2008 Barolo & Piedmont Vintage

After a very cold winter, the growing season got off to a cool, wet start. Budding was not particularly early and spring began regularly, with good shoot growth and no late frosts, a return to more normal rhythms after the very early 2007. Then, from mid-May, came a month of exceptionally unstable weather with heavy rain almost every day, which brought fruit-set difficulties, particularly for Barbera. Rain eased in the second half of June, but the summer that followed was quite wet and cool, and downy mildew and oidium pressure ran from mid-May through June and July into August. Some vineyards suffered serious damage from hail and strong winds. Veraison and sugar build began much later than in 2007. The rescue came from the end of August: over 50 days of stable weather, often sunny and without significant rain, with mild days and cool nights. Grapes harvested in the Langa and Roero were in excellent health. Arneis and Favorita picking began in early September, Dolcetto followed in the second half of September, and the Barbera and Nebbiolo harvest was concentrated in the second and third week of October. Counting fruit-set losses and the numerous hailstorms, average output was 10 to 15 percent below 2007, depending on zone and variety.

• Very cold winter and a cool, wet start; no late frosts
• A month of near-daily heavy rain from mid-May hurt fruit set; mildew and oidium ran into August
• Over 50 stable, often sunny days from the end of August, with mild days and cool nights
• Nebbiolo picked mainly in the second and third week of October; output 10 to 15 percent below 2007

The Consorzio's own report put overall grape quality between good and very good, with Nebbiolo able to reach excellent because it was picked later and benefited from better weather during ripening and harvest. Nebbiolo reached ideal ripeness thanks to the September and October weather, with very good acid balance, slightly higher fixed acidity than in past years for the first grapes picked, and exceptional sugar accumulation. The May and June weather put Barbera at a serious disadvantage; it came in with excellent sugar but rather high fixed acidity, and growers who pushed the harvest back a few weeks got very good results. Dolcetto had difficulties with the spring and early-summer weather yet reached very good sugars and an ideal acid balance, and the cool summer gave Arneis an excellent balance of sugar and acidity. Variability was the most striking feature of the year: with serious hail and wind damage in some vineyards, differences in exposure and soil suitability were set to emerge more clearly than in other years.

• Nebbiolo: ideal ripeness, very good acid balance, exceptional sugar accumulation
• Barbera: hurt by May and June weather; later picking gave very good results
• Dolcetto: very good sugars and ideal acid balance despite a difficult spring
• Arneis: excellent balance of sugar and acidity from the cool summer

Growers who waited were rewarded. "I didn't harvest my Nebbiolo until the first week of November," Franco Conterno of Poderi Aldo Conterno told JamesSuckling.com. "This gave our Barolo dark color, complex aromas and well-structured palates." His brother Giacomo Conterno told Wine Spectator that the period of warm days and cool nights from the end of August until the Nebbiolo harvest in late October made the vintage: "The biggest concern was ripeness, so we made the decision to pick late." Wine Spectator gave the estate's Colonnello and Romirasco 96 points each and Cicala 95. Elio Grasso made a racy Barolo Gavarini Chiniera (95) and a lush yet well-structured Barolo Ginestra Casa Maté (93). Wine Spectator's other classic-rated 2008 Barolos came from Falletto di Bruno Giacosa, Conterno Fantino, Fontanafredda, Massolino, Giuseppe Rinaldi and Vietti. At Schiavenza, Luciano Pira and Walter Anselma make wines with luscious Nebbiolo fruit that makes them appealing young. "I have always said that 2008 is a great vintage," Roberto Conterno of Giacomo Conterno told JamesSuckling.com.

• Poderi Aldo Conterno picked Nebbiolo as late as the first week of November
• Elio Grasso: Gavarini Chiniera 95 and Ginestra Casa Maté 93
• Classic-rated 2008 Barolos from Falletto di Bruno Giacosa, Conterno Fantino, Fontanafredda, Massolino, Giuseppe Rinaldi and Vietti
• Schiavenza's wines showed luscious Nebbiolo fruit that makes them appealing young

Wine Spectator rated the 2008 Piedmont reds 94 points overall, outstanding on its scale, after blind tastings of nearly 800 Piedmont wines, with Barolos dominating the top-scoring group. The vintage was long and cool, a return to the cooler conditions and longer harvests more typical of the 1970s and '80s after two decades of warmer seasons, and Nebbiolo, which ripens late, benefits from autumn light and cooler nights. Wine Spectator's Bruce Sanderson found fruit tending to strawberry, raspberry and cherry, with notes of tar, tobacco, licorice and mineral, and wrote in 2013 that the wines' nervous structures, a result of their vibrant acidities, needed an additional year to five years to reach their peaks and could age over the next 10 to 20 years. James Suckling judged that some extraordinary Barolos were made, with more complexity, subtlety and richness than 2007 if they were made properly, but warned that some Langhe winemakers may have had too large crops or did not pick late enough.

• 94 points overall for 2008 Piedmont reds from Wine Spectator, with Barolos leading
• A return to the cooler, longer seasons of the 1970s and '80s
• Strawberry, raspberry and cherry fruit with tar, tobacco, licorice and mineral, in Wine Spectator's description
• Suckling: some extraordinary Barolos, but big crops and early picking cost some producers