QRW | Spring 2008 | Barbaresco's Big Party

It’s tough to be the younger brother, especially when the older becomes successful and famous. Barbaresco has suffered that fate, standing in the shadow of Barolo and watching the wines of the larger, better-known zone get all the attention. There have been exceptions, of course — Gaja, Giacosa, and Marchesi di Gresy to name some of the most obvious ones — but by and large the winemakers of Barbaresco have labored and achieved in relative obscurity, or at the very least as a galling afterthought: to most fans of Piemontese wine, it’s Barolo and — oh yes — Barbaresco.

The 70-odd producers of Barbaresco (there are that many labels) intend to put an end to that. Working through the Enoteca del Barbaresco, they announced their coming of age this past September with a long weekend of tastings and celebrations called Piacere Barbaresco, of which the best English equivalent is The Pleasure of Barbaresco. This zone-wide celebration is planned to become an annual event, open to the public and rich with tastings and local celebrations. Officials of the Enoteca also took the opportunity to explain the recently implemented subzoning of the Barbaresco appellation — of which, alas, more later: first the good news.

To be sure, Barbaresco producers know how to throw a party. The weekend started on Friday evening with a by-invitation-only gala dinner honoring the grand achievers and pioneers of the wine, Pio Cesare, Bruno Giacosa, and Angelo Gaja. The area’s five Michelin-starred chefs — this is great dining country — prepared dishes to accompany five increasingly mature and sophisticated vintages of Barbaresco. Maurizio Quaranta of La Locanda del Pilone (Alba) offered an elegant galantine of rabbit with Pio Cesare’s 2003. Maurilio Garola of La Ciau del Tornavento (Treiso) matched a complex leek-and-potato-stuffed zucchini flower in fonduta with Bruno Giacosa’s 2000 vintage; next Enrico Crippa of Ristorante Piazza Duomo (Alba) paired an exotic risotto of porcini and star anise with Giacosa’s gorgeous 1988. Andrea Marino of Antiné (Barbaresco) prepared a savory boned-and-stuffed quail dressed with black truffle to show off Pio Cesare’s 1974. And Flavio Scaiola of Vecchio Tre Stelle (Barbaresco) solved the seemingly daunting problem of dessert by gracefully matching a pear poached in Barbaresco and accompanied by an ice cream of spices with Gaja’s fabled 1964.

Saturday opened with a stand-up tasting in which nearly 70 producers showed their 2004 Barbaresco and their 2003 Riserva. If there were any doubts about what Barbaresco could achieve, this event, which ran all day Saturday and Sunday, completely dispelled them. The 2003 was a difficult year, a more extreme version of 2000. Over-warm all season long, it brought a consequently very early harvest, with many grapes achieving high sugar ripeness while their phenols — which determine the kind and quality of their tannins — were still green. That should have made for an essentially unbalanced, very forward wine. Despite this, most of the 2003s on show were quite drinkable, and several were stand-outs: Bruno Giacosa Asili; Castello di Neive Santo Stefano; Marchesi di Gresy Camp Gros; Marchesi di Gresy Gaiun; Pio Cesare Il Bricco; and Poderi Colla Roncaglie, for a round half-dozen.

But 2004, on the other hand, presented Barbaresco growers with a wonderful harvest that has yielded an extremely fine vintage. Across the board, the wines showed classic Nebbiolo aromas of dark cherry, tar, and tea and a beautifully balanced palate of intense dark fruit with leather and mineral undertones, plus the structure to age gracefully for many, many years. I didn’t taste a single bad wine, and very few that I would rate even as low as average: the vast majority fell into the range of Very Good-Excellent-Outstanding (see sidebar for specifics). The comment I heard again and again among the professional tasters of the international press group that had been assembled for this occasion was simply that “in a vintage like this, the distinction between Barbaresco and Barolo doesn’t exist.” Later in the weekend, at tastings organized in the zone’s principal towns, I was able to confirm that this judgment held true for the equally fine vintages of 1999 and — my favorite — 2001.

All the while these more or less continuous tastings were going on, the Enoteca had organized other events throughout the towns and townlets of the zone. In Barbaresco itself, for instance, some old-time vignerons and farmers told in often colorful detail and deep Piemontese dialect what working the vineyards had been like in the old days. A bus tour, organized for the visiting journalists, gave us the opportunity to see for ourselves what made hillsides like the revered Rabaja and Martinenga so incredibly good. And Saturday and Sunday afternoon, at several locations within the towns of Barbaresco and Treiso and Neive, the producers offered tastings of their Barbaresco 1999 and 2001 to press and public alike.

Perhaps the most sheer fun of the whole weekend was a traditional Saturday night Harvest Festival in the piazza of San Rocco Seno d’Elvio (the name is almost larger than the town). Open to anyone with 20 euro, this was an all-you-can-eat-and-drink country hoe-down, complete with oompah band playing traditional tunes and the women of the town preparing endless platters of carne cruda and salume, bowls of ravioli del plin and tajarin, and steaming mounds of sausages and polenta — all washed down with young local Barbera, Dolcetto, and Barbaresco. Dancing was strictly optional, and at your own risk.

Aside from marathon tastings, the most serious part of the weekend consisted of trying to figure out exactly what Barbaresco’s new subzoning was and what it might mean to the winemakers, the wine, and consumers. After several official and unofficial explanations, the answers to those questions are still pretty fuzzy, but here is what I think it boils down to.

The Barbaresco zone is a small one, with DOCG production about a third less than its neighbor and rival Barolo. It has three major towns: Barbaresco itself, with its (at least locally) famous tower, Neive, and Treiso. It had in place an official breakdown of subzones which was used primarily for local reference: none of its terms ever appeared on labels, whose only geographic indicators were the Barbaresco DOCG and whatever cru or vineyard designation a particular wine might be entitled to.

As of February 2007, however, some 65 — or maybe it’s 67 — subzones have been designated, and — apparently — their names will now have to appear on Barbaresco labels. While official maps won’t be ready before late Spring 2008, it appears that some of these new subzones will divide traditional crus and perhaps appropriate their names — though the press group I traveled with was repeatedly assured that traditional cru names would still be allowed on Barbaresco labels. Quite how this was going to work out was clear to no one.

This new subzoning is purely geographical and in no way indicates anything about quality. It will in fact convey very little information to anyone not intimately familiar with the topography and place names of the Barbaresco zone. Indeed, its purpose appears largely local and political: to recognize almost everybody and everyplace in the zone as somehow important — in effect, to provide every local wine person’s 15 seconds of fame. So from the consumer’s point of view, it seems the subzoning will be essentially meaningless. At worst, it will make Barbaresco labels look like old-fashioned German wine labels, with too much information for anyone but a fanatical bureaucrat to digest. But for winelovers, the really essential information remains the same: the Barbaresco DOCG, the name of a reliable producer, the vintage, and, where relevant, the name of a significant cru or vineyard (see sidebar). Anything else on the label may be a distraction, but not a disaster (except for hardworking wine writers trying to make sense of it).

Anyone interested in attending next year’s Piacere Barbaresco will be able to get information about schedule and events from Signora Marisa Fogliatti at the Enoteca del Barbaresco (enoteca@enotecadelbarbaresco.it; tel +390173635251).

Barbaresco’s Big Party

No longer in the shadow of Barolo,
Piedmont’s other great wine struts its stuff.

Tom Maresca

Best Babarescos:

Some Of The Best Barbaresco Crus

The Best 2004 Barbarescos