2011 Barolo, Falletto, Bruno Giacosa, Piedmont, Italy

This comes from the Falletto vineyard of Serralunga d’Alba, and from the estate of the same name that Bruno Giacosa bought in 1982. To the uninitiated. Serralunga d’Alba is responsible for Barolo’s finest, most sinewy Baroli, that derive their pedigree from the village’s white limestone soils, giving wines that benefit from time in bottle. Falletto is a top ‘Grand Cru’ vineyard, were such a classification to exist, lying in a natural conch-shaped site. The upper, whitest section is known as Le Rocche, released generally as a (red label) Riserva. This wine comes from the mid-slope belly of the vineyard lower down.
The 2011 vintage is regarded as giving fresh, fruity wines from a sunny and dry season – a cross between 2008 and 2009. In his first year at Giacosa, oenologist Francesco Versio recalls that the character and quality of 2011 was sealed by the cool September Serralunga nights at 15 degrees Celsius that followed hot days at 28 degrees. Still in its infancy, this vintage of Falletto, pale red garnet in colour, pings with white stony cranberry aromas; there’s a hint of coffee bean shells too. It’s precise, tight, cleansing, with again talc tannins and salty tight red berried fruit. This is the white label.
David Berry Green

Made famous, justly so, by the skill of Bruno Giacosa during the 1970s and 1980s, now new techniques in the vineyards have ensured that the Nebbiolo grapes are picked slightly earlier than previously and at optimum ripeness. Maceration times have been reduced from around 50 days to nearer 30, as a consequence of having physiologically ripe fruit from the vineyards. The fashionable, new, French 225-litre barriques are not for Giacosa: all his wine is aged in large 5,000-litre botti, though these are now French rather than Slavonian. Bruno’s wines are marvellously perfumed on the nose, and meaty and full-bodied on the palate.