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Dining in the Barolo and Barbaresco Zones
Wine professionals and consumers share a similar aspiration when they visit a wine region; they want to enjoy the area’s best dining experiences so they can pair their favorite local wines with the territory’s typical food offerings.
While commonplace throughout Italy, this situation is nowhere more prominent than in Piedmont, especially in the region’s southern Langhe district. Lunch or dinner in the Barolo and Barbaresco production zones here is more than a simple pleasure; this is wine, and food pairing elevated to an art form.
The History of Barolo with Tom Hyland
Summary:
This WSG Live will follow the history of Barolo from the 1860s through the latest innovations and viticultural practices of today. As there have been more changes in the last fifty years than in the first one hundred, much of the webinar will concentrate on the period from the 1970s until current times.
Specific topics covered will include changes in viticultural practices (e.g. Barolo Boys), a more precise definition of the boundaries of the Barolo zone, including particular vineyards (MGA), and the recent emphasis on single-vineyard offerings of Barolo.
Presenter: Tom Hyland
Chicago-based Tom Hyland is a freelance writer, educator and photographer specializing in the wines of Italy. He has been traveling to Piedmont since 2000 and has visited dozens of Barolo producers in their cellars and vineyards. He has written about Barolo for two decades, with articles published in Decanter, Wine Spectator and wine-searcher.com. He is the author of three books on wine, including The Wines and Foods of Piemonte, published in 2016.
WSG Live: Andrew Jefford Hosts Alessandro Masnaghetti
Summary:
As Hugh Johnson first grasped in the late 1960s, there is no greater tool to wine understanding than fine cartography: the chance to read a landscape from a single sheet of paper. More and more wine regions around the world, moreover, are now refining the manner in which both growers and producers are able to express terroir via geological and topographical surveys, and high-quality mapping is an essential adjunct to this. No contemporary cartographer has had more impact on today's wine world than Alessandro Masnaghetti: the guest on our third edition of WSG Live.
Guest: Alessandro Masnaghetti
Alessandro began his career in wine as a taster -- for the influential Luigi Veronelli, and then later for Vinum and l'Espresso, as well as for La Revue des Vins de France. He is the only Italian founder member of the Grand Jury Européen. Since 2007, though, he has gone back to a former passion of his, cartography, on the basis that "the true essence of journalism lies not in purveying opinions but in carrying out research and in-depth analysis". His magnificent maps of the Langhe and of Chianti Classico have led to new ways of thinking about these classic regions, and he has also mapped both Valpolicella and Bordeaux. He is currently engaged on a major, long-term project to map California's wine regions for Antonio Galloni's Vinous.
Barolo Communes
Apart from the Côte d’Or in Burgundy, perhaps no other wine territory has been dissected in greater detail than the Barolo zone. This makes perfect sense, as these are arguably the two most ideal representations of the concept of terroir; just as Pinot Noir from one village in Burgundy reveals different flavors than that of another nearby hamlet, so too offerings of Barolo from various communes often display diverse characteristics, despite the fact that every wine here is made exclusively from Nebbiolo.
There are 11 approved communes in the Barolo production zone. For this article, we will deal primarily with the five largest: La Morra, Serralunga d’Alba, Monforte d’Alba, Castiglione Falletto and Barolo itself. The remaining six are Cherasco, Diano d’Alba (interestingly, planted more to Dolcetto than Nebbiolo), Grinzane Cavour, Roddi, Verduno and Novello; these last two are home to two of the most in-demand vineyards in the entire zone: Monvigliero in Verduno and Ravera in Novello.
Not Since Lunch: Untangling Barolo and Brunello with Lars J. Leicht
Summary:
When the humble, yet masterful British wine writer Harry Waugh was asked, when was the last time he had confused Bordeaux and Burgundy, he famously replied, “not since lunch.”
Ask a 21st century American wine scholar that question about Barolo and Brunello, and they may well respond “not since the last blind tasting.”
This Italian conundrum has manifested itself on Court of Master Sommelier exams and was even documented in the first “Somm” movie. Do you know your Barolo from your Brunello?
Italian wine industry veteran Lars Leicht will walk us through the fundamental differences between the two wines, their base grapes, their terroir and their typical profiles to help make it all a little more clear… at least until the next blind tasting!
Presenter: Lars J. Leicht
Lars is VP-Communication & Trade Relations for The Somm Journal as well as Sherpa-in-Chief of Vino Viaggio, an agency specializing in wine exploration, education and adventure. A former news reporter in upstate Oneonta, NY, passion for Italian culture lured him to the wine business. Over a 33-year career with leading US wine importer Banfi Vintners, he held various leadership roles in sales, marketing, and public relations, working and living in the U.S., Europe, Canada, the Caribbean, and Asia. A habitual speaker at sommelier conferences, cooking schools and culinary universities, he appeared in the movie Somm II: Into the Bottle. His Sherpa moniker derives from guiding scores of scribes, wine lovers and professionals through vineyards, wineries and food meccas in Italy, including scholarship trips with SommFoundation and SommSouth. As founder and de facto “Dean” of Cru Artisan College, he has brought Italian winemakers on barnstorming trips across the U.S. for insightful seminars and exceptional tastings.
Learn more about Italian Wines:
Barolo Who's who with Tom Hyland
Summary:
The most celebrated examples of Barolo are among the finest examples of terroir anywhere in the wine world. Thanks to soil formations from millions of years ago, along with climatic conditions, Barolos from various communes can often vary greatly in style. Yet beyond the terroir of site-specific, there is also a human terroir at work, as enologists employ different techniques in their cellars.
In this session, we will explore the various styles of Barolo as driven by the human touch, from strict traditionalism to a more modern approach, we will discuss the characteristics of the finest producers and the finest wines of Barolo.
Presenter: Tom Hyland
Tom Hyland is a Chicago-based wine writer/educator and photographer, specializing in Italian wines.
He has authored two books on Italian wines, and has conducted seminars for the trade on various Italian wines in Chicago, New York and in Bordeaux at VinExpo.
He has been writing about these wines for 19 years, and today is a contributor to Decanter and wine-searcher.com. He is also the U.S. ambassador for the consorzio, I Vini del Piemonte.
Learn more about Italian Wines:
A Guide to Recent Barolo and Barbaresco Vintages
Thanks to a string of successful vintages, there has been a great deal of recent publicity regarding Barolo and Barbaresco wines.
Produced entirely from Nebbiolo, these two iconic wines have changed in style over the past 20-30 years; where once, the wines were reserved upon release, today, the wines are riper and more forward. This is largely due to climate change, as warmer temperatures throughout the growing season have necessitated Nebbiolo harvests some two to three weeks earlier these days than in the 1980s, ‘70s and prior; while late October to early November was normal for a Nebbiolo harvest thirty and forty years ago, today, harvest is more typically in early-mid October.
A Tour of Barolo with Tom Hyland
Summary:
Barolo, produced exclusively from Nebbiolo, is one of the world’s most celebrated wines. Here in a production zone in southern Piedmont, a mixture of soils and other conditions combine to make wines that can truly be defined as products of terroir.
Join us for an in-depth look at the finest vineyards and producers of Barolo, from the perfumed examples of La Morra and Verduno to the more tannic examples from Monforte d’Alba and Serralunga d’Alba.
We will also examine recent trends in winemaking and well as the factors of climate change to understand how today’s Barolo differ from those made 40 and 50 years ago.
Presenter: Tom Hyland
Tom Hyland is a Chicago-based wine writer/educator and photographer, specializing in Italian wines.
He has authored two books on Italian wines, and has conducted seminars for the trade on various Italian wines in Chicago, New York and in Bordeaux at VinExpo.
He has been writing about these wines for 19 years, and today is a contributor to Decanter and wine-searcher.com. He is also the U.S. ambassador for the consorzio, I Vini del Piemonte.
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