Freshly returned from his annual trip there, Barolo champion David Ridge will take us through an extensive range of Barolo from three producers, each of slightly different styles, that will give us a comprehensive understanding of this fine vintage.

Antipasti will be served throughout the tasting, finished with true Italian homemade pasta.

Wine List:

• 2020 Fratelli Barale Barbaresco Serraboella
• 2019 Fratelli Barale Barolo di Barolo
• 2019 Fratelli Barale Barolo
• 2019 Fratelli Barale Barolo Monrobiolo di Bussia
• 2019 Fratelli Barale Bussia
• 2018 Marchesi di Gresy Barbaresco Martinenga
• 2019 Giovanni Sordo Barolo Classico
• 2019 Giovanni Sordo Barolo Monvigliero
• 2019 Giovanni Sordo Barolo Ravera
• 2019 Giovanni Sordo Barolo Perno
• 2019 Giovanni Sordo Barolo Rocche di Castiglione
• 2019 Giovanni Sordo Barolo Villero
• 2019 Giovanni Sordo Barolo Monprivato
• 2019 Giovanni Sordo Barolo Gabutti
• 2019 Boasso Barolo del Comune di Serralunga
• 2019 Boasso Barolo Margheria
• 2019 Boasso Barolo Gabutti
• 2017 Boasso Barolo Margheria Riserva
• Barale Barolo Chinato 500ml

Fratelli Barale

The oldest records that the Barale family can rely on, trace their time in Barolo village back to the 1500s.

They are amongst the very first people to make Barolo, as we know it now.

Barale remain essentially traditional makers, and present a catalogue of beautifully made wines, in which their varietals, Dolcetto, Barbera and Langhe Nebbiolo, are as important as their Barbaresco and set of four brilliant Barolos we’ll see in this tasting.

All the wines have an essentially red-fruited radiance, derived from their close-knit sources, either just inside Barolo comune itself, or very nearby within neighbouring Monforte d’Alba comune.

Giovanni Sordo

At the turn of the 19^th into the 20^th century, Giovanni Sordo began production of Barolo, and also kicked off what has become Barolo’s largest collection of Cru vineyards.

This family business now owns portions of some 17 of Barolo’s 170 MGA ie individually recognised vineyards – or what we know, by the borrowed French term, as Cru, and so far they offer 8 wines labelled by their individual vineyards.

Each of the 8 Cru wines of Sordo are made virtually the same and by essentially traditional and low-intervention methods; not to look the same but instead to let each wine express its location to the max.

In this tasting we present 8 wines from the wonderful, important 2019 vintage, the blended Barolo Classico and ‘only’ 7 Cru (poor Parussi vineyard was almost completely stripped in an hailstorm) along with a trio of Barolo Cru of the wonderful, classy 2008 vintage, drawn from the remarkable deep museum stocks of Sordo.

Franco Boasso

On a much smaller, but no less determined scale (than say Sordo), Franco Boasso has collected a remarkable set of vineyards, entirely from within his home comune of Serralunga d’Alba. Now he relies on sons Ezio and Claudio to make them all talk their terroir, with minimal interference.

The wines of Serralunga, because of the essential ‘meanness’ of the limestone-based soils, offer the darker and perhaps less fruity or flowery style of wines. Instead these are more redolent of earthy mineral notes and characters of smoke, stock soy, maybe darkest cherry, all underpinned by almost fierce structures, and acidity, and a vigorous black-tea type tannin. They breathe and open slowly, but the characters of these vineyards, Gabutti and Margheria are amongst the most sought-after of Barolo.

Marchesi di Gresy

The Cisa di Gresy family make some of the most elegant and beautiful wines that Nebbiolo is capable of. Their monopole (solely owned) vineyard Martinenga, in the dress-circle of Barbaresco’s greatest wines, was recognised as the first Grand Cru of Barbaresco. This great vineyard produces highly perfumed and aromatic wines, of almost endless complexity and fascination that seem light and delicate at first. These unwind slowly to waves of musk and rose perfumes, strawberry, light spices and wood-smoke, underpinned by tingling structures and finish. These wines do contrast with almost everything else Nebbiolo offers from Barbaresco and even more so, Barolo.