Buyer’s Guide to VINTAGES March 4 Release

John Szabo’s Vintage’s Preview March 4: Off the Beaten Track, New Releases of Barolo, Barbaresco, and Brunello, 20 Years of Flat Rock Cellar’s Nadja’s Vineyard Riesling and Celebrating Women in Wine

By John Szabo, MS, with notes from David Lawrason, Michael Godel and Sara d’Amato

The feature for the VINTAGES March 4^,2023, release is “Off the Beaten Track” wines from Italy, a collection of lesser-known grapes and places from the vinously vast Italian Peninsula. Nobody is quite sure how many different varieties actually grow in Italy, somewhere between about 500 and 1000 by most estimates. Efforts to count them all up are complicated by the bewildering range of synonyms used for the same grapes, with names often changing valley by valley, much like Italian dialects and cuisines. We’ve picked out a few that are worth a deviation off the beaten track of familiarity, plus several other “aligned” wines from the release.

And to balance coverage of the unfamiliar, we’ve got two highly detailed reports this week on some of Italy’s most famous wines. Freshly back from Piedmont in January, I’ve written up a Nebbiolo Prima Report and buyer’s guide to the hotly anticipated 2019 vintage in Barolo, a year of structured wines for collecting and long-term ageing (but not all), which Tiziana Settimo of Aurelio Settimo summed up simply by saying: “In 2019 we will release a Rocche Riserva. This says it all about the vintage. It was exceptional.” Also included are the top releases of 2020 Barbaresco, clearly another strong vintage for nebbiolo, yielding both aromatically finessed and well-structured wines that should also age extremely well.

Michael for his part shines the spotlight on the latest vintage of Brunello di Montalcino to reach the market, “drawing 2018 vintage connections between breezy Annata and resolute Cru, overall less ‘Mediterranean as a vintage,’ high acid 2017 Riserva, plus retrospectives with Col d’Orcia and Biondi-Santi.” (See also my earlier Brunello report on the same vintage).

And, last week Flat Rock Cellars hosted the deepest vertical tasting of Canadian wines I’ve ever had the pleasure to attend, 20 years of the single vineyard Nadja’s riesling. Named after proprietor Ed Madronich’s mother, Nadja’s vineyard has long been the source of some of the best rieslings in Ontario and Canada since first planted in 2001. Read my brief background on the vineyard and reviews of all 20 vintages with their consistent quality but stylistic meanderings.

Finally, to celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8th, Sara has highlighted some of The Women Behind the Wines in this release.

Nebbiolo Prima: the back room full of bottles. ©John Szabo

Barolo & Barbaresco New Releases and Life in the Langhe Hills (by John Szabo MS)

Each January in the town of Alba, Piedmont, one of the year’s most anticipated tastings takes place: Nebbiolo Prima. This is the annual press tasting organized and hosted by the Albeisa Association, which features the latest releases of nebbiolo, one of Italy’s finest red grapes, specifically from the appellations (Denominazione di Origine Controllatta e Granatita, or DOCG) of Barolo, Barabaresco and Roero.

Yet despite its long history in the region and its inherent quality, nebbiolo has only cemented its place as the Italian “King of Wines and Wine of Kings” in barely the last generation and a half. “Dolcetto [another local red variety], was much more valuable than nebbiolo as late as the late-1970s to early 1980s,” Aldo Vaira of G.D. Vajra in the commune of Barolo tells me. “The farmers had more dolcetto than blood in their veins.”

Read my Nebbiolo Prima report for a short history of nebbiolo’s rise to prominence, and for a complete buyer’s guide to the hotly anticipated 2019 vintage in Barolo, a year of structured wines for collecting and long-term ageing (but not all), which Tiziana Settimo of Aurelio Settimo summed up simply by saying: “In 2019 we will release a Rocche Riserva. This says it all about the vintage. It was exceptional.” Also included are the top releases of 2020 Barbaresco, clearly another strong vintage for nebbiolo, yielding both aromatically finessed and well-structured wines that should age extremely well. Quality in any case is consistently high, with few missed wines.

Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Previews: Annata, Etichetta and Vigna 2018, Riserva 2017 (by Michael Godel)

Drawing 2018 vintage connections between breezy Annata and resolute Cru, overall, less “Mediterranean as a vintage,” high acid 2017 Riserva, plus retrospectives with Col d’Orcia and Biondi-Santi. Read Michael’s Brunello Report.

Twenty Years of Flat Rock Cellar’s Nadja’s Vineyard Riesling (by John Szabo MS

Last week Flat Rock Cellars hosted the deepest vertical tasting of Canadian wines I’ve ever had the pleasure to attend, 20 years of the single vineyard Nadja’s riesling. Named after proprietor Ed Madronich’s mother, Nadja’s vineyard has long been the source of the best rieslings in Ontario and Canada since first planted in 2001. To prove the point, and the ageability of wines from the site, Madronich gathered a small group of writers to taste through 20 vintages, from the inaugural 2003 to a tank sample of the 2022. There are few wineries in the country that would be able to pull off a similar tasting.

Nadja’s vineyard favours a long, slow, flavour-gathering ripening period, allowing the wine to pack in considerable flavour but on a light, sharp, laser-focused frame. What was most fascinating about this tasting, other than the consistent quality (if not consistent style), was the transparent window into both vintage variation, always a significant factor in Ontario, as well as the varying approaches of different winemakers over the years. The Nadja’s riesling has been made by no fewer than six winemakers since 2003, each bringing a nuanced shift in philosophy, and in some cases evolving their own philosophy from year to year. The wine has always been made with a pinch of residual sugar, but the number has been as low as 8 grams, up to 30 grams for the least dry vintage. Acids, too, have varied by several grams, even if overall the wine has stayed within a fairly classic Niagara Bench style that remains firmly in the citrus and white-fleshed orchard fruit spectrum of flavours, never veering into tropical.

Read on to see which vintages are showing best.

The Women Behind the Wine – Celebrating International Women’s Day (by Sara d’Amato)

March 8th is International Women’s Day, an occasion that recognizes and to bring prominence to the achievements of women across the globe. I wanted to mark this day by highlighting some of the women behind top picks in this early March VINTAGES release. In the world of wine, women have made impressive strides since I began my studies and career in wine 20 years ago. I’m proud to have been part of a growing number of women that decided to study winemaking and viticulture in the early 2000s at Niagara College’s Wine and Viticulture program. Enrolment in the program is now quite healthy, with women regularly making up close to the 60% of the class. Yet women still make up a minority, overall, in the wine industry. According to demographics published on Zippia, as of 2022 in the US, only 17.8% of winemakers are women. In other sectors of wine such as viticulture, marketing and writing, those numbers tend to improve. Nevertheless, women in positions of leadership and influence are still a minority.

Click here for the full Women Behind the Wine article.

VINTAGES Buyer’s Guide March 4: Whites and Sparkling

Chartron et Trébuchet Chardonnay Brut Crémant De Bourgogne 2019, Burgundy, France
$22.95, Hektars Agence Inc.
David Lawrason – Not a world beater, but this is very flavourful and I was very attracted by the quality/price ratio – or value. It is a generous, balanced and fresh traditional method cremant with typical apple crisp, lemon and leesy notes. It is light weight, a touch sweet and fresh. Chill well.

…

There are 17 other VINTAGES Release recommendations this week that are currently only available to our premium members. This complete article will be free and visible to all members 30 days after publication. We invite you to subscribe today to unlock our top picks and other Premium benefits