Our Barolo Blog Explained

Since for part of the year, we live near the town of Barolo, we visit there as well as some of the eleven towns in that area that, by law, are able to produce Barolo, to taste new releases and, if they are suitable for our cellar, purchase them.  Since we do go more than the average person, we decided to write about our findings, mainly the good, but also some of the not so good Barolo, Barbaresco and Nebbiolo that we taste.  This blog will not be updated every day nor every week and maybe not even every month but, we will relate to you what we think when we do travel there.  We will also provide the reader with the type of food that you might serve with the wine we review once it is opened.

We take no compensation for what we write.  On occasion, we are offered a complementary bottle or two of their wines, usually because we have purchased a number of bottles.  Sometimes, even a discount if our purchases past the level that the cantina has set.

Some confusion has surfaced about the prices we list on some of the wines.  Those are prices that the cantina/winery sets and are for the clients that buy directly from the cantina/winery.  Prices may vary where you buy your wine!

We do not drink Barolo, Barbaresco or Nebbiolo every day.  Our house wine, a Barbera d'Asti, is grown and made by Michele Ferrero in Costigliole d'Asti.  We also have his Arneis for guests that prefer white wine.  He and his brother make excellent wines.  We have most of his efforts in our cellar for aging and drinking on a regular basis.  Michele is the brother-in-law of one of our very good friends, Laura Toso of Agriturismo La Mussia (https://www.lamussia.it).  This is the only possible conflict of interest that could be perceived.

Another piece of information...we are frequently served wines that are not Barolo, Barbaresco (both made with the Nebbiolo grape) or Nebbiolo itself.  This blog is about Barolo, Barbaresco and Nebbiolo so we will not discuss anything except these three.

If there is a particular cantina (winery) you would like us to visit, please communicate and tell us why and what particular offerings that you would like us to concentrate on.  You may contact us by clicking here!

For the short time we have been writing about our experiences in tasting Barolo, Barbaresco and Nebbiolo, we have come to realize that dealing with the owner of a cantina or the winemaker makes a big difference in the wines.  Yes, we know that this is all psychological but if you have tasted as many wines as we have (one of us was a wine investor in California before moving to Italy), you realize the personal touch is very important so we will not write any further about wine "factories" nor will we even visit them unless it is unavoidable.  Someone asked us how many Barolos that we had tasted.  Our first "guess" was around 400 but after thinking about it, the number increased to 500.

One more thing that has become more common in our travels...wineries/cantine have begun to charge for tastings/degustazione.  In an effort to still bring in the public to taste their wines, they often do not tell people that they will owe what we consider a significant amount if their purchases do not qualify them for a waiver.  Be aware and ask if there is a charge to taste!

Since the world has become what could be considered a dangerous place with the virus running rampant, for those that read the blog on occasion, you will see that we have not had a lot of things to write about.  Even now, the second week in June, 2020, while not being confined to our home, we have not visited any wineries because they are still not allowed to have visitors or do tastings.  We look forward to tasting the 2018 vintage which is widely said to be one of the best in recent times.

And lastly, as many of you know, wine is a subjective thing.  What we like, you may deplore, but you will have the opportunity to read what we think and maybe give you the impetus to try something new.

The opinions expressed here are ours and ours alone.

Copyright 2011 - 2022.  All Rights Reserved.  No part of this blog may be used in any other publication, no matter what the media type, without the express written consent of the authors.

Поиск импортера /дистрибьютора в РФ

Один из производителей  лучших местных марок Barolo, Nebbiolo, Barbera  выразил желание  найти импортера / дистрибьютора своих вин в Российской Федерации. Если Ваша компания заинтересована  и у Вас есть  возможность  значительных закупок, Вы можете  указать Ваши контакты, нажав  ЗДЕСЬ, рассказать  о Вашем предложении и Ваших идеях для этих очень хороших итальянских вин.  Мы переведем ваше сообщение на итальянский язык и перешлем его  производителю и уточним детали для Вас. Мы владеем   русским, итальянским  и английским языками.

Rivetto - Serralunga d'Alba

At dinner the night before this visit, we had a bottle of Rivetto Nebbiolo 2011.  We enjoyed it very much so decided to go to the cantina the next day to buy some for our cellar.

The 2011 Nebbiolo is a very good wine.  It is drinkable now but will mature in our cellar for another two years.  Recommended.  Purchased for our cellar (euro 17 per bottle)

Next, the 2010 Barbaresco Ce` Vanin.  Very good example of the grape in the nose.  A good mouth even though a little smooth for a young wine.  The tannins are very evident and may step on the fruit after more time in the cellar.  Good wine for food.  Drink now.

Next, 2009 Barolo Serralunga d'Alba.  Nose decidedly Barolo.  Mouth dominated by big tannins, big fruit. Needs five years in the cellar before opening a bottle to see the progression.  Highly recommended. Purchased for our cellar (euro 29 per bottle).

Barolo Leon Riserva 2007 was the next offering.  Very big tannins, mouth that of the grape. Ready to drink now.  Recommended.

Next, 2007 Barolo Briccolina.  Very smooth, ready to drink.  Highly recommended.  euro 98 per bottle.

As a side note to this visit, we had a very nice conversation with all from Rivetto.  Especially good was the conversation we had with Ercole, Enrico's father.  He related to us the story of how his grandfather hid the production from 1944 (his birth year) in walls because of the German occupation of the area.  Regretfully, none of the 1945 (my birth year) survives.

22 April 2016  Today we opened the first of three bottles of the 2011 Nebbiolo.  As previously related, it is a very good wine.  We served it with a filet of lake perch and fresh asparagus from our garden.  The perch was sauteed in olive oil after being dipped in flour infused with curcuma. While some people would not serve fish with red wine, we do not have that restriction.  We believe that the wine is ready to drink even though it did change throughout the meal.  A fairly closed glass is recommended to maintain the wine throughout your meal.

31 July 2016  We made a lasagna today so we thought that the 2011 Langhe Nebbiolo would go good with it.  However, the bottle was corked and we were unable to enjoy the wine.  Hopefully, our last bottle of it will be ok.

10 September 2016  Now we "kind of" break from our tradition of writing only about Barolo, Barbaresco and Nebbiolo.

The first wine presented was Rivetto's new Kaskal.  This is a Metodo Classico, Extra Brut sparkling wine made only from the tips of the Nebbiolo grappoli (bunches).  It is excellent.  We had seen Enrico's blog about the wine and were very happy they offered it to us.  Purchased for our cellar.

We then tasted the 2012 Serralunga  Barolo, 14.5% alcohol.  This wine had been open for about 16 hours and had lost a lot of what you would expect to find in the 2012 Barolo.  There was very little nose to be noticed.  The fruit in the mouth arrived about 15 minutes after we started working the glass.  Euro 33 a bottle.

The last Barolo was the 2010 Leon Riserva, 15% alcohol.  This is another of Enrico's spectacular wines.  The tannins, fruit and acids are very noticeable leaving us to believe that you should put it way in the back of your cellar with a first bottle open date of 2026.  Euro 52 a bottle, purchased for our cellar.

As we were loading the wine in our car, Enrico's grandfather, Ercole arrived.  We had a "old friends" conversation with him.  He is one year older than I am so we have a lot in common.  It was very good to see him again!! 

5 October 2016  Today is the sixth anniversary of Natalya's arrival in Italy so it is quite occasion for us.  We thought to open one of the bottles of Kaskal that we had gotten about three weeks ago to serve with the borscht that Natalya made.  The wine is a little hard having been just released.  While it is a great wine, we will leave the rest of our bottles in the cellar for at least a year before opening another.

17 October 2016  Today we opened our last (what a pity!) of the 2011 Langhe Nebbiolo.  We served it with our typical Monday meal of chicken hamburger on natural bread.  But today, we did something a little different with the hamburger.  We sauteed some chicken wings in some Sicilian olive oil and then put them on the wood stove in a pan of water to make chicken broth.  Then we poured some of the grease from the wings into the pan.  We then sauteed the hamburgers in the leftover chicken grease.  It was very good with the Nebbiolo complimenting the wine very well.  Have the wine?  We would suggest that you drink it now.  It may last for another month or two but why wait for such good grape juice?

11 November 2018 Today, we opened our last bottle of the 2013 Langhe Nebbiolo.  We served it with Boscaiolo cheese as an appetizer, our wood oven baked lasagna and insalata riccia  from our garden.  It is a good wine.  We had expected it to be a little more robust but it did well with the meal.  This was the only bottle we had so no further information about the wine is forthcoming.

3 March 2019  Today for lunch, we opened a bottle of the 2009 Rivetto Barolo del Comune di Serralunga d'Álba.  It was served with an appetizer of Straciatella cheese on fresh bread, Natalya's borsch, a spinach-ricotta quiche.  As you may know, each one of the "Barolo towns"make a different Barolo.  This was a bigger wine but still went well with the quiche.  Have it in your cellar?  Try it now.  It is very good!

01 January 2021 For the New Year's Day, we thought that a good bottle of Barolo from the Serralunga area would be good.  So, I got out our last bottle of the 2009 Del Comune di Serralunga d'Alba from Rivetto.  Since we were quite tired from cooking the day before, we enjoyed the leftovers from yesterday.  Again, and this seems to be happening more often because of the lockdown, we are running out of wine that is ready to drink.  The wine was very good but in reality, it needed at least another two years before, if we had another bottle, we would open it.  Need to go visit the cantina!!