Wine Advisor
Bruno Giacosa, Barolo Falletto 2011
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Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Monica Larner
The 2011 Barolo Falletto is a beautifully balanced and determined wine. It spends 30 months in oak and this warm vintage is already showing a quick bottle evolution. This was an early vintage: Fruit was harvested on September 23, which is ten days before average. It shows soft, luscious lines and ripe fruit favors that are both generous and opulent. Yet, there is a healthy crunchiness and crackle in the mouth that makes for a long aging future ahead. Barolo Falletto closes with pretty aromas of dark fruit, spice and shaved truffle.
Reviewed by: Monica Larner
The white label 2011 Barolo Falletto will be released in January 2015. There will be a red label as well in 2011 to be released in 2017. This is a generous and expressive wine that reflects the softness and boldness of the hot 2011 vintage. The Bruno Giacosa house style tends to favor warm vintages such as 2000, 2007 and now 2011, daughter Bruna tells me. The wine enjoys good support at the back thanks to the firm nature of the tannins. The high altitude vineyards (at 420 meters above sea level) have helped to keep the fruit fresh and not weighed down by jammy tones that are present in the fruit used in the 2011 Barbaresco Albesani Vigna Santo Stefano, for example. This Barolo pulls out a great inner elegance. Drink: 2017-2030. It has been famously reported now that Bruno Giacosa did not make wine in 2010. If you ask his daughter Bruna why this legendary estate would skip such a promising vintage, her reply is simple: “Sometimes you need to follow your heart.” Like the 2006 vintage that was passed over because it marked the same year that Bruno suffered a massive stroke, the family has similarly private reasons for wanting to skip directly from 2009 to 2011. It’s a hole they chose to leave. In other news, the Giacosa family bought a tiny parcel in Rabaja (half an hectare) and plans to release 4,000 bottles of the inaugural vintage in 2013. Importer: Folio Fine Wine Partners, www.foliowine.com
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
Bruno Giacosa's 2011 Barolo Falletto is soft, open and welcoming, with plenty of vintage 2011 sexiness. Sweet spiced notes meld into dark red stone fruit, mint, sweet tobacco and incense. All things considered, this is a fairly mid-weight, perfumed Barolo from the Falletto vineyard. Although the 2011 isn't up to very best wines from this site, it is great to see the Bruno Giacosa signature style more or less back. I don't expect the 2011 to be especially ageworthy, but it is quite beautiful just the same. A Red Label Riserva will follow in a few years.
About the Producer
Bruno Giacosa, located in the south and south-west of Piemonte, has been performing well for three generations, thanks to the careful selection of high quality grapes and the emphasis on traditional winemaking techniques. The vineyard covers 44.7 acres (18 hectares) and is planted with Nebbiolo d'Alba, Barbera and Dolcetto varieties. The average age of the vines is 15 years and the planting density is between 4,500 and 5,000 vines per hectare, with an average yield of 4,800 litres per hectare. In terms of winemaking, the owner has a classic quote: "For us, the philosophy of traditionalism means making wines that are not only strongly local to the vine and the grape variety, but also maintain the various local terroirs. We have always made single-variety wines. Our winemaking techniques have been improved and we also make use of gentle pressing, crushing operations, advanced rotary systems and optimised cold and hot treatment techniques." For Garcosa, technology and tradition are not necessarily at odds with each other. In the winemaking process, the grapes are first fermented in steel containers and then transferred to wooden containers for ageing, which varies slightly depending on the type of wine. Finally, the wine is bottled without filtering. The main wines produced by the winery are the Barbaresco Garina, the Barbaresco Santo Stefano, the Barbaresco Asili, the Barbaresco Wabasha and the Barbaresco Asili. Barbaresco Rabaja, Barolo Falletto and Barolo Le Rocche del Falletto. Some of the more recent vintages are 2001, 2000, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1990, 1989, 1982 and 1978. These vintages are often relatively closed and uninteresting when first bottled, but after 10 years in the cellar, they all show an irresistible magic.
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