Wine Advisor
Elio Altare, Barolo 2020
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Monica Larner
Showing bright fruit freshness and energy, the Elio Altare 2020 Barolo is packed with cherry, wild currant, dried apricot and orange peel. The wine offers volume and texture, more so than your standard Barolo, with soft layers and pretty accessibility. It ages in used barrique for 24 months. There is a hint of butter biscuit too. The tannins are almost resolved, and you don't need to wait long to open one of the 13,000 bottles made.
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The 2020 Barolo is a classy, elegant wine, benefitting from the addition of the best lots of Cerretta, which was not bottled in 2020. Muscular, incisive tannins wrap around a core of dark red fruit, cedar, mint, tobacco and spice. Rich and explosive, yet also medium in body, the 2020 is terrific. Vineyard sites are Sarmassa, Pernanno, Bricco Ambrogio and Cerretta. The Altare straight Barolo remains one of the unheralded stars in Piedmont, even after all these years.
About the Producer
Elio and Lucia’s eldest daughter Silvia has been fully involved in the winery since early 2000, while Elena, their youngest daughter, moved to Germany where she is now running a small wine import company. Elio, his wife Lucia, Silvia and the entire staff follow every single aspect of the work: in the vineyards from pruning to harvest, in the cellar from winemaking to sales, logistics, office work and marketing. The Altare family was originally from the town of Dogliani before buying the farm in La Morra. Back then, the estate covered 5 hectares of nebbiolo, barbera and dolcetto vineyards, along with some peach, hazelnut and apple trees. Those were times when orchards gave higher yields and more profits than vineyards. Back then it wasn’t easy, given the economic crisis that lasted for years. Elio, along with other friends, decided to learn more about winemaking by traveling beyond the borders of Piemonte, trying to learn from the success that other regions were enjoying. Up to today we farm about 10 hectares with an average production of 70,000 bottles.
