2009 Giovanni Manzone Barolo Le Gramolere

2009 Giovanni Manzone Barolo “Gramolere” … and an Importer’s Year-End Review

As importers prepare for end-of-year meetings with accountants and bankers, they scour warehouses looking for ways to “lighten up.” Every so often they choose to sell off a couple dozen cases of something exceptional — but almost never something like 25 cases of a single-vineyard Barolo rated 93 points — Wine Spectator’s highest-rated $60 Barolo of the year.

Piedmont sweltered through the torrid growing season of 2009. As always in hot vintages, Monforte and Serralunga shined brighter than the rest of the appellation, as deep-rooted old vines planted on steep, limestone-strewn hillsides shrugged off the summer swelter.

Not surprisingly, the cream of Monforte d’Alba — Grasso, Conterno, and Manzone — came through with masterful efforts, wildly complex, Burgundian-styled Nebbiolos of extraordinary charm and elegance.

Giovanni Manzone’s magnificent 2009 Barolo “Gramolere” is dark ruby in hue, filled with pungent aromas of wild strawberry, raspberry, and black cherry, tinged with pine needles. Firm, dense, and tightly wound on the attack, sweet and complex on entry, after decanting for three hours Manzone’s single-vineyard Barolo begins to open up, peeling away fine layers of crushed-red-fruit minerality before finishing with a textbook dusty-tannin finish. Drink now — only if you’re impatient — or lay down until the mid-2020s.

Thanks to the 93-point review from Wine Spectator, most of the importer’s allocation of the 2009 “Gramolere” disappeared on release. Most, but not all. With the accountants arriving for the year-end review this Thursday, the firm called WineAccess hoping to “lighten up” a little.

$60 on release. Just $42 today on WineAccess. 300 bottles are up for grabs. Sorry in advance.

• ABV 14.50%
• Enjoy right away
• % Nebbiolo