There are two types of Barolo. First, a large group of producers “phone in” uninspired but passable wines from mediocre real estate. These wines seem lifeless and milquetoast to a passionate Barolo lover, but they are consistent, modestly priced, and the label reads “Barolo”—so duty-free shops, discount beverage outlets, and corporate steakhouses buy them by the pallet.
Still, there is a much smaller first class of small, family estates who meticulously steward the region’s trove of elite hillside vineyards and who are constantly pushing toward a new, higher standard of excellence in the cellar. In this already rarified community, Brovia stands as an elite superstar. Each release is met with gushing critical praise, prompting intense demand from collectors and high-end restaurants (which ensures that the wines sell out shortly after arriving in the US). This is the Brovia family’s mindblowing 2012 Barolo, a blend of fruit from Grand Cru-equivalent sites Villero, Rocche, Brea, and Bricco Fiasco.
The Brovia family has been continuously producing Barolo for more than 150 years. The family’s pride is a small collection of top vineyard sites, most of them in the village of Castiglione Falletto: perhaps the best-known is “Villero,” a southwest-facing cru known for powerful, brooding wines, but there’s also the well-known “Rocche” and “Garblèt Sué” (a.k.a. Bricco Fiasco) sites. In the village of Serralunga, the Brovias farm a piece of the “Brea” vineyard, and the family bottles their four individual “crus” separately and releases them as the estate’s premium-priced, top wines. But what many collectors don’t realize is that their basic normale cuvéer is actually a blend of all the top vineyards in one bottle. As we’ve quipped before, there is absolutely nothing “normal” about this brilliant wine.
All of the Brovia family’s vines are meticulously farmed in accordance with organic method, and grapes are harvested by hand. The must is fermented in cement vats with regular pump-overs before being racked to casks. Just like the estate’s cru bottlings, this wine is aged in Slavonian oak barrels for a year, followed by another year in French oak barrels. Finally, the wines rest in bottle for 2 years before release.
The 2012 Brovia Barolo has a dark crimson core with garnet and slight orange tones on the rim. A seductive and heady blast of black cherry, blackberry, fine Cuban cigar tobacco, black truffles, and rose blossom erupts from the glass following a brief decanting. These exquisite aromas are echoed on the wine’s palate, and interwoven between dense but smooth, layered, and perfectly integrated tannins. Each sip of this immensely soulful and satisfying wine concludes with a deep and lasting mineral finish of dark fruit and crushed limestone. I encourage you to decant this wine for 30 minutes before enjoying it patiently from a large Burgundy stem—there’s a lot to take in here, so if you have the discipline, please take it slow with this bottle! The complexity and depth of this extraordinary wine might be overwhelming if paired with a similarly complex dish, so I advise pairing with something elemental and timeless. If you’ve never attempted the “reverse sear” method with a marbled cut of beef, now is the time. Ask your butcher for his/her finest ribeye, follow
this recipe, and get ready for the fireworks. Cheers!
