The tasting was held at Buonvini (Link) in Zürich in a very friendly and professional environment. From my perspective, while tasting, the wines carry both signatures of warmer vintages (slightly elevated alcohol levels, moderate acidity) as well as cooler characteristics like an overall mid-weight appearance and sometimes slightly drying tannins by today’s standards. Most of the wines seemed pretty classic, with a few cases in which I had slight question marks about the tannins.
So where would I rank the vintage? I don’t think that 2019 has the overall excellence of 2016 or the classicism of 2013; it reminded me more of a classic 2014 with a touch of extra ripeness. From my perspective, it’s a good, but not a great vintage, and the wines might need some time to come together. There was a clear difference between the different Crus, which made the tasting as fascinating as a walk through the vineyards, but at the same time, I also had pretty clear favorites.
The tasting also once again made it clear that vintages in Barbaresco and Barolo can be quite different in outcome. Based on what I have tasted so far, I would rank the 2019 Barolo vintage significantly higher than in Barbaresco. There are still very good wines to be found in Barbaresco.
Barbaresco DOCG Riserva Asili 2019
Asili is one of the historic Crus in Barbaresco and is often consi-dered one of the very best terroirs the village of Barbaresco has to offer. For example, Antonio Galloni (Vinous) considers Asili an „exceptional“ Cru and „one of the great sites in Barbaresco“. There is calcareous limestone with sandy veins. The sandier soil usually gives the wines an extra level of finesse and polish, with silky tannins. There are usually around 10000 bottles of Asili produced by the Produttori.
Pretty perfumed, with pure red fruit, herbal notes, fennel seeds, flowery notes, and a touch of orange zest. It’s medium+ bodied, with medium-high tannins that are good, some pretty high acidity, and over-all complexity building up with more air. This is very good and has good potential. Knowing the poten-tial of Asili, I might be a little conservative here. 18/20 (93/100).
Barbaresco DOCG Riserva Montestefano 2019
Montestefano has always been considered one of the top Crus of Barbaresco, together with Rabajà, Asili, Sori San Lorenzo, and lately also Montefico. Antonio Galloni considers the Cru „outstanding“. The soil consists mostly of calcareous limestone and is one of the warmer locations in Barbaresco, usually providing a level of extra fruit buffering the authoritative structure of Montestefano a little. The wines are ageworthy and have excellent depth and, in the best cases, intoxicating aromatics. There are usually around 15,000 bottles of Montestefano.
This is very Montestefano, with notes of darker fruit, dark red berries, darker plum, some menthol, sweet spices, balsamic notes, darker style as always in Montestefano. There is medium-full body, with medium-high acidity and pretty high tannins that are buffered by the wealth of fruit, as it usually is with this Cru. Long finish. A very good wine full of character and potential. 18.25+/20 (94+/100).
