Wine Advisor
Produttori del Barbaresco, Barbaresco Riserva Montestefano 2008
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The 2008 Barbaresco Riserva Montestefano is exquisite and harmonious from start to finish. Among the more structured 2008s, the Montestefano is the wine that most hides its tannin, as the fruit is intensely perfumed, rich and totally seductive. Today the Montestefano provides the illusion of being relatively accessible, but it is virtually certain to shut down in bottle. The 2008 boasts striking aromatics, seemingly endless layers of fruit and power to burn. Readers can think of the Montestefano as a synthesis of Montefico, Ovello and Rabaja. Not bad, to say the least. Anticipated maturity: 2018-2048. Produttori del Barbaresco, one of the world’s top cooperatives, has been making terrific wines for five decades. As good as the wines were in the past, my feeling was that at times the full potential of these sites – widely considered among the very best in Barbaresco – wasn’t being fully captured. The Produttori must have thought the same thing. Beginning in 2001, the Produttori began incentivizing their member growers to cultivate higher quality grapes. At the same time, the winery began a gradual process of rotating out their large 100-hectoliter casks and replacing them with smaller 50 and 75-hectoliter casks. The 2008 Riservas are the culmination of all of that work. I have been anxiously waiting to taste the Produttori’s 2008 Riservas since the end of that year’s harvest, when Managing Director Aldo Vacca told me the Riservas would almost certainly be bottled. Two recent tastings of the entire lineup were more than worth the wait. Simply put, these are the very best young Riservas I have ever tasted from the Produttori. The wines will require considerable patience, but they are stacked and packed with tremendous concentration of fruit allied to structure. It is a vintage Piedmont drinkers love to love, where the individual signatures of each terroir are clearly delineated. Best of all, the Riservas remain exceedingly fairly priced considering the quality of what is in the bottle. Congratulations to Aldo Vacca, longtime oenologist Gianni Testa and the entire team at Produttori del Barbaresco for this magnificent collection of 2008 Barbareschi. Importer: Vias Imports, New York, NY; tel. (212) 629-0200
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The 2008 Barbaresco Riserva Montestefano is exquisite and harmonious from start to finish. Among the more structured 2008s, the Montestefano is the wine that most hides its tannin, as the fruit is intensely perfumed, rich and totally seductive. Today the Montestefano provides the illusion of being relatively accessible, but it is virtually certain to shut down in bottle. The 2008 boasts striking aromatics, seemingly endless layers of fruit and power to burn. Readers can think of the Montestefano as a synthesis of Montefico, Ovello and Rabajà. Not bad, to say the least.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
Good medium red. Raspberry, redcurrant, herbs and spices on the nose, complicated by vanilla and hints of apple and citrus fruits. Utterly silky-smooth yet lively on entry, then juicy and pure in the middle, with lovely spicy lift to the red fruit flavors. Not at all outsized for this bottling but offers an explosion of flavor. The velvety, rising finish leaves the mouth feeling refreshed. This beauty is a bit less dominated by its tannins today than the Muncagota and should offer earlier enjoyment. But it also has the stuffing to support a long and graceful evolution in bottle.
About the Producer
Produttori del Barbaresco, located in the Barbaresco region of Piedmont, Italy, is one of the most well-known wine producers in the region, and is also considered a world One of the finest wine cooperatives on the planet. At first, Nebbiolo grapes grown in Barbaresco were often sold to producers of Barolo red wine, or simply labeled "Nebbiolo di Barbaresco" on the wine label. Barbaresco remained largely unknown at the time. In 1894, Domizio Cavazza, Rector of the Royal Enological School in Alba, created the first winemaking cooperative "Cantine Sociali" and brought together nine Barbaresco vineyard owners Come to the co-op for brewing. However, due to the influence of fascist forces, the brewing cooperative was forced to close in 1930. Until 1958, the local priest realized that the only way to survive for small vineyards was to work together, so he gathered 19 grape growers together to create the Barbaresco Production Alliance, dedicated to improving Barbaresco and its production. the reputation of the wine. The Barbaresco region has a continental climate, with hot summers, cold and snowy winters, and a large temperature difference between day and night, which is conducive to the accumulation of more flavor substances in the grapes. The Barbaresco Production Alliance has more than 100 hectares of high-quality Nebbiolo vineyards, growing on steep hillsides between 200 and 400 meters above sea level, with plenty of sunshine, and the soil is mainly composed of limestone and clay, which is conducive to the production of complex taste and tannin. Powerful and characterful wines. Nine of the vineyards are single-gardens, of which the northernmost single-gardens of Montesefano, Ovello and Montefico have higher calcium content in the soil and produce wines Full-bodied and full-bodied, it is known for its firm structure and complexity. The single estates of Paje and Muncagota, located in the middle of Barbaresco, produce wines that are fruity, floral and mint in a fresh and elegant style. Further south are Asili, Rabaja, Pora and Rio Sordo, all facing southwest, as the calcium content of the soil decreases , the wines produced are softer than the northern single vineyards. The Barbaresco Production Consortium now consists of 51 members and produces approximately 550,000 bottles (45,000 cases) per year. The Alliance produces Barbaresco DOCG and Langhe Nebbiolo DOC every year. The former was first released in 1958 as the flagship wine of the Barbaresco Production Alliance, and its annual production accounts for half of the alliance's total production. A blend of Nebbiolo grown in different vineyards, this wine is known for its elegant style and dependable quality. The fruit from the young vines in the estate is used to produce the Langnebbiolo red wine, the first vintage of which was 1975. This wine is often drinkable at a young age and is a good value for money, making it an excellent choice to discover the beauty of the terroirs of Nebbiolo and Barbaresco. In addition to this, the Barbaresco Production Alliance produces single-vineyard wines of the Riserva range, which are produced only in years with favorable weather conditions and are vinified and aged according to traditional methods to highlight the terroir of each single-vineyard uniqueness. The annual production of these single vineyard wines accounts for 30% of the total production of the alliance, and the annual production amount, the name of the single vineyard and the name of the single vineyard owner will be marked on the wine label. Among them, the 2016 Barbaresco red wines from Montesfino Garden, Labaga Garden, Asli Garden and Montefico Garden all performed well, winning 98, 98, High score of 97 and 97.
