Barolo

We have been promising for a while and now it is here:  one of the world’s most famous and prestigious wines: Barolo.
You may have heard of the wine, and perhaps some of you have tried it or even been lucky enough to visit the picture-postcard village. These wines aren’t cheap and, of course, levels of quality differ with each producer but this is a wine that has a unique and ethereal quality to it: delicate, refined and elegant yet powerful and complex – this is Nebbiolo. Nebbiolo, the grape that, depending on where it is cultivated, either becomes Barbaresco, Barolo or quite simply stays as a young and fresh-faced Nebbiolo.
So, what makes Barolo so special? Well, firstly, the area from which such highly sought-after and critically acclaimed wines come from, is tiny (a span of 8km and some 1,700 hectares). Secondly, Barolo needs to be aged for at least 38 months after the harvest before it is released. Of those 38 months, 18 months must be aged in wood. Even more specifically, if the wine is labelled with DOCG status, meaning it comes from the “Classico” area and the heart of Barolo, it needs to have spent a full 24 months in oak, as well as having restrictions on yields and alcohol levels. And then of course there’s the different crus and use of varying styles, from the more traditional large Slavonian oak barrels to the more modernist approach of using barrique, both to this day still offering much debate and argument, but let’s leave that for another couple of decades. What we would like to offer you is a famous quote that perfectly depicts what a Barolo wine evokes and poetically encapsulates: “Barolo, the King of wines and the wine of Kings.”
DP