Rating New Barolos and Barbarescos: Nebbiolo Lovers Enjoy 2018 Despite Criticism

Winemakers and critics alike can be too hard on a vintage. The thought occurred to me about a month ago when I spent four days in Barolo and Barbaresco visiting a few producers and tasting a hundred or so wines. I was surprised how many winemakers slammed the 2018 vintage for Barolo and Barbaresco, yet the more I taste and drink the wines from that vintage the more I like them.

Granted, the 2018 is certainly not in the same league for Barolo and Barbaresco as the great trio of 2015, 2016 and 2017. I don’t think it made many reds that were even as good quality as the complicated 2014 or rather simple 2012. But the 2018 reds are delicious to drink already, and apparently they are selling well, particularly in North America.

We tasted and rated almost 530 Barolos and Barbarescos from 2018 this year as well as another 255 from such vintages as 2019 down to the 2007. The majority of the Barbarescos were from the slightly more structured 2019 vintage.

“I just don’t like the 2018 very much," said Federico Ceretto, whose family has made some outstanding wines, even in a weak vintage like 2018. I drank a bottle of his 2018 Ceretto Barolo Rocche di Castiglione the night after I returned from my visit in Piedmont and finished the bottle in about 20 minutes with my wife and some friends.

We all loved its soft texture and subtle and autumnal flavors of mushrooms and plums as well as leather and bark. Of course, it’s not a Barolo to keep in your cellar very long, but it’s a delicious bottle to open and drink now. And in many cases, it has plenty of attractive nebbiolo character.

Wine producers I interviewed all agreed that the main reasons most people made lighter nebbiolos in 2018 is because their crops were too large, and rain persisted through part of the end of the growing season and the harvest. “You needed to be in your vineyard all the time and work to keep yields down and the grapes in good condition,” said Roberto Voerzio, who made some of the best wines of the 2018 vintage in Barolo.

Some producers declassified wines, such as Produttori del Barbaresco, the vine growers’ cooperative that makes wine and represents about one-fourth the total production of the appellation.

“The quality was not good enough, so we decided to not make single-vineyard bottlings and only make our blended one,” said the head of the group, Aldo Vacca. “We didn’t expect a great vintage.”

He added that the crop was too large and the weather was too hot during the harvest, besides the intermittent rain.

Bruna Giacosa, one of the best produces in Piedmont, also decided not to make her single-vineyard wines in Barolo in 2018, but she did bottle a very good but not great Falleto Barolo blend. “It’s a nice wine but nothing special,” she said.

Her Barolos and Barbarescos, and others, are definitely a step up in quality in 2019 from the 2018 nebbiolos we rated over the last two years The wines generally show more fruit concentration and better structure. But again, it’s not the great quality of 2017, 2016 or 2015. I tasted a number of 2000 and 2021 barrel samples last week and I was excited with their general richness and structure. These should be two top vintages.

“We are very happy with our 2019 Barbarescos,” said Alberto di Gresy, the energetic owner of one of the most beautiful domains in Piedmont, Marchesi di Gresy. “But we think that our 2020s and 2021s are even better.”

Wine producers said that the growing season was similar to 2018 but with slightly less rain and less crop. The grapes ripened better in 2019 compared with 2018.

Added Vacca: “After the experience of 2018, the farmers were more cautious with the green harvesting and did more, and we had a better difference in night and day temperatures. We considered not making single vineyards in 2019 [like in 2018] but we decided to in the end.”

I found some pretty stunning 2019 Barbarescos in my tastings this year. The two Bruno Giacosa single-vineyard bottlings, Asili and Rabaja, were really superb, with the former showing super perfumes, depth and finesse, and the latter showing solid structure and depth. The always understated and humorous Giacosa commented, “The 2019 vintage was certainly not the vintage of the century but we made some excellent wines.”

The 2019 Barbarescos definitely show more concentration of fruit in their center palate as well as more concentration of tannins. But they are also not at the sample quality level as the great 2015, 2016 and 2017. Yet they are young Barbarescos that show a lot of attractive qualities at an early stage now. I look forward to tasting 2019 Barolos early next year.

The few 2020 and 2021 nebbiolo-based wines, mostly Barolos from barrel samples, that I tasted during my quick trip certainly confirm what di Gresy and others said about the vintages. The 2020s had more fruit and tannins with a warm and rich character from the hot and rather dry growing season while the 2021 were more tannic and classical in character. Producers are already comparing the two years to the great 2015 and 2016, respectively.  Stay tuned.

– James Suckling, Editor/Chairman