Report from - Piedmont, Italy – Day 2 (Barolo Press Conference and Auction) … September 28, 2008
It all started at the Charton-Hobbs tasting and ended with me nursing a stuffed nose for two-plus weeks; but I would have to say it was well worth it …
We started the morning off in an old theatre (teatro) for the Barolo press conference. The press sat in the seats in the main body of the theatre as 3 speakers, from different aspects of the Barolo region, talked about the wines, the vintage and the tourism from the main stage.
Claudio Rosso discussed harvesting, Barolo’s DOCG status, the next Barolo launch to market (the 2005’s will see the light of day in January 2009) and the 2008 grape growing season: fresh spring, below average July and August with a hot summer-like September. His wrap up assessment: “Not an abundant crop but good grapes with excellent flavours and good acidity … these will be good wines for ageing.” He then told us that Barolo is sold in 48 countries – 14% of the wine is sold in the U.S. while another 34% is sold locally and over 10 million bottles are made annually. Claudio then sat down and took a hefty belt from his glass of wine (remember, it’s about 10:45 in the AM – what a great country, or as Konrad put it at the airport, “civilized”.) ... (Read more)
