#GDPandthepig
The forgotten Burlotto Barolo.
Neirane is a vineyard in the village of verduno, in fact it's the first vineyard you pass when driving from la Morra to verduno and it is arguably the least verduno of all of Verduno's vineyards.
Burlotto still produces grapes in Neirane, though it now makes up part of the Acclivi Barolo blend. Considering how good that wine is and how important it has become to Burlotto I would not be surprised if we don't see another Burlotto Neirane being bottled.
it is a joy to be able to taste a pair of such special wines, as you might know Burlotto has held a special place in my love of Barolo for quite some time, revisiting these wines brought me back to my earlier days with Burlotto. Nostalgia is wonderful, and these wines were quite fine, but there is no doubt that the wines produced since are qualitatively better in ways large and small.
Still, these were fine wines and a great illustration of the differences between vintages, as the wines were made in fundamentally the same, long fermentations, foot tread whole clusters. large barrel wood ageing, etc. So what set these apart from one another was simply the vintage.
1995 and 1996 are fine back to back vintages, though with the benefit of hindsight 1996 is perhaps not as well thought of as it once was, while 1995 has gained a bit of ground on the better vintages. They were always a relatively tough pair of vintages with 1995 resembling 1988, while 1996 was more of a throwback vintage, austere and lean in the style more common in the 1970s.
The 1995 was typical, tannins were a bit coarser, but the wine had good weight and richness, if remaining a bit on the simple side. Fruit was still in evidence, strawberry toned with hints of cinnamon and some baked clay soil tones lending a shade of complexity. It evolved a bit over the course of three days,with the fruit taking on darker tones and gaining a leathery note on the palate, but didn't really improve appreciably. The tannins remained chunky and while this was a solid wine it lacked finesse.
The 1996 opened as a truffle bomb. If you like truffles this is a wine for you, smelling and tasting of the gem of the fungi family. Over the course of three days the truffle notes integrated well, allowing the ripe cherry fruit to emerge. Again, not a super complex wine, though more complex than the 1995, this did however exhibit a certain degree of finesse, was longer on the palate than that wine, and exhibited superb fine grained tannins which softened over time lending the wine a certain almost silkiness.
With bottles still in the cellar I look forward to matching these wines up again. These are both ready in the sense that they are on their plateau of maturity, but the fact that they remained fresh and intact over the course of three days leads me to believe that they have a full decade of additional positive development ahead of them.
The forgotten Burlotto Barolo.
Neirane is a vineyard in the village of verduno, in fact it's the first vineyard you pass when driving from la Morra to verduno and it is arguably the least verduno of all of Verduno's vineyards.
Burlotto still produces grapes in Neirane, though it now makes up part of the Acclivi Barolo blend. Considering how good that wine is and how important it has become to Burlotto I would not be surprised if we don't see another Burlotto Neirane being bottled.
it is a joy to be able to taste a pair of such special wines, as you might know Burlotto has held a special place in my love of Barolo for quite some time, revisiting these wines brought me back to my earlier days with Burlotto. Nostalgia is wonderful, and these wines were quite fine, but there is no doubt that the wines produced since are qualitatively better in ways large and small.
Still, these were fine wines and a great illustration of the differences between vintages, as the wines were made in fundamentally the same, long fermentations, foot tread whole clusters. large barrel wood ageing, etc. So what set these apart from one another was simply the vintage.
1995 and 1996 are fine back to back vintages, though with the benefit of hindsight 1996 is perhaps not as well thought of as it once was, while 1995 has gained a bit of ground on the better vintages. They were always a relatively tough pair of vintages with 1995 resembling 1988, while 1996 was more of a throwback vintage, austere and lean in the style more common in the 1970s.
The 1995 was typical, tannins were a bit coarser, but the wine had good weight and richness, if remaining a bit on the simple side. Fruit was still in evidence, strawberry toned with hints of cinnamon and some baked clay soil tones lending a shade of complexity. It evolved a bit over the course of three days,with the fruit taking on darker tones and gaining a leathery note on the palate, but didn't really improve appreciably. The tannins remained chunky and while this was a solid wine it lacked finesse.
The 1996 opened as a truffle bomb. If you like truffles this is a wine for you, smelling and tasting of the gem of the fungi family. Over the course of three days the truffle notes integrated well, allowing the ripe cherry fruit to emerge. Again, not a super complex wine, though more complex than the 1995, this did however exhibit a certain degree of finesse, was longer on the palate than that wine, and exhibited superb fine grained tannins which softened over time lending the wine a certain almost silkiness.
With bottles still in the cellar I look forward to matching these wines up again. These are both ready in the sense that they are on their plateau of maturity, but the fact that they remained fresh and intact over the course of three days leads me to believe that they have a full decade of additional positive development ahead of them.
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