Barolo: Traditional winemaking versus modern

Barolo: the place to be for top wines

There are 11: the number of villages where Barolo can be produced, 11 villages of Cherasco, over Roddi, Verduno, Novello to the deepest point Monforte and Serralunga.  This long plain offers a very diverse type of Barolo where tannins are harder as they progress from Cherasco to over La Morra towards Monforte, traditionally harder tannins.

The picturesque region lies in the foothills of the Alps in northwest Italy; in fact, the mountainous soil that feeds the vines of Nebbiolo is what gives this wine its specific characteristics.

Known throughout the world as "the king of wines", Barolo is a timeless wine with a history as rich as its nickname.

A dip in history to the very beginning

While the Nebbiolo grape has a history dating back to the 13th century, the word "Barolo" did not begin to appear on labels until the middle of the 19th century, around the same time that glass bottles were introduced into the region (before that, it was a wine made exclusively in barrels).

Traditionally, Barolo has been a dry wine, heavy in acidity, tannins and alcohol. Before the mid 1800s, Barolo was drastically different, made in a richly sweet and fruity style. This was because the Nebbiolo grape ripens at the end of October when temperatures drop steadily. By November and December, temperatures in Piedmont would be cool enough to stop fermentation, leaving a significant amount of sugar in the wine.

The truth about who made the first dry Barolo can be left to sober debate, but a story begins in the mid 1800s, when Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour (also a leader of the movement for Italian unification), saw an opportunity to modernise his family's estate in Grinzane by improving winemaking techniques and introducing a monoculture of vines. He enlisted the help of the Frenchman Louis Oudart as his oenologist (wine expert), who was able to ferment the Nebbiolo completely dry, thus creating the first modern Barolo.

A noblewoman named Giulietta Falletti, the marquise of Barolo - who also received help from Louis Oudart for her vast estate in La Morra, Serralunga d'Alba, and Barolo - developed a Bordeaux-like wine that caught the attention of King Carlo Alberto di Savoia. This wine, says Falletti, was called "Barolo". It was a wine so great that he would later have inspired King Carlo Alberto di Savoia to buy the estates of Verduno and Roddi for wine production.

Meanwhile, around the same time, Emanuele Alberto Guerrieri - the illegitimate son of Vittorio Emmanuele II, Count of Mirafiori and the first king of Italy - started planting vines around a family refuge called Fontanafredda, near Serralunga d'Alba. Today, Fontanafredda is still one of Barolo's most famous producers and one of the largest contiguous properties.

It was this association with the then reigning Italian dynasty that earned it its nickname "the wine of kings, the king of wines", which it still proudly holds today.

Barolo Traditionals versus Modernists

Traditionally, Barolo is a slow and steady wine, which sometimes takes more than 10 years to soften and be ready for consumption.  A century after Oudart's era to the 1970s and 1980s, the global market favours fruitier and fewer tannins that can be consumed at a younger age, no evidence of the high levels of acidity and tannins.

Of course, there were those who wanted to develop a sweeter Barolo to please the market and those who wanted to adhere to the tried-and-tested traditional process.

The two factions disagreed, and this break is dramatically known as 'The Barolo Wars', a battle between the old and the new school, with supporters of the new approach referred to as 'modernists', and those who retained the old faith were labelled 'traditionalists'.

The leaders of the Modernist side included the producers Elio Altare, Renato Ratti and Paolo Cordero di Montezemolo. This group of "rebels" started using rotofermenters (a barrel that mechanically ferments the grapes), which allowed a rapid extraction of colour, a faster fermentation period and a shorter ageing period, resulting in less tannin and lighter wines, although traditionalists will argue that wines produced in this way are not genuine Barolo wines.

However, one cannot expect, especially in the cities, that everyone will just have a wine cellar to wait 10 years for the bottle to open at the typical traditional Barolos. Just think who lives in apartment buildings and the typical wine cellar that still has its limitations for the real wine lover.  That is why it is a good thing in these times that there are more lovers of the Barolos produced by the modernists. 

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