2020 Barolo del Comune. A great 2018.

A climate change trademark vintage?

The 2020 vintage was marked by a mild winter, refreshed by constant rain during May, June and July. The summer was free of heatwaves and the high diurnal range in September kept acidity levels high. Overall we classify this vintage as balanced.

Tasting notes and vintage analysis by Federico Moccia and Nelson Pari, with a foreword by Nelson Pari. 

The tasting panel includes Nelson Pari, Federico Moccia and Jacopo Dosio (head sommelier of Piazza Duomo in Alba), This year’s producers panel features Alberto Alessandria (Crissante), Stefano Conterno (Diego Conterno) and Oscar Arrivabene (Domenico Clerico). The tasting director is Gian Luca Colombo.

Maps and illustrations by Kelly Liang.

Why should we buy a Barolo del Comune?

How can we discuss MGA (Menzioni Geografiche Aggiuntive) Barolo without comprehending its origin within a specific village?

We believe that the future of Barolo lies in adopting a Burgundian approach; therefore, an emphasis on village wines is essential. Communal wines will play a crucial role in educating the trade and elevating the MGA category as a whole.

According to data from the Consorzio, there are only a limited number of Barolo del Comune produced, currently less than 100. We find this shortage of wines peculiar: why does everyone talk about terroir, and only a few use a communal appellation status?

We taste wines blind under scrutiny.

We work in the wine industry as buyers and we understand how much our own judgement can be influenced by such things as status, positioning, marketing, and price. What we care the most is that all types of Barolo are evaluated fairly, especially in relation to oak usage and extraction.

For this reason all the wines are tasted blind by a panel of 8 people, that includes producers and a tasting director in order to avoid decisions dictated by trends, friendships or interests.

As judges for Decanter, IWSC and IWC, we understand the importance of scores, but you will not find any in this report: our goal is to talk about wines that express communal identity. Nonetheless we are indeed human: at the end of every commune recap we added a short paragraph talking about the wines that truly stand out in the panel but we recommend first to check the excel file with all the tasting notes of the wines that we think worthy of your attention as our taste might greatly differ from yours. This report excludes the communes of Verduno and Castiglione Falletto as there were not enough wines sent to make a proper evaluation of style and quality.

Wines that did not meet the required quality criteria or failed to accurately represent their village were discarded. We have refrained from providing any comments on wines that did not pass this evaluation process, as we understand the hard work and dedication that goes into making wine. We respect the efforts of all producers, regardless of their style or quality level.

2020. A broader overview.

1. A mild winter anticipated the flowering by around two weeks.

2. Constant rain hit during the months of May, June and July building enough water reserve and slowing down ripening by around two weeks. Hail arrived on the 16th of June around Verduno and La Morra.

3. A warm summer with no heatwaves.

4. The high diurnal range in September kept the acidity high and the aromas fresh. It rained before harvest on October 2nd and 3rd.

A great 2018.

In the majestic triad of 2019, 2020 and 2021, the middle vintage is probably the easier to drink now: tannins are lower and less aggressive, softer mid-palates and fruitier aromas. 

Why is that? By examining the data month by month, the mild winter accelerated the growing season (even though the spring rains balanced it), and the absence of heatwaves has preserved an overall lighter structure (colour, tannins, and mid-palates). This is also the year of COVID: winemakers had the opportunity to be more present in the vineyards every day without travelling all over the world. The experience of 2018 helped greatly: the producers were able to prevent and work through the heavy rains during spring. 

We believe overall, when it comes down to the communal Barolos, that 2020 is overall a better quality vintage than 2019: the wines are more exciting, nuanced and precise even if with a shorter ageing potential.

The October rains dilemma.

Rain arrived on the 2nd and 3rd October. The day after, the sun managed to dry out the canopy and the grapes. It's easy to say that these rains created problems, but in reality, they helped to wash down the canopy and clean previous spraying before harvesting, and they give the plant a quick hydric restore, especially after a warm summer when they were under stress. No producer mentioned these rains as a problem, and no wine showed signs of extreme dilution.

A climate change trademark vintage?

We need to address climate change heavily here; we will see tons of wines similar to those from 2018 and 2020 in the future. And we should be thankful for these kinds of balanced vintages, as they usually produce highly expressive wines from both big botti and barriques.

These vintages place full focus on the producer's interpretation. The major downfall of 2018 was the understanding of the vintage: because it was something new, many tried to approach different styles, macerations and picking dates that resulted in different types of wines. That is not the case anymore.

The database.

We believe data is of the utmost importance. For this reason, we have asked every producer to provide us with as much information as possible about their wines to create a database of Barolo del Comune. You can access it by CLICKING HERE. All the featured wines are ones that we believe are terroir-driven enough to be recommended. To supplement this information, we have also included our brief tasting notes to guide you through the styles you might prefer the most.

In a vintage characterised by fruit and drinkability, the municipality of Barolo, traditionally associated with wines that are crunchy, fresh, and fruity, fails to uphold the quality seen in the previous vintage, presenting itself as the weakest commune of 2020. Quality is present, but a link between all the wines is missing.

Common notes persist: green and medicinal herbs and candy. All wines are juicy and ready to drink but strangely have a darker fruit character more closely associated with the commune of La Morra. What changes is the structure: lighter but salty mid-palates, with bitter finishes. Also, the tannins are extremely different from one wine to another (velvety, grippy, sandy). The oak usage in this vintage might be the culprit here.

Scarzello crafted a beautiful wine, retaining incredible consistency from the previous year. Aromas are well defined and broad while the wine retains freshness without losing complexity. We also enjoyed the more extracted Virna Borgogno that focuses heavily on floral aromas with a long finish of oak spices.

The commune of La Morra experienced lower rainfall levels, and the deeper clay topsoils managed to retain the rainfall during Spring and in October effectively. The minor hail that arrived in June didn’t affect the vineyards; producers, especially those with more plots in different communes, are now extremely prepared, focusing on cleaning the canopy and eliminating rotten bunches.

La Morra confirms itself as a strongly consistent village, delivering another great set of wines after the success of last year. Many wines manage to deliver high intensity aromas: the fruit is big and bold, the notes of tar and oil are well-defined. Where the vintage can be really seen is in lighter mid-palates, even despite heavy extraction and oak usage seen in certain wines.

Crissante excels again offering a wine packed with complexity but already good to drink, while Gianni Gagliardo pushes the tar and oil aromas of the commune thanks to an important house style. Agostino Bosco is the surprise of this 2020 and the best wine we tasted for this report: a wine that doesn’t leave anything behind with high intensity of aromas, a great full-bodied mid-palate, and a long finish.

Diurnal range and strong winds are the key to understanding Monforte. The southernmost location and significantly higher altitude helped achieve significant diurnal ranges since the month of July, going exponentially colder towards September.

After a dubious performance in 2019, Monforte struck us to the point of being the best commune of 2020. The two souls of this commune, one more austere, with blueberries and mint and grippy tannins, and one more earthy, with forest floor, mushrooms and sandy tannins, are both well-represented by this year’s quality.

Famiglia Anselma emphasises the earthy character of Monforte and introduces tons of nuanced aromas into a vibrant and racy palate, while Domenico Clerico impresses with its technical ability in crafting a powerful communal wine. It’s Diego Conterno that manages better than anybody else to craft a precise blend of these two styles with a wine that represents one of the purest examples of Monforte in 2020.

Serralunga delivered another great and consistent performance: the diurnal ranges were similar to the ones seen in Monforte, even if they began to arrive later, somewhere in August. This is also the last commune where the grapes were picked; the additional days of ripening provided more colour, tannins, and structure to the wines.

The style remains unchanged: metallic tannins, rust, and iron with crunchy strawberry and redcurrant. No major reductions are observed, even if most of the wines somehow retain a light white peach aroma. We recommend starting to drink all the wines from this commune from 2025.

Luigi Baudana (G.D. Vajra) continues to establish itself as a lasting trademark of communal Serralunga, while Palladino takes on a more elegant route. In his second vintage, Mauro Veglio finds the perfect balance between commune and producer's style. Domenico Clerico maintains the power of his Aeroplanservaj, making it one of the best wines of the tasting.

Conclusions: Use vs Believe

In a vintage like this, where quality is high, we find ourselves asking what might be the ultimate purpose of the Barolo del Comune category.

Some wines we tasted are single vineyards labelled as communal wines. The reasons are many: some of those vineyards are outside the MGA zones, while others prefer to use the communal appellation rather than a name of an MGA that is not well-known. Some producers consider commune wines a mission, while others view them as a second label for their MGAs, using a selection of younger wines from their plots. On the other side, some of the most famous communal blends are labelled just as Barolo, like Monfortino, because many still don’t believe that this category is somehow helpful. Also many MGAs can blend up to 15% of another MGA without the label mentioning it.

If you ask us, on our second year reporting, what is the best approach when it comes down to Barolo del Comune, we have to reply honestly: we have no idea. We like big, bold wines that can age for decades, but we also love the "by the glass" terroir-defining options. Seeing how much hard work goes into making wine, it’s truly challenging to judge a producer’s choice.

One thing we know for sure: we need more Barolo del Comune. We see a future for Barolo where new and returning consumers are educated to understand all these nuanced options through accessibly priced wines that are full of complexity and terroir. If that does not happen soon, it would be a shame. 

We would love to send a big thanks from the bottom of our hearts if you read through all of this.

This newsletter is free for all readers. The best way to support us is to like and share this report. It means a lot to us.

We’ll see you next year.