[Tango-L] The Barolo Wars

[Tom Stermitz]

People who are passionate and care about something have opinions.  
However, nobody has to become personal nor self-righteous. That is  
about manners and courtesy.


ALL QUOTES VERBATIM

(by Daniel Thomases, of The Wine Advocate.)

> A final word about what has been called "the Barolo wars" -- the  
> conflict that pitted traditionalists and modernists against one  
> another in Barolo and Barbaresco -- might be in order. Rational  
> discussion is not easy in this case, since a good deal of posturing  
> took the place of serious discussion, and the views attributed by  
> the various factions to their opponents went beyond travesty.
>
> It is not true, for example, that traditional Barolo was unclean on  
> the nose, harsh and abrasive on the palate, nor is it true that  
> modern Barolo inevitably reeked of new oak and was unrecognizable  
> as Nebbiolo-based wine.
> ...
>
> If all goes well, these pointless, and often asinine, polemics of  
> recent years will vanish, and we will finally be able to talk with  
> some intelligence about the wines.


ABOUT BAROLO

Barolo is actually a lot like tango, luscious, rich, serious,  
dramatic. Well, maybe Fresedo is more like pink champagne, and Barolo  
is like Pugliese. One of the great world wines, it's hard to find  
Barolo for much under $50; you can get a Barbaresco which is pretty  
similar in the $30s. The grape produces great wine only in a small  
area of Northern Italy, no success planting it elsewhere.


Spotlight on Barolo
(by Tom Maresca)
http://www.thewinenews.com/octnov02/cover.html

> The metamorphoses wrought by late 20th-century technology and the  
> advent of a global wine market have clearly enhanced the quality of  
> recent vintages, but an element of friction exists among the zone's  
> producers, who are divided over what are called traditionalist and  
> modernist approaches. Both terms have to be taken with a grain of  
> salt, as the distinctions between them seem to be fading. That  
> said, there remains the ongoing disagreement in the zone about  
> winemaking style. The debate over barriques, which has been  
> ballyhooed in the press so much that it has almost become a cliché,  
> is the most obvious bone of contention. Barriques -- small, new oak  
> barrels in which the wine is aged -- provide the flash point  
> because their effect on the wine's taste is so blatantly evident.
> ...
>
> Keeping Barolo on its glorious roll is paramount for both parties,  
> and neither faction has allowed the barrique question to hinder it  
> from making great wine, as the spate of recent triumphs proves.



Tom Stermitz
http://www.tango.org
2525 Birch St
Denver, CO 80207