognize that warm cooking fruit smell as you get everything hot enough for the addition of gelatin. Most wines retained firmly in the red fruit end of the spectrum, and in general I would say that producers managed to bottle wines with nice fruit and good acid levels. There are some standout wines that really do a fine job of expressing terror in spite of the imprint of the vintage. I think these are mostly old vine plots, or, counterintuitively, vines on looser soils that are old enough to have roots that reach past the sandy soil layers into deep, water retaining layers. It’s an interesting thought that these wines almost always have to search for water, so they were better prepared in some cases than vines planted in “better” soil.
Barolo classicos as a group were simpler, plumper and more tannic than most previous vintages. For the purist this might be seen as a negative, but on the whole for the average consumer the wines are really not bad. Blending helped ease the edges of the most overt vintage excesses. The tannins definitely gave many wines an old school feel, albeit with more fruit. This too is a bit of a double edges sword. We’re not used to these more unripe than ripe tannins anymore, so they react do stand out, but these were the tannins of Barolo pretty much though the mid 90s. I think some of the wines will always be marked by dry tannins, but most will develop into pretty calls wines, though with some added heft. It is not a vintage for elegance and nuance, but neither is it clumsy nor incomplete.
One thing to note regarding the 2022, the lack of rain caused the whole vegetative cycle to be stunted and resulted in tiny bunch of grapes with numerous producers mentioning how ight they were and how little juice came out of the press. Given that I would have expected wines with much more dry extract and weight. It’s a testament to the best producers how well they handled the extremes of 2022.You can imagine how close to disaster they actually were had the rains in September and October not arrived, along with the change in weather with important diurnal shifts that saved the acidity of the vintage.
2023
The 2023 Nebbiolo for Barolo that I tasted generally showed more of a cooked fruit character than the 2022s with a bit of a jammy nature and a notably darker complexion.. The extreme heat spikes of the late summer shut down the vines, but in most cases that did not cause the fruit to ripen slowly or evenly once they were able to take a breath again. That was primarily due to the ”never ending summer” that followed. Temperatures in the high 70s persisted through the beginning of harvest in early October, that’s about 10 degrees above normal, but the night time highs were also way above average, and that lack of diurnal shift was what really compromised quality. The wines have the potential to be quite good, but it’s another vintage with power not elegance, richness not complexity. I think site mattered less in 2023, almost all the wines seem to carry the mark of this hot vintage, but we won’t have a clear idea of the quality of the vintage until the wines are released next year. The few wines of Barbaresco I had do seem to indicate that Barbaresco might outperform Barolo in 2023.
2024
The story is obviously rain, rain, rain, and heat to boot. Great disease pressures. This is an early opinions but, here goes.
Dolcetto is really a disaster. There are some nice examples made, but too many are shrill, hard, unpleasant to drink. I think this is of course a symptom of the vintage, but it’s also because Dolcetto has really been relegated to relatively poorly positioned vineyard plots. I had three impressive 2024 Dolcettos. Cascina Delle Rose in Barbaresco, which was arguably the best, Dolcetto planted in an excellent position, Principiano, where production was greatly reduced, and who produced a very good example of the vintage from vineyards that received less rains than those in Barolo, and Barrels Dolcetto which was not great in one sense, but was perfect in another. It was absolutely the Dolcetto people talk about when they speak of the old school, everyday wine. I like the fruity, aggressively bright Dolcetto that is becoming more common and the standard for the varietal, but the barrel wine, is deeper, softer, easier to drink and exactly what I think of when I think of having Dolcetto. Not surprisingly it also comes from great vineyards within Barolo
Barbera on the other hand is fairly successful in 2024. It avoids the excesses that we’ve become used to in warm, dry vintages when “great” wines are produced. In generally the wines are completely ripe, but more transparent, they are a group of elegant Barberas. I like quite a few, and while Dolcetto has been generally relegated to less advantageous vineyard plots Barbera needs the sun and thrive in the heat, so much of the relatively little Barbera vines that remain in the langhe are planted on pretty good pieces of dirt. Generally perfumed and balanced, much easier to drink than your average great vintage Barbera, but still wines of 2024 so if you like that more powerful style there are plenty of 2023s and 2025s that you would prefer. They are wines that remind me of the Barberas of 20 years ago, which is a good thing in my book, though more than one had me thinking “Dolcettoesque!” Which is not a good thing.
Nebbiolo 2024 is a crap shoot. You had to have well exposed, well drained vineyards. The great crus reminded us why they are famous in this most difficult of years, and yet still, the wines are rough going. I thought more than once while tasting 2024 Barolo that “this is very good Langhe Nebbiolo”. There are exceptions, there will be more exceptions, but this is a vintage to absolutely try before you buy. And if you buy have very realistic expectations. Most producers still have the separately ferments Barolo in tank, so there is a possibility that many will be bottled as Crus, but I expect that we will see a very large declassification of these wines with good Barolo Classicos, and very good Langhe Nebbiolo, for such a difficult vintage.
2025
It’s early days but this is a return to normal. An easy vintage in the vineyards and wines that are balanced, great fruit, good expression of terroir and very lively in the mouth.