[Tango-L] The Barolo Wars

[Neil Liveakos]

Check out the blog at www.milonga.us for a list of Neil's Tango Dichotomies
inspired by the Tango_L "Alternative" Music rant.

On 3/5/07, Tom Stermitz <stermitz at tango.org> wrote:
>
> 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
>
>
>
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>



-- 
Neil Liveakos
http://milonga.us