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Viinin Kuvailu
The Story
This wine made history when it became one of the earliest single-vineyard bottlings of Nebbiolo in Piedmont with the 1967 vintage. Sourced from the GAJA winery's top growing site, San Lorenzo, located just south of the village of Barbaresco in the famed cru Secondine, the wine is made with 95% Nebbiolo grapes and 5% Barbera. This practice hails back to the earliest era of Barbaresco, when the lighter-bodied Barbera was traditionally blended into the tannic Nebbiolo to temper its power and structure.
In 2000, with the release of the legendary 1996 vintage, GAJA decided to reclassify this wine and use the Langhe DOC appellation on the label, ommitting the Barbaresco DOCG. In part, the motivation for this change was purely semantic. As the number of single-vineyard bottlings grew in the 1990s, their popularity began to eclipse the importance of the traditional, classic Barbaresco, a cuvee or blend of many different vineyards. In a sense, the gesture was meant as a testament to the winery's steadfast belief that Barbaresco is one of the great wines of the world and should be accompanied rather than overshadowed by its single-vineyard fellows.
Vuosikerta 1998
Italy/Barolo/Barbaresco/Excellent to Exceptional – A vastly underrated vintage, 1998 had the misfortune of being sandwiched between 1997 (a vintage that was overrated) and the stellar 1999. 1998 offers everything you want in a manual Barolo or Barbaresco – nice concentration, firm tannins and precise acidity. In fact, it is the acidity of these wines that, in my opinion, carries these wines, keeping a wonderful freshness and elegance to these wines. This is not the most concentrated vintage of the last decade (1999, 2001 and 2004 produced much more powerful wines), but there is admirable depth of fruit and great balance and finesse. Most of the best Barbaresco bottlings as well as many 1998 Barolos drink beautifully now, while some of the best Barolos will provide another 10-12 years of enjoyment.