2009 Silvio Grasso Barolo Bricco Luciani

2009 Single-Vineyard Barolo and World-Class Pinot Noir … Cut from the Same Cloth

In the last week of December, we sat down in the Great Room with two data analysts and ran detailed queries against the order database. 2015 marked a huge upswing in Barolo price AND sales — nearly double the total number of purchases and more than twice the sales of 2014. We wanted to understand what was fueling the sudden growth.

The correlation between buyers of Barolo and Barbaresco and high-end Pinot Noir was striking. Of the 972 members who purchased wines grown and crafted by the top estates in Piedmont — the likes of Massolino, Germano, Clerico, Sandrone, and Marcarini — 871 also bought world-class Pinot Noir. The results came as no surprise.

Like Burgundy, the verdant hillsides below Serralunga and above Monforte d’Alba are strewn with limestone. Dozens of growers share holdings in single-vineyard parcels, each meticulously farmed by hand. Both Pinot Noir and Nebbiolo are notoriously capricious and unforgiving varieties. As each growing season provides its own dramatic script, the fortunes of each vintage are often made or lost in a couple viticultural decisions — like a decision to drop fruit or a call to harvest.

Such was the case for Silvio Grasso in the 2009 vintage in Monforte d’Alba. For most estates, 2009 was a “tweener” vintage, sandwiched between the superb 2008 and 2010 harvests. But for Grasso, particularly with Barolo drawn off one of the greatest parcels in the appellation — Bricco Luciani — 2009 was sensational. Here’s why.

While growers didn’t realize it at the time, the wet winter of 2008-2009 would play an important role when the call to harvest was made in late September. A rainy spring followed, delaying flowering but fully replenishing the water table. In July, the weather turned dry and hot. During our mid-August visit to Piedmont, the mercury soared, topping 100 degrees. While some vineyards suffered from hydric stress, the top sites in Monforte D’Alba — Silvio Grasso’s Bricco Luciani, Elio Grasso’s Gavarini, and Giacomo Conterno’s Monfortino — shrugged off the heat.

This is a phenomenal effort from Silvio Grasso and, due to the “tweener” status of the 2009 vintage, a bargain of monumental proportion. Brilliant dark ruby. Pungent, floral aromas of wild-berry bramble, tobacco, and sweet spice. Rich, dense, seductive, and round (almost in a Russian River Pinot Noir kind of way). Juicy and plush, filled with lavish red-fruit minerality, finishing with superb length and persistence. Drink now-2030.

The Wine Advocate’s #1 under-$50 Barolo of 2009.  $70 on release. $43 today exclusively on WineAccess via Direct Import. Shipping included on 4.

P.S. This is a MUST-buy for high-end Pinot Noir enthusiasts as well as Piedmontese classicists.

• ABV 14.50%
• Enjoy right away
• % Nebbiolo