Barolo, Brunate, 2008

The 2008 Barolo Brunate is beautifully balanced from start to finish. Freshly cut flowers, mint, licorice, hard candy and dark red fruit are layered in this utterly impeccable Barolo. Waves of fruit build toward a huge, dramatic finish supported by serious tannins, yet the Brunate remains one of the more understated wines here. The Brunate is all about length, weightless elegance and an elusiveness that is only matched by the greatest Burgundies. This is a dazzling effort. Readers should expect the Brunate to take the better part of a decade to become expressive. Following the Brunate over the course of several days was immensely rewarding. Anticipated maturity: 2018-2033. These wines from Roberto and Davide Voerzio represent a significant turning point stylistically. This is the first year in which most of the Baroli were aged partly in cask and partly in barrel, the same approach the estate used for its early wines, up to and including the 1993 vintage. The 2008s spent their first year in equal parts cask and barrique, and a second year in French oak barrels, just 20% new, a major change over the recent past. The exceptions are the Baroli Voerzio bottled only in magnums (Sarmassa and Vecchie Viti dei Capalot e delle Brunate), which were aged exclusively in French oak because of the tiny quantities of those wines. Roberto Voerzio describes 2008 as a year that was cold from start to finish. The wines are huge, tannic and likely to require quite a bit of patience. With time, though, the pedigree of the great Barolo vineyards simply cant be denied. The best of Voerzios 2008s are pure magic. A Leonardo Lo Cascio Selection, Winebow, Montvale, NJ; tel. (201) 445-0620