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Barolo en primeur auction: first impressions on the wines from 2021
Barolo’s en primeur charity auction is back for the second time ever, and Filippo Bartolotta gives db his first impressions on the 2021 expressions from “a miraculously beautiful vintage”.
Barolo en primeur was launched last year with the 2021 vintage as a social responsibility project by the Cassa di Risparmio di Cuneo Foundation, in conjunction with the CRC Donare Foundation and the Consortium of Protection of Barolo Barbaresco Alba Langhe and Dogliani.
Conceived as a charity auction in aid of ‘socially-useful projects’, it offers 15 barriques of Barolo before it is bottled, with the sale of these wines run from the Grinzane Cavour Castle.
The project is a “circular energy project”, said Donato Lanati, the highly-regarded Italian enologist in charge of the technical side, when speaking to db this week.
As reported by db in November, last year’s edition saw over €600,000 raised from the sale of 2020 vintage wines from 15 barrels.
This year it will be slightly different. First of all the vintage. 2021 has turned into a miraculously beautiful vintage which nobody really anticipated, because of the heavy hail storms during the early summer and the strong drought later on, says Matteo Ascheri, President of the Consorzio di Tutela Barolo, Barbaresco Alba e Dogliani. “And yet when harvest time came the fruit was perfect and so we brought home a spectacular crop,” he added.
After tasting 16 samples between the 2020 and the 2021 vintage at Lanati’s marvelous Tenuta Meraviglia labs, the drinks business had exclusive access to the barrels hosted and supervised in the Ascheri’s winery. The different plots are all fermented separately, some in inox, other in straight into the oak vats, and malolactic is carried out in barrique. All samples will be spending 18 months in second passage medium toasted barriques. At this stage the wines haven’t yet been racked and they all smell beautiful. After tasting a few samples of the 2020 barriques, the focus on the 2021 showed a deeper and more reactive structure of the wines with some brilliant and transparent colour and a very vibrant acidity. The older vines plot were the ones which convinced us the most with a sweeter and more generous fruit and a very elegant touch on the palate.
As a general note, the recent Barolos vintages are showing much more definition and an easier-to-understand style even during their earlier stages. This, we believe, is due to a couple of factors. On one hand warmer climate means riper and more consistent fruit, a paramount factor for a region which until a few years ago used to have 3 out of 10 good vintages. But the most important factor is the immense growth the Langhe region has undergone in the last 20 years. And this is true for anybody. The years of Old School vs New School are over. The ‘contemporary’ style Barolo is a more transparent style wine for any school. The nebbiolo variety is looked after much better in the vineyards and handled much more softly during fermentation.
So we asked the President Ascheri, whether the charity events could prelude a possible official Barolo En Primeur in 2024, just like in Bordeaux: the President smiled and said: “It’s maybe a bit too early for that, but…”
This years news is also related to the add on of many different smaller lots of “Lotti Comunali” – eight different lots of Barolo 2021 from 8 different Comuni (towns) plus 6 barbaresco 2021 lots.
Once the wines are bottled in 2023 they will all get a special artist label (the artist’s name is a secret still, but stay tuned for upcoming news) to add value to the collectible item.
All lots will be auctioned simultaneously online in New York (with wine critic Antonio Galloni) and in Langhe by Christie’s during the 2022 Barolo En Primeur event at the Castello di Grinzane Cavour, right over the Vigna Gustava, on October the 28th.
The projects launched by Cassa di Risparmio di Cuneo foundation (CRC Foundation) together with CRC Donare Foundation and Consorzio di Tutela Barolo Barbaresco Alba Langhe e Dogliani will guarantee the entire amount of donations goes direct project in the non-profit fields, as selected by the organizers and donors, says Ezio Raviola, President CRC.
Strolling along the vineyards of the Vigna Gustava MGA in the evening while the Grinzane Castle is about to cast its beautiful shadow on the vines, I noticed the white marl of this site, very similar to the Serralunga geological formation, one of the secret of clarity and longevity of this Barolo. And just like the wine, this charity project is built to last. Andrea Ferrero, Director of the Consorzio seem to have a pretty clear vision of Barolo En Primeur: we are making sure that more and more producers take part to this great effort to help people in need and to create an ever bigger community of Barolo lovers able to discover the many angles this great wine appellation can offer.
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