THE BAROLO BOYS RETURN TO NEW YORK

[Botafogo]

A) Altare has pulled his entire vintage of 1997 Barolo from the market, blaming it on "corks", while other producers (and the cork vender's lawyers!) have other ideas about what is wrong with the wine. This is a BIG story right now in Piemonte.

B) The backlash against the perversion of Barolo styles by these guys is starting to get real momentum: articles in many European publications including The "Art of Eating Quarterly", "Decanter" and "Mirum" are pointing out that even the De Grazia Gang are backing off the new oak and fast masceration bit as it does not serve the wines well. Could you do a comparative tasting of Traditional 1990's (or the more balanced 1989's) against the "Barolo as Zin" wines from these guys NOW to show how those wines were "flash" on release and are now on the decline while wines from true Barolisti are just starting to hit their stride?

C) I would STRONGLY counsel against serving "traditional Piemonte" food with these fruit bombs if you want them to show well (or the subtle flavors of Piemontese food not to be blown off the table by over extracted over, oaked wines), better some red sauce BBQ and maybe even Chocolate!

Roberto @ WINE EXPO