Barolo Annual Tasting Report: 2020 Goes Down Easy

There’s something special about the 2020 Barolo. It's been a long time since Italy’s famous wine region has produced such beautifully approachable nebbiolos. Perhaps the great 2000 or the expressive 2017 vintages are similar, but the 2020 Barolo vintage is certainly easier to drink than it is to understand.

We rated over 400 Barolos from 2020 this year and they are well-balanced, with great aromas in the best examples and full of flesh and fruit concentration that counteracts the austere structure of nebbiolo. But they are not heavy or ponderous. They aren’t necessarily “ready to drink,” but they are certainly more approachable than usual and undoubtedly more so compared with the more severe and lean 2019 vintage or the structured 2021, which will be released next year.

Looking back at 2018, Barolo was ready to drink and enjoyable, though more diluted. Looking ahead to 2021 (based on the first tastings from barrels), we find both the structural power of 2019 and the fruit completeness of 2020.

For more experienced Barolo enthusiasts, the trio of 2019, 2020 and 2021 closely resembles the three turn-of-the-century vintages – 1999, 2000 and 2001 – in their austerity, roundness, and completeness, respectively. “The 2020 is like 2000,” said Bruna Giacosa, owner of the legendary winery bearing her family’s name. “The 2021 is similar to 2001, while 2019 is comparable to 1999.”

However, to understand how the 2020 Barolos came to be, one must piece together many parts of a complex puzzle. The first key is the growing season: the year was a hot one, and very close to what the region witnessed in 2003 and 2017 in terms of average temperatures, yet there was ample water during the summer. According to a 2020 harvest report by Alessandro Masnaghetti on his online platform, Barolo360: “Except for the first four months of the year, water has never been lacking, and in fact, several humidity-related issues have arisen, as evidenced by the widespread attacks of downy mildew.”

Most notably, rain fell during the harvest, dividing it between those who harvested earlier and those who harvested later. “We had two days of rain at the beginning of October,” confirmed Federica Boffa, owner of the Pio Cesare estate. Some sources recorded 90 millimeters of rain on Oct. 2 and 3.

“This harvest suffered from untimely rain of 90 to 100 millimeters,” added Gianluca Torrengo, winemaking director at Prunotto, the Antinori family estate in Langhe. The rain, therefore, was beneficial for this vintage, tempering the warm and concentrated character of the wines, he noted.

But that’s not the whole picture. Another key factor was the absence of heat spikes. This is one of the major issues for contemporary Barolo, as nebbiolo grapes are highly susceptible to tannin oxidation due to excessive heat. Oxidation of these tannins while still on the vine compromises their extraction into the wine, affecting its longevity.

Comparing the different zones of Barolo, there weren’t significant differences except for the negative impact of hail. “We did not produce Barolo Acclivi in this vintage because we suffered intense hail between Verduno and La Morra,” said Fabio Alessandria, owner of the Burlotto Estate. The warmer and more exposed areas were more affected by the heat, leading to a consequent drop in acidity, which is not necessarily a flaw for Barolo.

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Preserving the fragrance of tannins is one of the main challenges for Langhe today, given the increasingly hot growing seasons, but that wasn’t the case in 2020. “With warmer vintages, even the color of the lees has changed; nowadays, it’s darker, more vivid,” explained Giacomo Conterno, one of the three Conterno brothers who lead Poderi Aldo Conterno.

“Today, more sugars are fermenting, and this opens up a new aromatic profile for nebbiolo – something to be embraced, not feared,” he added.

It’s these new aromatics and agile yet fruity flavors that made so many of the 2020 Barolos irresistible to us during our tastings. They were so appealing, it was hard not to drink them.

– Aldo Fiordelli, Senior Editor, and James Suckling, Editor/Chairman

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