SommSelect Editorial Director David Lynch has been fortunate to drink some great Barolo wines recently, with this relatively unheralded 2010 demonstrating why Barolo remains the most under-valued red wine ‘collectible’ out there.
As some of you may have noticed on social media, my friends Bobby Stuckey and Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson, co-owners of the acclaimed Frasca Food & Wine in Boulder, Colorado, invited me to be the guest sommelier for two nights of Barolo and white truffle dinners. Not only did I get to reunite with my old boss—guest chef Michael Tusk, of San Francisco’s three-Michelin-starred Quince—I got to taste (and serve) what baseball people would call a “murderer’s row” of elite Barolos selected by Frasca’s wine team. As one of the few restaurants anywhere with the resources and inclination to “buy and hold” wine, Frasca showcased well-aged wines from their cellar—and reinforced for me just how special the first decade of the 2000s was for Barolo (and Barbaresco) wines. Not only was 2000-’10 a spectacular run of favorable vintage conditions (’02 and ’03 were the only duds), the decade was also a period of great stylistic and qualitative evolution. For one thing, the wines are cleaner—not manipulated or buffed-up, just cleaner in a ‘fault-free’ sense—than ever before. For another, the lines between “modern” and “traditional” have blurred, with more producers choosing a middle ground focused first and foremost on terroir expression, not technique. All of which leads me to today’s 2010 from Angelo Germano: This is as good an example as any of the rising tide lifting all boats in Barolo, a relatively unheralded producer delivering a genuinely world-class, vineyard-designate red for just $56. It is only just now starting to enter its drinking window. It has a decade-plus of graceful evolution still ahead of it. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Barolo is the most under-valued wine collectible on the market today—no wine delivers this combination of power and finesse at this price!
The Angelo Germano winery is based in the village of La Morra, but the family, which has incredibly deep roots in the region, has holdings in the villages of Barolo and Monforte d’Alba as well. Over the years, an alternating succession of Angelos and Davides have perpetuated the Germano name in Barolo winemaking, but it was a Teobaldo Germano who started it all at the end of the 19th century: Teobaldo was the founder and first president of the vine-growers cooperative and winery (cantina sociale) in Barolo, which was founded in 1902; years later, his grandson Davide Germano purchased the cantina sociale buildings while also spearheading the creation of a winemaking consortium in Barolo and Barbaresco (pre-dating the creation of the DOC(G) appellation system by decades). Davide’s son, Angelo, followed him, growing the family holdings from the 1960s through the 1980s, and then we arrive in the present day, with—you guessed it—another Davide, who draws from some great vineyard sources in crafting the Germano wines.
One of these is “Vigna Ruè,” an 8.5-hectare vineyard in the commune of Barolo. Germano’s is the only pure expression of the east-facing Ruè cru, although Barolo geeks will recognize it as one of the several vineyard sites listed as sources for Bartolo Mascarello’s iconic Barolo bottling (a wine which, famously, indicates four distinct vineyards on its label: “Cannubi,” “San Lorenzo” and “Ruè” in Barolo, and “Rocche dell’Annunziata” in La Morra). Germano’s parcel of Ruè total 1.3 hectares, and produces an archetypal “Barolo di Barolo”—i.e. one characterized by a slightly gentler, more perfumed take on the Nebbiolo grape in comparison to more austere, forbidding styles from villages such as Serralunga d’Alba. The Germanos note that this vineyard parcel has been in the family for five generations, and that there are still a few “jealously guarded” bottles of the 1943 Ruè Barolo in their cellars.
Davide Germano’s 2010 “Vigna Ruè” was fermented in stainless steel and aged in 500-liter French oak
tonneaux barrels for a little more than two years, after which it spent another year aging in bottle before release. Now with a few years of bottle age, the wine has broadened and amplified considerably. In the glass, it’s a crimson-flecked garnet moving to brick orange at the rim, with an expressive nose of juicy black cherry, red currant, dried rose petal, blood orange peel, warm spices, and underbrush. Nearly full-bodied on the palate and slightly less tannic than the “Mondoca di Bussia” Riserva we offered from Germano earlier this year, the wine is just now entering its prime drinking window—although at this point it still needs a little coaxing, in the form of a decanting about an hour before service at 60-65 degrees in Burgundy stems. Much as I loved it now, I look forward to re-visiting it again in 2020. And 2025. And 2030. I have total faith in this delicious, classic wine, and so should you: Pick a cold winter night soon to try one with some
risotto. Try not to drink too much while you’re stirring the rice. And whatever you do, grab more than one bottle—you’ll be glad you did! Cheers!
