Barolo 2008: tannins, tannins, tannins

Posted on 17 May 2012

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Nebbiolo Prima continues. As I’m writing this I’m about halfway through around 250 Barolos from the 2008 vintage. It’s early to say, but the vintage is making a mixed impression. With a rather temperate climate – surely compared to 2007 or 2009, both hot and dry vintages – it has yielded structured Barolos that will be good for medium and long ageing. As all cool vintages it is also rather backward in its youth, making it particularly challenging to taste at this stage.

The big problems is tannins. These wines are really very, very tannic. The fruit at this stage is subdued – keep in mind most wines were bottled recently, some suffer from bottle shock, and some are even still tank samples – so it is difficult to say where it stands in relation with tannins, but there will need to be a lot of fruit to balance that mouth-drying mass of tannins. There is a certain similarity with 2005 which from my retastings this year, hasn’t really reemerged and still tastes very tight.

The best 2008 manage to throw in some good fleshy fruit and have moderate acidity. When they haven’t been killed by oak – still a big problem here in Barolo – they are very attractive, with more structure and balance than 2007 Barolos and surely more flesh and interest than 2009 Barbarescos. Stay tuned for more updates on 2008 Barolo as I resume my tastings. And below is a selection of the wines I liked most today (Barolos from the villages of Verduno, Novello, Barolo and Castiglione).

[slideshow]

Disclosure

My trip to Piedmont including flights, accommodation and wine tasting programme is sponsored by the Albeisa association of wine producers.