Margherita Otto Barolo D.O.C.G 2019

2019: A very fine vintage of classic style, moderate power and potentially excellent balance.

This vintage I was able to rent the entire parcel of Vignane from which I had bought fruit in the previous year; a full hectare of Nebbiolo registered to Barolo production.

The vintage started wet and rainy through March, and the buds began to swell only in mid-late March, a welcome development and a return to a more normal time-frame. The end of April the weather cleared and May was mild and warm, with a heat wave that lasted almost two weeks across the end of May and the start of June. Weather patterns cooled off for the rest of June and July – the heatwaves of western and northern Europe did not hit the Barolo; we are well-protected by the alps. While France was experiencing record heatwaves, the weather here remained mild and temperate. A 10-day burst of heat across the invaiatura (veraison) period set the color well but temperatures returned to normal for the late-summer vineyard work.

On Thursday 5 September, a “water bomb” hit across a swath of the Langhe, bringing extraordinary amounts of rain and damaging hail in a very short period. Temperatures plummeted and whole vineyards were lost across southern Treiso in Barbaresco, Madonna di Como and San Cassiano in Alba, the vineyards around the castle of Grinzane Cavour, all of Fontanafredda in northern Serralunga, and parts of Verduno and La Morra. Luckily, no Margherita Otto vineyards were damaged, through the hail zone passed 500 meters from the Pernanno site. From this point the weather returned to normal and picking commenced in Vignane on October 13, followed by Pernanno and Sotto-Rionda on October 17. Monforte, as usual, ripened much later and had to wait out the rains of October 18-21. The Ginestra site was finally picked on October 27 in excellent conditions and yielded a small crop of excellent balance and fine acidity.

Fermentations proceeded easily and the wines were macerated on the skins for 42 days. After pressing, the wine was racked back to concrete for the malolactic; once the Malo was complete the wine was put in new Mittelberger botte of 52 and 25 hl, as well as a single old barrique. After its first year in cask, the wine shows elegance, with well-structured ripe tannins and an excellent core of dark fruit and licorice.

This was the first year I made a commercial quantity of Langhe Nebbiolo. The wine is fresh, fruity and has a moderate, balanced structure. After a brief maceration period (only as long as the alcoholic fermentation), the wine underwent malolactic in steel and then spends 15-16 months in a single 1000L Mittelberger cask. It should be ready to drink on release in late March 2021.