1986 Barolo & Piedmont Vintage

The defining event of the 1986 vintage was a serious hailstorm in spring that struck many Barolo communes with particular force, drastically reducing the size of the crop. Thereafter the weather turned humid and rather cool through much of the summer, which added to the uneven quality across the zone. Conditions improved at the start of October and remained fair through harvest, allowing producers who still had fruit on the vine to pick under reasonable conditions. The result was a vintage that was very uneven across neighbouring vineyards, with those whose fruit had survived the hail producing wines of genuine elegance.

• Spring hailstorm in May caused severe crop losses across multiple Barolo communes
• Production in the Barolo zone fell to roughly half a normal vintage as a direct result
• Humid and cool summer weather created additional quality variation across the denomination
• October improvement in conditions allowed the surviving fruit to be harvested in reasonable shape

Because hailstorms in Piedmont's hilly terrain behave unpredictably, striking one locality while sparing a vineyard just a few hundred metres away, the quality of 1986 varied dramatically at a very local level. Producers in communes and on slopes that escaped the worst of the damage made wines of real distinction. Serralunga d'Alba, with its compact Helvetian soils and powerful terroir, produced some of the most age-worthy examples. Barbaresco, situated east of Alba, was affected differently and some producers there also achieved very fine results.

• Quality differences were extreme even between neighbouring vineyards within the same commune
• Serralunga d'Alba, home to Bruno Giacosa's Falletto vineyard, yielded some of the most structured and long-lived wines
• Producers who harvested surviving fruit carefully made wines that have aged gracefully over four decades
• The vintage underscores how significantly microclimate and storm exposure shape Barolo quality in any given year

Bruno Giacosa, who purchased the Falletto vineyard in Serralunga d'Alba in 1980, produced a Barolo Riserva Falletto in 1986 that has earned a CellarTracker community score of 94.4 points and was still described as showing 'plenty of life' at vertical tastings in 2013. Giacosa himself reportedly preferred 1986 to the more lauded 1985. Luciano Sandrone, who made his first separate Cannubi Boschis bottling in 1985 after founding his estate in 1978, also produced the wine in 1986. Angelo Gaja continued producing his celebrated Barbaresco single-vineyard wines, including Sorì San Lorenzo and Sorì Tildin. His Cabernet Sauvignon-based Darmagi, planted in 1978 and first released with the 1982 vintage in 1985, was also produced in 1986.

• Bruno Giacosa Barolo Riserva Falletto di Serralunga d'Alba: one of the vintage's benchmark wines, still showing well decades later
• Luciano Sandrone Cannubi Boschis: first bottled as a separate cuvee from the 1985 vintage, also made in 1986 from the south-facing Cannubi hill
• Gaja Barbaresco and single-vineyard crus Sorì San Lorenzo and Sorì Tildin: among the most consistently made wines regardless of vintage conditions
• Gaja Darmagi (Cabernet Sauvignon, planted 1978, first released 1985): demonstrated the experimental ambition of Angelo Gaja even in a difficult year

The best 1986 Barolos, particularly those from Serralunga d'Alba and from producers whose vines escaped the worst hail damage, have aged in a classical, slow arc. Tasting notes from vertical dinners conducted around 2013 describe top examples as 'fully mature but with plenty of life left' and exhibiting complex, evolved aromatics of red fruit, tar, earth, and dried flowers. Entry-level and lesser-sited examples are likely past their peak today, but top Riserva bottlings from the most gifted producers remain rewarding and should be consumed sooner rather than later.

• Top Riserva bottlings such as Giacosa Falletto were showing 'fully mature but with plenty of life' as of 2013 vertical tastings
• Lesser examples and village-level wines are almost certainly past optimal drinking today
• The tiny production means that genuinely good 1986 bottles are rare and command collector interest
• If you have top bottles remaining, drink them in the near term with appropriate decanting

The best surviving 1986 Barolos are described consistently as elegant and harmonious rather than massive or extracted, a character that partly reflects the growing season and partly the naturally low yields from hail-thinned vines. Aromatics tend toward the intensely scented end of the Nebbiolo spectrum, with classic notes of red cherry, rose, tar, dried flowers, tobacco, and earth. With time in bottle, secondary and tertiary notes of leather, mushroom, dried herbs, and forest floor dominate. Tannins are firm but fine-grained in the best examples.

• Primary aromatics: red cherry, rose petal, tar, dried flowers, anise
• Secondary and tertiary: leather, tobacco, dried mushroom, forest floor, dried herbs
• Structure: firm, classically Nebbiolo tannins with good natural acidity in the best examples
• Overall character: elegant and harmonious, not massive; rewarding complexity in wines that survived hail and were made by skilled producers