Quantities of Barolo

It is an inescapable truth that I prefer Barolos made in the traditional style with longer fermentations and aging of the wine in big botte over the more modern style. This is actually pretty unfortunate since there are relatively few growers who take this approach. There are 770 or so wineries in the Langhe I believe. My understanding is that a significant majority of winemakers in Barolo still use barrique and at least some new oak. It is easier. You need less space. The resulting wine is more polished. Certainly it is the case that when you ask anyone for the list of traditionalist growers that list is really very short. The same names are mentioned. One is hard pressed to name more than a dozen or fifteen at most. And with a few exceptions the output of their top Barolo is perhaps 5,000 bottles for each of two or three vineyards - say 400 cases of each of three wines. 

Almost as an aside, by contrast in Burgundy I am quite happy to drink wine which has been raised with some percentage of new oak.  Which in itself raises the question of why I actually like a degree of new wood with pinot noir but not at all with nebbiolo. That is a discussion for another post. But I am grateful for this because a result is that the number of growers whose wines I would happily buy in Burgundy is large relative to the number in Barolo. In Gevrey alone I can count six or seven. There are at least six in Vosne Romanee. Four or five in Chambolle Musigny. Five in Volnay. And so it goes. Plus you can include several fine negotiant operations like Benjamin Leroux. Although I have my grower loyalties in Burgundy I fully acknowledge there are dozens of excellent growers whose wine I leave to others to buy but would be very happy to drink if the opportunity arises. If circumstances had been different - a personal meeting or some other chance connection - perhaps these would be names I collect myself. It seems in relation to Barolo, however, that everyone seeking top grade traditional style Barolo is chasing the same few names. It is as if in Burgundy there are three or four Guiseppe Rinaldis whereas in Barolo there is just one.

And yet some good traditionally made Barolo (and Barbaresco) can still be had for the price of good Bourgogne. It will not last.