The annual “Alba Wine Exhibition”, the event that presents the new releases of the Langa’s Nebbiolo based wines to the press, was held in Alba between the 6th and the 10th of May.
The libretto this year announced Barolos 2003 and Barbarescos 2004: we tasted respectively 170 and 67 samples of these two wines. For what concerns Barbarescos 2004, we can say that the tasting gave us a fairly clear idea of the general situation, but for the “King of Wines” 2003, a few problems related to the vintage itself and to the tasting conditions left us with a few doubts. We will try to get a clearer idea about it with a second tasting of these wines in September.
Let’s start with Barbaresco 2004 then, giving a brief overview of the climate in that year. The vintage was generally a good one, but quite a few producers managed to complicate the things, fearing an old Italian proverb that goes “There’s not second without a third ”.  That’s because after two very difficult vintages, where the hail first and the drought after reduced very much the yields (and the quality) of the products, a good part of the producers did not have the heart to reduce the yield per plant, fearing a kind of “plague of Egypt” that never came. That’s why we can say that the Barbarescos 2004 are wines with a good nose but with a certain dilution, that surely does not help on the versatility side. They are very pleasant wines,but lack that depth that one expects from this DOCG. There are many exceptions to this, but we’ll get to mention them when we will publish the full results of the tasting.
Let’s come to the Barolos 2003, to which we’ll have to give, almost begrudgingly, a second chance.
Here the facts: we were once again facing the catastrophic effects of the heat wave of 2003, with extremely high alcohol, rough or absent nose and dry, unripe tannins entrusted to guard a wine lacking the body and the structure that only a correct ripeness of the grapes gives.
The morning flight (almost 70 samples) was, in at least two instances, an endurance test from which I emerged sad and tired. That’s because the usually flawless Albese organisation did not take into account the almost 32°C of the first days of May and the air conditioners that, in the moment of need, decided not to work for a couple of days.
We ended up tasting wines with at least a 14% of alcohol which were served way too warm. Thus the need of a second tasting. We feel this second chance is badly needed, specially because many producers said that the 2003’s are practically already sold out. A vintage with such a commercial success cannot be destroyed and dismissed as I meant to do when I came back from Alba, it has to be re-assessed in September. In the meantime though, you’d better wait before you commit to buy.
Now a few words on more pleasant aspects of the tasting: first of all the newly found verve of the producers. It felt as if we were back in 1999 when a litre of Barolo or Barbaresco was paid golden prices. I hope that the dark years that brought us to 2007 did not pass without teaching us something. Unfortunately  a few prices heard about lead us to think that this sudden abundance made us forget all that happened in the recent past, when Barolos and Barbarescos were sold in bulk for very low prices. It seems that many producers already forgot about their full cellars and the lack of orders with the mortgages to pay back…
Luckily there is something else that is lacking in Nebbiolo: purple wines! After so many years spent fighting inks disguised as wines, we found wine that were very respectful of the colour given by this amazing variety. Clearly a sign that something is changing. At the moment is way too early tough to be truly happy: let’s wait a couple of more years and then we’ll see if these colours are coming from a newly found conscience or else it is just another silly vogue.