Packing it in in Piemonte
Edgar on Monday 12 July
Last week Elisa and I visited the Enotria producers in Piemonte and Liguria. It was midsummer, a full moon, and the hills were alive with the clink clink of bottling lines and cries of dismay at Italy’s World Cup performance. Madness was in the air, but we ploughed on regardless and managed to taste some wine anyway.The most striking point is that Barolo is keeping up its run of brilliant vintages. Over several verticals of 2005, 2006 and 2007 (from barrel) it was clear that 2006 is the most classical, with a high dose of fine tannins, and considerable ageing potential. 2005 on the other hand is drinking extremely well now and has a moreish elegance, or to use Chiara Boschis’ words “you should drink it by the demijohn!”. 2007 is just about to be bottled, and shows the lush roundness and warmth of that summer. Fabio Fantino at Conterno Fantino says ‘2005 is a really elegant vintage, 2006 is a classical Barolo vintage, powerful with big tannin, but 2007 will be softer, a really fruity vintage.’Chiara Boschis is on fine form. She took us up to a high place and showed us vines reaching into the distance like a sea. Pointing to a hamlet she said “there are ten houses there with ten families in, all called Conterno, that is why it is called borgata Conterni”. On either side of the borgata, Chiara has bought two hectares of vines and she already has the 2009 Conterni in barrel. The style is muscular and completely different to her ethereal Cannubi. All in all, a very exciting project. I was fascinated to see the bare soil from a distance: mostly light, calcareous and poor, but there are also bands of darker more fertile earth a few metres across. As she never does anything by halves, Chiara is using different clones and rootstocks, not only depending on the soil type, but depending on the distance down the slope. It is truly precision viticulture at a mind-bogglingly tiny scale. And she was wearing a very stylish Marlene Dietricht tshirt!
Just up the road in Castiglione Falletto, Marco Parusso has also started wearing some great clothes: pink trousers and a blue hooded top with “Bussia” embroidered on the front. Panache and individuality are what to expect with the wines as well. The philosophy seems simple – “Noi facciamo vini fini” – “we make fine wine, the wine the kings used to drink, not the poor Barolos of the post war period. Don’t come here for cotton underwear; the king wore silk”. See, back to clothes again. However, when it comes to the wines, you really see what he means. Marco has been developing his vinification techniques over the past ten years or so. Current releases are all about creamy lees and coconutty wood characters and are completely distinct from other houses’ styles. This will develop with future releases as he has been pushing his philosophy to the limit, with even more oxygen contact and massive but round, polymerised tannins from the stalks. The results in barrel are revolutionary. He has also created a sweet Nebbiolo. It is decadent, fruity and on fire. The “passion” word is somewhat hackneyed, but I have to admit that Marco has it in spades. As we left down his drive, he shouted after us “it is sexy wine!”, and he’s not wrong.
Down in Serralunga, Fontanafredda are also bubbling over with new ideas. The difference between visiting two and a half years ago and visiting now is extreme. The historic winery buildings and hotel have been opened to the general public, there is a dynamic wine bar and delicatessen, two new restaurants on site, a “contemplation park” and general buzz, all of which were not there on my last visit. The catalyst for all this change is the sale of the estate, which is now controlled by Oscar Farinetti, of slow food and Eataly fame. At a product level, the volumi bollati are a great innovation, with sales of 50cl and 100cl bottles for the perfect serve. They are also working on low alcohol wines, green packaging, zero sulphites, minimal intervention, informal drinking and the list goes on. Expect to hear more on this soon.
On a slightly more nerdish note, I have to admit that I was interested to understand better the arcane new rules on Barolo naming introduced last December. Matteo Ascheri, genial as ever, showed extreme forbearance in explaining the new system. Basically, there are now formal rules on what names can and cannot be put on labels and there is a codified hierarchy, reminiscent of the Burgundian system. There are four geographical levels:
1 Barolo
2 Comune level e.g. “Barolo di Barolo/La Morra/Serralunga/Monforte etc.”
3 Sub zone level, more correctly known as “Menzioni Geografiche Aggiuntive”. There are 166 of these.
4 Vineyard level from a specific parcel within a sub zone. This name can be chosen and registered by the producer.
Thus Parusso’s Barolo is level 1, Fontanafredda’s Serralunga is level 2, Ascheri’s Sorano is level 3 and his Sorano Coste e Bricco (produced in top years only) is level 4. For anyone wishing to get into this in more detail, there is a brilliant interactive map showing MGAs with contours, slope gradient and exposure on the www.langhevini.it website – it is in Italian, but click on the section called Cartografia – it’s amazing! See also the link to Matteo’s description of his production philosophy.
A bit to the south, in Gavi, it was great to see that the Bergaglios of La Minaia have finished their new cellar. It has minimal environmental impact, with a grassed roof and natural temperature control. Nicola explained that he is not an organic producer but he likes to spray as little as possible through the year and fortunately his sixty year old Cortese vines are extremely resilient to disease, so he can get away with it. He is particularly happy that his visiting population of swallows is increasing, as it shows that the ecosystem around his vines is rich in insect life, which is a sign that he is doing the right thing. The wines seem to be getting fresher all the time, but Nicola was also keen to show how well they age. A dry 2005 with a hint of botrytis was amazingly complex and delicious.
Over the mountains in Liguria, the Laura Aschero estate is also growing, albeit at an agonisingly stow pace. Marco Rizzo was keen to show the new one hectare vineyard project he has. It was supposed to be planted by the end of 2007, but in reality is only around half finished. The problem is the construction of the terraced walls on the steep hillsides. One metre of wall costs €1000, and his hectare has 120 metres of terracing. Marco used to be a banker, but he is the first to admit that his financial hat was thrown out of the window on this project. “I will never amortise the cost, but if you want to find the best vineyard for Vermentino and Pigato you have to steal it from the mountainside”. Herby and rich, the 2009 Pigato justifies the effort.