My annual pilgrimage to Piedmont is one of my absolute favourite trips, often occurring in mid March when the snow has been melted away by the increasingly warm sunshine, Spring is very much in the air.
I always wondered whether it was the time of the year that made me feel that extra level of enthusiasm for the people, region and their wines. The 2012 voyage was to prove a stern test. My journey out there last week, earlier than usual, was accompanied by tough conditions, as the driver of this mini no doubt discovered. There was heaps of snow and minus 13 degree temperatures.
However the wines, predominantly the 2008 Barolos, passed the test with flying colours. The structure in Barolo is very similar to Burgundy, small artisan wine producers making individual vineyard expressions of, largely, one unique Barolo variety, Nebbiolo. The wines are clearly more tannic than Burgundy in their youth and more alcoholic, but otherwise there is often as beguiling and fragrant an aromatic profile, similarly light to mid deep colours but with enormous intensity of flavour and a marked difference in taste depending on the vineyard the grapes are grown in.