Barbaresco and 1 vineyard

bartt · Wine Novice Joined: 07 Mar 2007 Posts: 7

Hi Andrea, thanks for answering our questions here.
I just started a new wine course were i have to make a paper.
My subject is the nebbiolo grape in Piemonte and specially Barolo and Barbaresco because i don't know a lot of this grape and the Piemonte region. This is a good way to know more about Nebbiolo.
When i saw that i can ask questions to a Barbaresco winemaker, i just had to write. So my firts question is, is it common in the Barbareso region to make the wines from one vineyard to make 'better' wines or is it just a filosophy of Sottimano and mabey some other winemakers?

Thanks

Andrea Sottimano · Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2007 6:17 pm Post subject:

Dear Bartt,

many wishes for you wine course!
Very interesting question.

Answering to your question. almost everyone in Barbaresco vinificate their crus separetly, but not because the wines will be better, but because, as it is in Burgundy, for example, there is a great difference in the soils in our area, and the resulting wines will be very different depending on where they came from.

The composition of the soils could give to a wine more power or more elegance, more tannins o more minerality, the parfumes could be spicier or more on the fruit; anyway, after a while that you taste wines from Barbaresco, you could recognize the spicy aroma of treiso or the mint and the eucalipto or some zone of Neive.

This is for all of us our deal: "put" in the bottle not only the quality and the varietals of the nebbiolo grapes, but, more important, the terroirs.

For me, the biggest compliment that I could receive is that someone recognize one of my crus ina blind tasting instead to recognize my vinification or my "mark".This means that we are only the "way" between the vineyards and all the people that open one of our bottles.

I hope that my answer is good for you, you know, it's not so easy to explain( and my english is not so good...)
If you have any troubles about this, let me know!

Ciao, Andrea

Paul · Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2007 6:31 pm Post subject:

Buonasera Andrea,

May I ask a "spicy" question?
I know that for exaple Bartolo Mascarello was against the seperate vinification of cru's. He said that you could better blend the best characteristics of those specifiv vineyards so that the final wine, the blind, has more to offer.

Doesn't he had a point here?
Isn't bottling teh seperate vineyard also done from marketing strategies?

I am very curious about your opinion on this!
PS: this weekend I had the 1999 Castello di Neive riserva and indeed it was a great wine! And I loved you Pajore also!

ciao!
Paul
_________________
Vino ti fa bene, l'acqua ti fa arruginire

Andrea Sottimano · Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 7:20 am Post subject:

Dear Paul,

it's really a "spicy" question indeed!

I consider Mascarello one of the greatest producers, and his Barolo 89 is without doubts a masterpiece in Barolo. He was, like Rinaldi, a firmly believer in the philosophy of blending the single vineyards to add to a certain zone the characyeristics of another one and to create a more balanced wine under every aspect.It's a point of view, but at the same time all the other historycal producers( Giacosa, Aldo Conterno, Giacomo Conterno, Gaja, etc...)vinificated at their time their crus separatly, focusing their efforts to better understand the different terroirs.
I personally think that our region, as very few in the world, is blessed by a soil and a microclima that are uniques; in my experience i know that in little distances you could produce wines completely different, with a clear identity.
You have mentioned commercial reasons, but what I can say to you is that It's harder to sell 4-5 crus of Barbaresco than one, you have to explain to everyone, as i'm doing here, why you do it and all the differences between one and the others.
i'm convinced that a wine lover passioneted will always be more fashinated if he can find in a bottle of Barolo or Barbaresco, or in a Burgundy for Pinot Noir, the notes and the taste of the vineyard where they come from.

It's a very interesting matter, what's your opinion?

Ciao Andrea

bartt · Wine Novice Joined: 07 Mar 2007 Posts: 7

Hi Andrea, thanks for your answer. I think i understand what you mean.
You look at the terroir of the soil, so the wine gets the caracter of the soil in stead off making a wine with a certain taste. It's more the classic world of winemaking in stead off winemaking in the 'new world' i gues.
And indeed i have trouble with exprssing myself in english too Sad

Is the winemaking of the 4 different soils for the 4 different wines the same after the harvest, or do you have other technics for the different wines within the rules of the DOCG Barbaresco?

Andrea Sottimano · Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 12:56 pm Post subject:

Hi!

The vinification for all of the 4 cru is absolutly the same, if we don't mention a 2-3% of new wood less or more on one or two cru.
For example, I've noticed that on the pajore' I have to use less new wood during malolactical because he tends to "take" more than the others the notes of wood.
This is an example to explain how the zone can "mark" a wine.
And, more important, this difference between every single vineyards is something that you will find in a very few zones of the world, so I'm sure that, in a world in which more and more wines tend to be "globalized", I mean builded for an international taste, the identity and the personality of a zone is something that has no price.

Ciao, Andrea