Tasting Report: 2007 Barolo

113 TASTING NOTES
Monday, May 09, 2011

Sylvia Altare, the dynamic daughter of the legendary Barolo maker Elio Altare, was pouring me her family’s range of 2007 Barolos in their winery below the town of La Morra about a month ago, and she had a huge grin on her face (watch the videos: Part 1 and Part 2). The dark ruby wines were exuding exotic aromas of dark berries and citrus that followed through to exuberant juicy palates of ripe fruit and soft tannins.

“They were already approachable from the tank,” she said. “That’s the sign of a great vintage.” Her father stood by and shook his head in agreement.

The 2007 vintage certainly is pleasing; sexy would be another way of describing it. The Nebbiolos from 2007 give so much pleasure already but they are balanced with a gorgeous backbone of tannins as well as opulent fruit. I like to think of them as a mixture of the fruit-forward 2000s with the firm and bright 2001s. The vintage is clearly better than 2006 – a rather lean year.

“The 2007s are fat and juicy and balanced at the same time,” Sylvia added. “They have the character of a very warm vintage but then the character of a cool vintage. It is a mix between 2004 and 1996.”

Barolo producers and lovers will make comparisons forever about the vintage. But they should all agree that it was a year marked by a hot growing season, much like 1989, 1990, 1997, and 2000. The grapes were very ripe and harvested very early. So the wines have an exotic, ripe character but not too much where a slightly raisiny note comes through like in 2003.

I love the way the wines are so approachable now, yet you know that they have the structure to age. These 2007 Barolos will be real crowd pleasers. They should bring in new wine lovers to Barolos, particularly those who found some Barolos too tannic and tough. I would start drinking them in about two or three years. But don’t worry about them not improving in you cellar – they are built to age as well.

“This is a great year, but it is not like the old great years when the wines were very tannic and acidic and they dried your mouth out,” said Roberto Voerzio, who made stunning wines. I scored one of his 2007 single vineyard Barolos 100 points. “We never used to highly rate wines that were elegant, round and rich. But great wines are that.”

Check out this report and see the many great 2007 Barolos. Unfortunately, not all were great quality. A number of wines were slightly diluted, perhaps from overproduction issues in the vineyards. I will taste more 2007s in June at my house in Italy.

Wines are scored on a 100-point scale. Those listed without scores or notes I rated less than 90 points.

2007 Batasiolo Barolo Vigneto Bofani

2007 Batasiolo Barolo Vigneto Cerequio

2007 Beni di Batasiolo Barolo Vigneto Corda della Briccolina

2007 Boroli Barolo Cerequio

2007 Sebaste Barolo Prapò

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