Fine wine comment: Italian en primeur requires no guesswork

Jochen Erler takes part in Piedmont’s Nebbiolo Prima first release event and finds that the Bordelais could learn much from the Italians’ professional approach.

I recently had the pleasure of attending the annual Nebbiolo Prima wine tasting which takes place in Alba, a small town at the feet of the beautiful hills of Torino and Piedmont.

As the title implies, it is a first tasting of wines made from the Nebbiolo grape. Only wine produced from Nebbiolo grapes grown in the DOCs Barolo, Barbaresco and Roero are admitted here.

One can compare this event with the en primeur events in Bordeaux and Burgundy because like in France this is a first offer of wines to the market.

However, the Alba tasting does not take place in the same time frame as that in France where the new wines are tasted one year after harvest regardless of their stage of development.

In contrast to the en primeur events in Bordeaux and Burgundy, the wines tasted at the event in Alba are not from the barrel. They have already been bottled, and the event is rather a first release tasting. Hence there are no wines still undergoing malolactic fermentation as can happen in the cellars in France. The new wines sampled in Alba openly show their strength or weakness; no guesswork about their future mature status is required.

In accordance with the DOCG regulations, the Barolo wines are presented in Alba after two years ageing in barrels, the Barbaresco wines with one year of barrel ageing. Their riservas have an additional two years in the barrel before being bottled.

The most striking difference between the en primeur tastings in France and this Nebbiolo Prima is the modus procedendi of the event.

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