Burlotto, Canonica, Brovia

 9/8/15 -

(A happy group at Burlotto, with maestro Fabio Alessandria at the head of the table.)

Despite the commercial temptation to which a merchant might be subject, not every vintage can be our favorite. 2011 in Piedmont is not an easy year for us due to the heat of the season, which resulted in many full-bodied, even over-blown wines, with quite high alcohol levels. It’s similar in some ways to 2007, but we do prefer 2011 because the wines are better balanced and have better phenolic ripeness. In fact, there are some fantastic 2011s, once again demonstrating that good winemakers make good wine. In technical terms, Brovia ‘knocked it out of the park’; ditto Burlotto, and Canonica (and G. Rinaldi, and Ferdinando Principiano). The Brovia single-vineyard wines are coming this fall, but in the meantime we have the amazing 2011 Barolo, which (along with the Burlotto Barolo classico) has to be one of the best values for quality in the region. Burlotto produced some of their best wines ever in 2011, a remarkable achievement. We always have a soft spot for Gianni Canonica’s wine; his 2011 is on par with previous vintages. Jamie Wolff