Master of Wine Tastes Two Classic Italian Red Wines

Barolo is one of the world's great wines. In this video I'll discuss the background details of what makes it so special along with what to look for when you're out shopping for it. Also included will be a tasting of two classic wines. The recently just released Barolo and another which is nearly 30 years old. Barolo is an appellation in the Piedmont region of northwest Italy. All Barolo is red made entirely from Nebbiolo. While Nebbiolo is the most renowned grape variety it accounts for less than 10% of the total vineyard plantings of the region being reserved for the best suited top vineyard sites. It's a difficult grape variety to grow and beyond Piedmont and some nearby neighboring regions Nebbiolo has a limited reach around the world with nothing that approaches the distinctive character of Piedmont. Hi I'm Bob Polinsky. I've been a master of wine for more than 20 years and I've worked in the wine trade for more than 40 years. Most of my time is spent on my wine import business but I post YouTube videos as often as I can. With this specific video I started early morning and this is going to go late night as I want to retaste the two wines after they've had some hours to air. Nebbiolo is thought to be indigenous to northwest Italy although the exact location is not known. The name Nebbiolo may have been derived from the commonly found fog in the region that is known as Nebbia. It could also be from the hazy bluish gray exterior of the grapes themselves. Barolo and Barbaresco are often compared to one another. Both are great wines made from Nebbiolo with vineyards that are located just a short distance apart. Barbaresco generally comes from lower altitude vineyards oftentimes more nutrient-rich soils versus Barolo. The end result are wines that are softer and more approachable at an earlier age but there are plenty of exceptions and the difference becomes more difficult to discern as the wines age. There are plenty of great Barolo vintages currently available with three consecutive outstanding vintages with 2018, 2019 and 2020. All are widely available at the present time. 2020 is often viewed as being a little more accessible early on but that is only a general rule. One call out be mindful of wines that hit the 15% alcohol level. This can oftentimes be too ripe and the elevated alcohol can cause the wines to be out of balance. This is quite common with vintages like the 2015 which was very hot and dry. Barolo experienced a significant change in the 1970s when Prunato and Vietti led the way for Cru or single vineyard bottling. Up to this point Barolo was typically made from a blend of vineyard sites. Single vineyard sites do not necessarily mean better wines but they nearly always mean more expensive wines. Choosing wisely makes all the difference here. Barolo must be aged for three years prior to release. Barolo Reserva must be aged five years before being released for sale. If you're looking to buy Barolo check the description below. There I'll list a number of producers to search out along with some details on recent vintages, longevity or seller potential along with expected price points. Now about 30 years ago was the first time that I traveled to this part of Italy and at the time there was something going on called the Barolo It was the traditionalist versus the modernist. Each had very different views of what Barolo should be. With the modernist it was shorter maceration times and a greater influence of new oak, French oak and smaller barrels. With the traditionalist it was an extended maceration time with less overt influence from oak. Generally they were using neutral oak and larger barrels. There are a number of other differences but these are two primary points. Now in recent years that line has become very much blurred but the topic that is really top of mind there today is all around climate change and in recent years the vintages have been very warm and this is changing the way that Barolo is being produced. In the vineyards there's changes with canopy, canopy management, the crop load, cover crops, harvest dates. Within the winery there's also some changes oftentimes with maceration times. Usually tap down a little bit in the warmer vintages but essentially the focus is maintaining that sense of place, that character that makes Barolo so unique. It's time for the tasting. First up is the 2020 Moroveglio Barolo DOCG. I chose this wine for a couple of reasons. It's an excellent source, I'm impressed with the wine but also it has very good availability in the US, Europe and Southeast Asia. The wine is fermented in stainless steel then it's transferred to small oak barrels. Only 20% new oak, the rest is previously used. For me I like this ratio. Less oak plays more of a complementary role. Also there's a range of cru Barolo as well. I put a few comments in the description below if you'd like to check that out. The wine has a medium deep garnet appearance with just a bit of fade at the edge of the glass. Over the last few months I've had about a half a dozen opportunities to taste Barolo from the 2020 vintage. Now truth be told if I was not shooting this video today there's no way I'd be opening this wine. These are wines that are really built to age so there's no way I'd be opening this but I want to give you a little bit of insight in terms of what's going on with the 2020 vintage because it's really plentiful at the current time. Well for starters I think I'm using the wrong glass. I think the bowl on this is a little bit tight. I do not have a glass that is specifically made from Nebbiolo but what I do have is one that I use on occasion for Pinot Noir so I'm going to change this and my hope is that I can get a little bit more aromatics out of this wine with a bigger wider bowl more surface area. Now the aroma on this from the get-go there's some of this black olive dry rose petal characteristic. Good intensity there's a little bit of alcoholic heat there as well but every indicator is this is an extremely young wine which of course it is. On the palate wine is really hard as a rock at the present time. Tannin really shows through. Obviously this wine is very very youthful. It's tight a little austere at the present time but there's some really nice density here. I mean the wine has some good presence on the palate. That fruit character shows through some red fruit again that dried rose petal. There's a little bit of a note here that's a bit reminiscent of truffle and sometimes you'll find that in Nebbiolo-based wines and this definitely does have a hint of that. You know I think this is a wine that definitely is going to benefit from some serious aeration. I'm going to actually decant this wine. It's not something I do very often but I want to try to introduce as much air as possible. I'll come back in some hours and re-taste this wine but I think the the structure here is very good. The wine shows excellent potential it just needs some time to develop. Next up is the 1997 Luigi Iannotti Barolo one of the iconic sources from the region. 1997 is a very good vintage and the wine has been cellared well for more than 20 years. I originally had six bottles. This is my last one. Up to this point every bottle has lived up to expectations. Notice the alcohol level at 13.5. This was common a few decades ago but in general that number has bumped up in recent years. Also notice the fill level is very good and the cork looks to be in solid condition. These are two signs of a well stored wine. The color of the wine looks healthy. It's moderately deep in the core and there's just a slight amount of browning at the edge of the glass. For starters with the cork you can see there's some bleed up the sides of it. The cork is actually in good shape for being 25 years old. It's solid. It's not crumbly. I think this is a cork that has done its job. Now in terms of the wine the aroma. Wow okay so this is the type of wine that makes me really happy that I got into this business more than 40 years ago. This smells amazing. It's only been open a few minutes but the aroma is really nuanced and layered. It has that dried rose petal character, truffle, black pepper. There's a bit of a dark chocolate characteristic. There still is some red fruit here although it is mostly tertiary characteristics. This smells amazing. Serious wow factor. On the palate all those characteristics from the aroma follow through. There's some good body here. Some nice acidity and even though it does have those tertiary characteristics that are inherent with bottle age there's no lifted volatile acidity. There's no sharpness, no coarseness in this wine. It's really holding together extremely well. The tannins are still evident. I think this wine actually could go another five, six, ten years or so if it's stored correctly. It's beautiful. The wine is really stunning from start to finish. I'm curious to see how this develops with some time but right now this wine is just dazzling. I mean this is one of the better wines that I've had all year long. So let's come back to this in a few hours. Here's a side-by-side comparison. The 2020 is on the left. The 1997 it's on the right. The 97 maybe surprisingly has better color density but it's also showing some browning at the edge of the glass. Through the magic of YouTube it's nine hours later. So at this point I'm revisiting the 2020 Barolo. Keep in mind I did decant the wine. I actually had two decanters and I dumped the wine back and forth between the two about 10 times to try to really aggressively aerate the wine and around hour three or four there started to be a notice of a change and that change was with the aroma. Much more pronounced aroma that the dried rose petal, red fruit characteristic, smoky spicy character came out, a bit of a truffle character. There is a little bit of oak in this wine that starts to show through as well but all of that started to bloom after several hours. Now on the palate I think I described this wine as either hard as a rock or hard as nails. It was a tough wine when I first opened it and it's still obviously very youthful and that time in the decanter it can do some wonderful things to open the wine up but it's not a replacement for bottling. So this is obviously a very young wine. It has not hit its full potential but the raw material here is excellent and I think the aging potential here of 10 years is a slam dunk. No no trouble whatsoever in that regard but I think the raw material is very good. There's a lot of really positive characteristics in this wine and the tannic structure and the overall build of the wine indicates it can hold for another decade with no problem. Yeah I'm really liking this wine a lot now and there's still a fair amount left. I'm curious to see how this how this tastes in the morning and if it's still showing quite well I'll probably do a youtube short to supplement this video but love this wine it's really solid it just needs a good deal of patience. Next up is the revisit of the second wine the 97 Luigi Iannotti. Originally when I popped this this wine was tremendous right out of the gate and while the 2020 was doing this nice climb up and improving bit by bit this wine very different story. After about three or four hours when the first wine was really starting to shine this one was starting to fade and this is what happens oftentimes with older bottles of wine. You know when you open the wine and it's exposed to oxygen the molecular changes tend to be very quick and sometimes these are wines that can go into decline quickly. Now I don't think this wine has gone like full-on taking a nose dive but it certainly is not getting better with aeration. Yeah the aroma those tertiary notes are really showing through and while I was just doing cartwheels over this wine when I first opened it I'm going to backtrack a little bit on my statements. This wine actually is starting to fade a bit so with it being my last bottle I'm actually okay with it but the aroma is still very nice. Again that tertiary character shows through all that that truffle and chocolate and a bit of red fruit show through. There's something here that's a bit reminiscent of soy sauce and sometimes you'll find that in wines that have a good amount of bottle age to them but still very interesting on the aroma but it's it's certainly not on the rise if anything gets plateaued maybe slightly in decline. Yeah on the palate really soft round very full the wine is not falling apart I mean it's holding its own just fine but I think it's right at that crest of the hill it's not something that I'd want to keep any longer. Look this is just a great producer and it's from a very solid vintage and if here's a wine that has a lot of years behind it it's really a testament to what this wine can show over a number of years. If you're looking at some of the more recent vintages they are rock solid outstanding as well it's a producer that you just can't go wrong with. So it's a fun wine it really was showing its best when it was first opened it's now a bit in decline I'm not going to keep any of this around till tomorrow I think this is going to be my my wine for a late night supper but I love it really enjoying it and this is just a great producer partner. If you're looking for wines to sell her away or something that would be a special gift you can't go wrong with Barola. For me I'll be drinking the 97 tonight and I'm curious to see how this develops over the course of the evening. I hope you're drinking something interesting as well and if you've not yet subscribed to my channel please consider doing so right now. Hit that like button definitely hit the notification bell that way you'll be kept up to speed on all things happening here. If you have any like-minded wine friends please share this video it helps me to grow this channel it's very much appreciated. Hey please stop back again before too long. Cheers!