Piedmont Club: March 2025

As we move into March and the days lengthen here in Colorado, we might as well enjoy some deep, bigger reds before it's way too hot to drink anything besides Riesling!

For this month's Piedmont release, we're exploring two distinct expressions of Piedmontese character, both offering significant concentration and complexity.

Nebbiolo: Enzo Boglietti Barolo Arione 2019

Barolo is a benchmark for serious wine enthusiasts, and Serralunga d’Alba is renowned for producing some of its most age-worthy examples. Within Serralunga, the Arione cru is particularly esteemed, famously also bottled by Giacomo Conterno. Located in the southern part of the Barolo zone, Serralunga is typically the coolest village, resulting in extended ripening periods and wines with pronounced tannin structure. This, combined with Arione’s clay and limestone soils, creates a foundation for classically structured Barolo. Here’s a map to illustrate the location of Serralunga and Arione within Barolo:

Enzo Boglietti's Arione is sourced from a vineyard planted in 1999, still rather young by Barolo standards, but getting into their prime for both quality and quantity. The 2019 vintage in Barolo was warm and generous, yet this wine maintains a focus on structure characteristic of the Arione cru. Boglietti employs a vinification that emphasizes a balance of extraction and elegance: fermentation lasts for 20 days with techniques like pigeage (punching down) and remontage (pumping over), followed by an extended 60-day maceration on the skins to build complexity. While his cellar practices are rooted in tradition, Boglietti has embraced some modern approaches, including a shift in oak aging. 

He has notably reduced the use of new oak in recent years, moving away from a style that once incorporated more new barrique. It's important to note that even the use of used barriques (typically 225L barrels) for aging Nebbiolo is considered a relatively modern technique in Barolo, where larger botti were historically preferred. Boglietti's current approach involves initial aging in barriques, with a restrained percentage of new oak, before transferring the wine to larger oak vats for continued maturation. This, alongside picking based on acidity rather than solely sugar levels, contributes to a Barolo that is structured and age-worthy but also more approachable in its youth than some purely traditional Serralunga expressions.

Expect classic Barolo aromatics of rose, cherry, and a subtle note of tar, with a palate that balances intensity and refinement, supported by strong tannins which shouldn't be overwhelming. This is a Barolo intended for cellaring, but with sufficient youthful appeal to be enjoyed now, especially alongside a substantial meal.

Barbera: Cordero di Montezemolo Barbera d'Alba Superiore Funtani 2020

While Nebbiolo often dominates the conversation, Barbera is a vital grape in Piedmont, capable of yielding wines of impressive depth and complexity in the right hands. Cordero di Montezemolo's Barbera d'Alba Superiore ‘Funtani’ exemplifies this potential – a Barbera that surpasses typical expectations. ‘Funtani’ translates to ‘fountain’ in Piedmontese dialect, referencing the location of their oldest Barbera vines near a historic spring on their Monfalletto estate in La Morra. 

The ‘Superiore’ designation and the ‘Funtani’ bottling both indicate a Barbera of elevated quality. The 2020 vintage, being warm, has produced a richly colored and extracted Barbera. This is not a light, overtly fruity Barbera; it presents a more concentrated and structured profile that will benefit from aeration and further bottle development. Expect notes of dark fruit, perhaps plum and black cherry, with the hallmark Barbera acidity, but with greater weight and tannin structure than is typical. Decanting is recommended to allow this wine to fully express its complexity.

Both of these wines offer intensity, structure, and compelling flavor profiles indicative of Piedmont. I trust you will find these powerful Piedmontese reds as rewarding to explore as I did in selecting them for you, and I encourage you to enjoy both of them in youth.