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Top Barolo Producers of 2012

With a nice and relaxing weekend looming, for most of you at least, I thought this was a great time to stir things up a bit. I’ve just returned from my annual visit to Piedmont, and I have to say that with each visit it becomes clearer and clearer who is making good wine and who is making great wine.

Making great wine doesn’t mean having a good year, it means making great wine year in and year out with consistency and clarity. I don’t mind if a winemaker’s hand is obvious, as long as it doesn’t obscure the essence of terroir, soil and variety.

After some thought about both the wines and how I should allocate my limited resources in stocking my cellar, I’ve drawn up my list of top producers of Barolo. The list includes some hall of famers, a few up and comers, and a few major producers who are beginning to lose a little ground. 

This list is sure to disappoint many, but it’s my list of the 12 top producers of Barolo. You disagree? Let’s see what you’ve got then!



#12 Giovanni Canonica

So here’s a new producer for me. I’ve tasted a grand total of one wine from Gianni, but it was a doozy. His 2008 Barolo from the Paiagallo vineyard, which overlooks the village of Barolo, was all purity and finesse. It was a singular expression of Barolo like none I’ve had before, making Canonica a producer to follow.

This is organic wine; pure and joyous in its expression of soft wild cherry fruit. It’s possible that 2008 just happened to be a particularly good year for Gianni, but I’m betting his two and a half decades of experience, in minute quantities I might add, probably also have something to do with it.



#11 Bruno Giacosa

Here we have a famous producer who deserves to be in the Barolo hall of fame for the many, many exceptional wines he has produced over the years. So what is he doing at number 11? I mean he was responsible for what is arguably the greatest Barolo of all time, the 1989 Collina Rionda, right?

Yes, that’s all correct, but the wines of Giacosa have become both painfully expensive and, dare I say it, less impressive! It’s true. I think the wines of Giacosa have become quite variable, with high points in 1999 and 2005, but some low points in between. That variability coupled with their pricing policy has moved them down to the bottom of my top 12 list.



#10 E. Pira of Chiara Boschis

Okay here’s a surprise, a modernist producer! Yes, Chiara Boschis does employ some thoroughly modernist technique, the barricaia can attest to that, but the wines are pretty damn impressive. Plus I had to include one more modern producer here to show you all how unbiased I really am!

Seriously though, while I can rattle off the names of at least two other Barolo Boys whose wines I enjoy, none of the new guard produces wine that morphs into a classic expression of Barolo as well as these do.



#9 Vietti

This is another producer in the same boat as Giacosa. I’ve always loved the wines of Vietti and they make up a large percentage of my cellar, but the wines have recently been priced out of my reach with current releases of their single vineyards routinely selling for well over $100 a bottle.

Still, the achievements of Vietti can not be ignored and nor should their very well priced Castiglione bottling, a blend of some very fine crus in their own right.



#8 Oddero

Oddero has produced some fine wines over the years; wines that have aged well but never really pushed the winery into the public eye or the top tier of producers. There have been some real flashes of brilliance, such as the Vigna Rionda bottlings from 1989 and 1996 (an aside: their Vigna Rionda is now being produced as a 10 year reserve, expect the next release to be the 2006 in 2016) and the killer 2004 Mondoca di Bussia.

So what are they doing on this list? Well, they’ve been making better wines year after year, and the wines have become fresher, cleaner and more transparent. In short, they are building a stable of thoroughly convincing wines and the barrel samples I just tasted convinced me that they are on the cusp of their big break through! 



#7 Cappellano

The wines of Cappellano have mostly cruised under the radar for years, though Teobaldo Cappellano did see his wines re-enter the U.S. market with resounding success before he passed away entirely too early in 2009. These were and remain rather unique wines, whether it’s the Pie Franco bottling from the family’s Gabutti vineyard that stands as a testament to determination (it’s Piedmont’s only ungrafted bottling of Barolo) or the more mainstream Rupestris, if organically farmed vines in Piedmont can be called that.

Whatever the case, these are compelling wines. They are powerful and yet elegant with a particularly happy disposition that is tough to describe in English, though the Italian simpatico, in fact molto simpatico, seems to fit quite well here. 

So we meet again to follow up on my somewhat surprising list of the best producers of Barolo. This time around, it’s the top six list. These are the heavy hitters, the super stars, the best of the best.

To me, these are all very obvious choices. Each has produced a line up of spectacular wines for at least a decade, often longer, and they are well known and well represented in the cellars of wine lovers everywhere. Even so, I still want to recognize their efforts myself. 

So here we go, the six best Barolo producers in my opinion are:



#6 Giacomo Conterno

We are entering the land of giants and there is no bigger, more important, more successful producer of Barolo than Giacomo Conterno. For decades their wines, Barolo, then Barolo from the Cascina Francia vineyard, to be joined soon (2010 vintage) by Barolo from the newly acquired Carretta vineyard and their iconic Monfortino, have vied for the honor of being the wine of the vintage.

The wines of Giacomo Conterno continue to be monumental, though in truth the competition has caught up and begun to produce wines equal in quality and character to Conterno’s entry-level bottlings. The same cannot be said for their reserve: Monfortino. It remains as a rather singular expression of Barolo; ultra intense and long lived, and frequently breathtakingly good. It’s also painfully expensive, the 2000 vintage is the least expensive vintage currently on offer and it goes for just over $300 a bottle, which is actually a bargain for wine of this quality. Bargain or not, I can’t afford it, so Giacomo Conterno stays at number 6 on my list.



#5 Giuseppe Rinaldi

Giuseppe Rinaldi has produced world-class wines for decades, as a relatively recent tasting proved. Year after year, in big years and small, the wines of Giuseppe Rinaldi have aged into marvelous examples of classical Barolo. With two vineyard blends in the stable, a relatively unusually if once prevalent practice, it’s easy to see that Giuseppe and more recently his daughter Marta Rinaldi are skilled in allowing the lands of Barolo to speak with their own distinct voices.

The production here is limited and the demand both strong and increasing, so these wines tend to be a bit tough to find, particularly in back vintages. They are worth the effort. The wines, produced organically, are elegant and wonderfully expressive.



#4 Bartolo Mascarello

Speaking of expressive vineyard blends, there are few producers as well known or as well regarded as Bartolo Mascarello, which has been ably run by Bartolo’s daughter Maria Teresa since his passing in 2005. Bartolo’s wines remain legendary and Maria Teresa has continued his legacy while lending her own shading to the wines.

Over the past few years the Barolo from Bartolo Mascarello has become fresher and brighter with more nuance, elegance and purity. For the most part, the wines of Maria Teresa are still young pups, but they have all they need to age into world-class wines.



#3 Fratelli Brovia

I think this is where I start to get into trouble. I’ve said it before and I’m ready to say it again, Brovia is the new Giacosa. Before you get ready to close this entire article, allow me to explain. 

Brovia, like Giacosa, is making wines from some of the best sites in Piedmont. Brovia, also like Giacosa, has achieved a certain level of finesse and, much like Giacosa, Brovia has worked hard to retain a sapid red fruitiness to their wines. 

After saying all that, I would have to say that Brovia is not quite where Giacosa has been, particularly with the red label Riservas. The crus of Brovia can go head-to-head with the crus of Giacosa and match them for nuance today, and at about half the price to boot!



#2 G. B. Burlotto

You should have expected this. I’ve been touting the wines of Burlotto for years. Their Cannubi expresses the lean, austere nature of that site almost perfectly, but the Monvigliero bottling of theirs takes things to another level. Not only is the wine an anachronism in today’s world (foot trod, no temperature control during fermentation and long macerations), it’s also terrific, totally unique and remarkably well priced.

I think Burlotto Monvigliero is one of Piedmont’s truly iconic wines. It is a remarkable expression of site and style where the winemaker really becomes part of the terroir, insofar as terroir seems to be used these days. It is a wine that is recognizable for its distinctive traits that arise, in theory, from the vineyard, but obviously also from the way the wine has been made.  ​



#1  Giuseppe Mascarello

The Maestro.

Responsible for one of my top wines this year as well as last. This year, I was able to taste the 2007 Monprivato, which has to be one of the top two or three wines of the vintage. Finally, a 2007 that captures the warmth of the vintage without becoming a caricature of itself, while still remaining 100 percent true to site and style. This wine rocks.

Last year my jaw dropped when, after spending a week tasting 2007 Barolo, I happened upon the 2004 Villero; a symphony of precision and detail. I look back at all the Giuseppe Mascarello wines I’ve bought and tasted and am struck over and over again by how much these wines resonate with me. They are simply brilliant Barolos, among the greatest wines of the world and still mostly affordable. What more could a Barolo lover ask for?



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