Master Barolo Vintages
‘I don’t make Coca-Cola... I don’t decide anything. It’s different every year for every wine. It’s all Mother Nature.’ So says Barolo winery owner & winemaker Aldo Clerico in the Langhe , a region known for some of the best red wines in the world.
As we covered in our article about wine vintages and last week’s article ’No Wine Before Its Time’ which focused in vintage variation of Case Corini wines, managing a vintage for wine can be a fickle, especially for those made by our producers who all apply a minimal to no intervention philosophy to their winemaking.
In this article we meander south of Asti in Piedmont to where Aldo is in the Langhe Italy. This is a mecca for wine and food, producing the world famous Barolo wines, enjoyed by wine collectors and many other wine enthusiasts around the world.
Want to get to know how the most recent wine vintages are faring for Barolo wine and other Langhe wines? Let’s find out how the wines of the Langhe and Barolo wineries stack up against Mother Nature.
Fall days around harvest in Aldo Clerico’s vineyards.
Weather in the Langhe
As in other parts of Piedmont Italy, like the Monferrato as Guido Corino explained, in the Langhe winemakers want sunny springs, warm summers, cool autumns before harvest, plus some nebbia or fog, for the Nebbiolo. These are the hallmarks of what make a ‘perfect vintage’ in the Langhe, and as winemaker Aldo Clerico alluded to when we sat down with him to enjoy a vertical tasting of some of his Barolos, ‘I can only wait and pray for good weather.’ Once upon a time, a south facing exposure were the best vineyards. In fact, Barolo designated vineyards can only be south facing… at least for now…
With summers getting ever hotter, Aldo is starting to see that the best locations for sun, warmth, and rain are shifting more towards the southeast, or the exposition that receives softer morning sun. This warmer weather also places the plants under more stress, and causes farmers to change traditional pruning habits, being forced to leave more foliage than previous years in an effort to protect the precious grape bunches from the blazing sun. This whole shift is changing what producers once thought to be prime real estate, as well as their harvest patterns. Aldo says he has had to harvest some of his south facing hill-top vineyards first to avoid burning the grapes instead of leaving them to achieve absolute perfection in their maturation. Earlier harvests as well can affect the bouquet, with Aldo saying that leaving the grapes as long as possible helps to build the most full, intense aromatics in the grapes.
It is changes like this that allow wines like Aldo’s Classic Barolo to stand out. A blend of five vineyards within one cru (that of Bricco San Pietro MGA), this Barolo allows Aldo to mix and match year to year to craft his most traditional Barolo. Each vineyard is vinified separately and not blended until close to bottling, Aldo’s knowledge of how certain vineyards react to different climatic events and changes means he can adjust his blend to prioritize or de-emphasize certain elements. For example, he may decide to use more of a certain vineyard that was harvested later in the assemblage to help add bouquet, or add more of another to give his Barolo wine more structure.
Every year is different, but his familial knowledge of how and what each vineyard yields gives him a jumping off point when crafting the wine’s ratios for his Barolo wine.
Hail stones from the Langhe in the summer of 2023.
Aldo mentioned that recent years have undergone stronger heat waves, storms, and natural disasters. As we saw first hand this past summer in Italy, fear of natural disasters has become reality for many Langhe wine producers, with a devastating hail storm which wiped out entire crus and vineyards for some producers. Luckily, Aldo was spared and his 2023 vintage is now harvested and moving along.
Hail storms are no stranger to the Langhe, with hail cannons being used for some time in the area. Langhe resident, Jacqueline Mitchell says, ‘You come to learn, living in the area, of approaching storms by the booms rather than the weather forecasts. At first they sound like thunder, but the cannons have a rounder and more compact sound than thunder. You hear the cannons start and go, thinking, oh, time to batten down the hatches.’
These cannons use a combination of compressed gasses and air to basically blast shockwaves into clouds that could form hail stones; this breaks them up and reduces their damage as they precipitate. Vero founder Sheila Donohue managed to catch these hail cannons in action whilst visiting the Col del Balt vineyards in Valdobbiadene, Italy. However, sometimes the storm is too powerful, like in 2023, or the cannons cannot be put into action in time to break up the forming hail stones and significant damage still happens.
Grapes of the Langhe
So, what makes the grapes and the vines in the Langhe tick? Before we dive into a year by year exploration, let us have a look at how the three main red grape varieties of the Langhe adapt to vintage variations.
Aldo hand picking grapes to make his Langhe red wines.
Dolcetto
Often considered the ‘entry level’ wine of the Langhe, dolcetto is often used as an easy drinking dinner wine. It is the variety used to craft the Dogliani wine. Dolcetto performs to its best in even and stable years. It struggles when there are sudden ‘booms’ of heat as this can stunt the maturation and cause raisining or loss of berries from the bunches. A wine often drank young and that relies upon its fruity characteristics, this can cause overly persistent, intense, and sweet flavors to come out in the finished product.
Barbera
We’ve talked a lot about Barbera wines in the past, but quickly to put the grape within the framework of vintage variations, overall barbera vines have a tendency to overproduce in super hot years. As well, the tightly packed clusters can harbor molds and funguses in wet years without proper wind movement or aeration. In the good years however, warm summers and cool nights allow the sugars to rise just right and balance the acidity the grape is known for. This is the only wine in Aldo’s arsenal that he has, in the past, been forced to add yeast to (all of his other wines are crafted using strictly native yeast fermentation). He only does this when absolutely necessary in hot years. In these hot years, the sugars go wild and risk killing the yeast with alcohol levels too high; a touch of added yeast helps ferment the wine to dryness. It is worth noting however, that Aldo has only had to do this in two years in recent memory: 2017 and 2022. Both vintages (2019 and 2020) of his Barbera d Alba available in the VeroShop were crafted using exclusively native yeast fermentation.
Nebbiolo
Ahhh… the noble nebbiolo. This grape is used to craft, for example, the Langhe Nebbiolo wine (aged a little less) as well as the famous Barolo wine (aged more). If you want to brush up on your Barolo knowledge, you might want to read this article first to understand the differences between Nebbiolo vs Barolo
But, despite the fact that it is rarely found outside of Piemonte, it is one of the hardiest of the canonical ‘Indigenous Trio’ of Langhe red wines. Overall, Aldo says, it is the vine he needs to worry the least about and the least problematic. Compared to dolcetto and barbera, the nebbiolo vine doesn’t reacted quite as dramatically to heat waves or more than usual wetness or humidity. That is lucky for Barolos!
Langhe Wines 2016 Through 2021
Tucked into a well in the Alps on one side, seaside mountains on another, and a large ‘pianura’ flat land leading out into the rest of Italy, the Langhe has a unique weather experience from the rest of Italy. It is worth taking a deeper look at just the weather patterns that can affect a vintage within the soft hills of the Langhe. That is why when we had the opportunity to sit down with Barolo winemaker Aldo Clerico for an exclusive vertical tasting of his wines, we leaped at the opportunity to explore further how these wines change year to year. As Aldo said during our vertical tasting, ‘My work in the vineyard is the same every year; [I use] the same processes used by my father, my grandfather. What changes is the weather.’ So what did these weather changes look like?
2016
This was an ‘annata classica’ or classic year by Aldo’s terms, and he even went so far as to call it one of the best barolo vintages in a while. He was able to acheive optimal timing with his harvest, giving his wines a wonderfully balanced structure and body. The tannins in the nebbiolo are starting now to become well amalgamated and softer, even in the notoriously tannic Serralunga Barolo. For his Classic Barolo, he says that normally it needs more time to become ‘perfect’, however, this wine is just about, if not there. With great weather, no storms or other negative factors, this wine is shaping up to score well in our vintage formula.
2017
The spring of 2017 brought a cold snap and some frost. This paired with dry drought-like conditions caused the vines to be under-productive. The stress on the vine caused an earlier than usual harvest for Aldo. However, he feels that this is a great year to drink young. For his wines, his Barolos, they are in their peak now. The only exception here being the Ginestra, that Aldo feels can wait another year or so. While the 2017 wines might not be the best for long cellar aging… the trade off is you can drink them young now if that is your personal preference.
This is reinforced tasting directly the Classic and Serralunga Barolos. When comparing witht he 2016, the tannins are already softer, more round, and while the 2016 is, at a year older, coming into this effect, the 2017 is already there, ready to drink now.
Sitting down with Aldo Clerico to do a Barolo Vertical Tasting.
2018
This vintage Aldo called ‘normal’; nothing particularly spiked in terms of temperature or rain. He was able to harvest later promising a good bouquet for his wines. Overall he felt that the weather was lucky and good wines came from this vintage.
We noted that the Classic Barolo came in strong with a powerful and intense bouquet and palate. However, the tannins and fruit balanced this persistency and crafted a wine that feels very drinkable now. The Serralunga Barolo was very similar, with the main difference here being from the soils and the general spices present in previous vintages of the Serralunga coming through strong here.
2019
We saw a nearly classic year again in 2019, with a cold winter, hot summer and a cooler September (the diurnal fluctuations being barolo wineries’ dream). The rainfall came in at ‘just right’ and the summer hail storms were small enough to not cause damage. Overall we see wines that show promise of a beautiful tannin and structure, even if, like in the Barbera wines, an reserved and austere characteristic is prevalent.
This is our ‘current release’ vintage for Barolos (not yet available in the VeroShop, so subscribe to the Vero Newsletter to be notified when they come in!), but we were lucky enough to get a sneak peek of Aldo’s Barolo wines with him. They are balanced and fruity with surprisingly soft tannins, and the austere characteristics we noted in the Barbera d Alba come through here as well. The autumn pre-harvest weather might have caused these wines to be a little with-holding this young. However, this means they will most likely age fantastically. That is a bit of the yin-yang of age worthy wines and vintages… young they are.n’t giving their all… but to experience the true beauty of the wine you need to hold on and wait. While it might be difficult to put something aside and wait several years… it will be worth the wait!
2020
Harvest happened earlier than usual, and with a mild winter and wet spring, the summer heat wasn’t enough to cause damage. Overall, a lower crop was reported with wines like the Langhe Nebbiolo coming out of the vintage strong with a nice intensity despite the earlier harvest. 2020 looks to be a promising vintage that will be ready to drink young.
2021
With some early frost worries that turned out not too bad, a warm spring meant early growth for the plants. A bit of summer hail hit the area, but, like the frost, didn’t affect overall production too much. A heat wave in the summer helped push the grapes to maturity without too much adverse affects. Overall, for wines like Aldo’s Dogliani, it created wines that were nice and warm, structured and tannic. Again, longer aging wines like Barolo look promising, so keep your eye out.
Here’s a line up of vertical vintages of Aldo Clerico Barolos.
Time to Experiment!
Ready to try these wines and vintages for yourself and discover for your palate what is the best Barolo vintage?
Vero has Aldo Clerico’s Langhe wines in several vintages: Barbera d’Alba, Langhe Nebbiolo, Classic Barolo, Barolo Serralunga, and Barolo Ginestra.
Recreate the vertical tasting we did with Aldo in our YouTube Wine Tasting with the Classic and Serralunga Barolos available in the vintages of 2016, 2017 and 2018, along with single vineyard Barolo Ginestra in 2017 and 2018.
Taste his Barbera d Alba from 2019 and 2020 to see how the earlier 2019 harvest comes out in the wine.
While the Dogliani and Langhe Nebbiolo are currently only available in one vintage each (2021 for the Dogliani and 2020 for the Langhe Nebbiolo), you can still try to match up the flavors and bouquets with the vintage variations talked about above. Or try instead the same vintage of different wines of theirs and formulate your own opinion of each vintage. Let us know in the comments below if can you spot the vintage variations in Aldo’s wines from 2016 - 2021.
For those of you that know our curation style, you know that we love to really dive into vintage vertical tastings. And you can too, by trying a selection of different vintages and different winegrowers from our portfolio. We sell to both businesses and consumers across the US:
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