Five days in Barolo: A visit at Comm. G.B. Burlotto with winemaker Fabio Alessandria
Verduno, Piedmont
Tasted Friday, July 4, 2014 by David Paris with 2,554 views
Introduction
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This is part of five days that my wife Natasha and I stayed in Monforte, primarily for the purpose of visiting some of my favorite Barolo producers. I was very pleased as our trip was coming together as we were able to arrange visits with all of my top choices. For further exploration, see also my write ups of visits at: Giacomo Conterno, Giuseppe Mascarello, Cappellano, Giuseppe Rinaldi, Vietti, Bartolo Mascarello, and Azelia. Yes, it was an amazing five days...
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Burlotto is one of the oldest documented producers of Barolo. In fact, they've been in this facility for 150 years! The current winemaker, Fabio Alessandria, is the 5th generation to live and work in the same facility we were going to visit today!
I think I first learned about Burlotto simply by reading some cellartracker notes of users I trusted and then beginning to do research from there. For whatever reason, this estate doesn't see the attention from the US critics as some other addresses. Located in the small town and commune of Verduno, with most of the famous Crus being in the central and southern end of Barolo, these are not generally considered the finest vineyards in Barolo. In fact, Monvigliero, Bulotto's most famous Barolo, is the second most northerly cru in the whole of Barolo. With that, for me, they offer an entirely unique expression of Barolo and I find them to be far more on the feminine side, offering incredible grace, beauty, and elegance, on a little lighter body with wonderfully expressive fruit. I don't yet know these wines as well as many others, but my experience thus far put them high up on the list of wineries I wanted to visit. I also saw some videos with Fabio Alessandria and he looked to be a friendly, engaging speaker, and had hoped we'd get to meet him on our visit. As this was the only visit scheduled through a distributor, we were unsure the nature of it, or who we were going to deal with.
After we left Bovio for lunch it really began to pour and we arrived during the middle of a powerful thunderstorm. We exited the car, rang the bell, and waited a good minute before a man came out from behind the side gate and just stared at us. We said, "Hi, we have a visit scheduled with Fabio." He looks at us some more and says, "Fabio?" I said "Si." He stares at us and gestures for us to follow him. Ok... he brings us behind the gate, places us in a room, shuts the door, and leaves. Alright, we assume he'll tell Fabio we're here! The room was classically appointed and had some beautiful medals hanging on the wall for awards won in the 1800s:
After just a few minutes we were indeed joined by Fabio Alessandria. After introductions, I asked, "Was that your father who showed us the room?" Yes it was. They definitely had a different style of welcoming. Fabio was very gracious. He finished technical school in 1994, so from 1994 to 1999 he studied in the University and worked in the family cellar at the same time, phasing in. His parents are still involved in the production today. Fabio has a 4 and 6 year old, so the family tradition may continue.
The total production here is 80-90,000 bottles (from zero to 30,000 of Barolo (1992 and 2002 were the last two without)) and 70% of the production is exported. Not only does Fabio of course make the wines, he is the primary contact for all of the international sales. In the US alone he deals with 10 distinct distributors in various states! I can't imagine keeping all that up. You can see why Marta Rinaldi only wants to deal with one (that said, Burlotto pricing is much more consumer friendly as a result of his model).
During introductory conversation, Fabio asked, "Do you own a wine shop, restaurant?" I said, "Nope..." and he responds with, "Private???" I said, "Yeah, I'm just a guy who drinks wine." He seemed quite excited and said, "Just passionate? Wooooow!" I explained some of the tastings we've done and he says, "Wow, that's really great to hear!" It was interesting how happy he was that we weren't "in the business." I guess that's rare for these visits. Nice to see he appreciated that.
After we got to know each other a bit, he invited us outside to see some of the production facility. The fermenters are in what basically amounts to a brick garage, with a flimsy door and glass windows. Traditional indeed, with open top fermenters with no temperature regulation here! Just very large wood fermenters (about 10-15 years old) standing on brick legs. He mentioned that these look older than they are because they're used for only two months out of the year, and then for 10 months they just sit there drying out. There were just four fermenters of this size, and that's all of them. Impressively, the Monvigliero lives in here for up to 70 days! The longest ferments I know of in all of Barolo. Monvigliero is also still crushed by feet. I asked why he only does the Monvigliero this way. His grandfather produced all the Barolos this way, with these crazy long ferments. Through experimentation Fabio says this practice really exalts the characteristics of Monvigliero, but I guess he finds it unnecessary for the other vineyards and blends. 
There was a lot of activity in the aging room as new 45HL barrels were arriving in just a few days and they had to actually destroy the old ones that were in there to make room for the new. The previous barrels, now over 30 years old, were nearly 60HL and were assembled in the barrel room itself (due to their size), so they could not be removed intact. They were literally taking axes and crow bars to them to break them apart in order to make room for the smaller barrels that were to replace them. 
There was also one botti that was living in there that was over 100 years old! Of course it was not used anymore, but remained for ornamental reasons. Since the new incoming barrels were smaller than the outgoing, they had to make room and thus pulled this botti out of the cellar and placed it under cover outside. I'm unsure what they're going to do with it, but Fabio said he does plan on keeping it for display. 
We then walked into yet another area where Fabio continued to explain the production... 
He has the ability to cool these rooms, but he says there is never any need as they are completely underground.
We then walked up to the guest room where Fabio asked me, "So, what we can taste? As you prefer!" I always find that a bit difficult question to answer. How do I say... "Everything?" He told us he made a Sauvignon blanc, and as I hadn't had many from Piedmont we decided to start with that. Unfortunately it wasn't until after he opened the bottle that he told us he also produced one that's been aged in Acacia barrels, which I thought would have been fantastic to try! Perhaps next time. 
Flight 1 (4 Notes)
Flight 2 (3 Notes)
Before we got into the Barolos we got into a discussion about aged wines, and some of his older wines. I brought up how you can often find older vintages of Burlotto wine at places like Chambers Street wine in New York, and I asked him about that retailer particularly. He said that he doesn't sell them any of these older vintages, but he certainly knows them well (and has done a few events with them), but he suspects they're getting the wines from old cellars purchased out of Turin, where there's a lot of old Barolo kept.
We then chatted a bit about when Barolo is "ready" to drink. Fabio said, "I like the Barolo quite young." He was just blown away when I said that I don't think 1989s are drinking at peak yet. I also told him "I love 1999 as a vintage, but they're not ready!" He just laughed. He commented that since they're producing the wine they're continually drinking the wines very young (usually from barrel), so that's what they're used to . There's more of a connection with those wines. He says, "So for us drinking a 10 year old Barolo is probably like drinking a 20-30 year old Barolo for you." Makes total sense!
In La Morra alone there are 60 cellars. One-hundred years ago there were just 10 cellars who produced and bottled Barolo. Fabio said, "The ledged is that my great great grandfather was the first person to introduce the practice of actually bottling Barolo produced." 
Closing
It was totally amazing how different these three Barolos were. For me these were quite a bit different than what you usually see across a portfolio. I guess I'd expect it from Cannubi, since it's so different.
Generally though, the expression of wines here is so unique for me. Towards the end Fabio perfectly described what he's trying to do with the wines. He says they love to maintain notes of rose, floral, and high toned fruit. They're after "elegant, delicate Barolos, maintaining the texture of the wine, not just making big and strong wines" as many others do. I must say, he is nailing all that they are striving for. Fabio was most certainly the most welcoming and friendly, warm owner we met in Barolo. This is a visit I would certainly like to repeat in future years.
Follow the trail onto Bartolo Mascarello...
2013 Comm. G.B. Burlotto Langhe Sauvignon Blanc Viridis 86 Points
Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Langhe DOC
Stainless steel ferment throughout. His parents were the first to plant Sauvignon Blanc in the Barolo district. They really wanted some white wine, but there wasn't very many native options here so they decided to plant Sauvignon blanc. The vineyard is planted just 300 meters from the winery. The soil is more chalky, so it's more suited for white grapes than red. A little funky on the nose, like some rotting pumpkin meat. The palate offers crisp minerals, lots of passion fruit, and good minerality. Quite nice after that nose that I didn't much care for. There is some of that pumpkin here too, but it's more pleasant. Rich acidity on the finish, offering nice richness and minerality. Fairly smooth.
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2013 Comm. G.B. Burlotto Verduno Pelaverga 88 Points
Italy, Piedmont, Alba, Verduno Pelaverga
Since we were in the middle of experiencing the weird weather of 2014, Fabio mentioned that 2013 was very similar to 2014 for the start of the weather... "very very fresh." 2013 wound up warming up and remaining dry through September and October, which is what made it such a great year for Barolo.
Fabio said that there are only 130,000 bottles of Peleverga produced a year in the whole of Piedmont. Based upon what I've seen available (the lack there of), I'm actually surprised it's even that high! Who knows if the others are exported at all. Beautiful pink, rose color. This wine is just fun to look at! Very exuberant aromas, with rich watermelon, and I get the same DEET component I did on the 2012, but it's lighter here. Nice minerality on the nose, too. Very light palate, but quite pretty, offering high floral tones over a rich texture with nice mineral inflection. Nice dialup of acid and fruit balance on the finish. Rich length, and pleasing minerality.
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2012 Comm. G.B. Burlotto Langhe Freisa 88 Points
Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Langhe DOC
Fabio mentioned the family has always made Freisa, but used to make a sparkling version. Once they realized what a great vineyard this was for Freisa they decided to make it "more classic, more important," like this. Very dark in color. Pretty lean aromas. Soft, with a nice strawberry jelly sauce aroma. Very soft and mellow palate texture, but it quickly gets tannic. Nice grippy finish. Fabio mentioned, "For a Freisa, this is quite civilized." And I would agree. He also mentioned this pairs very well with fatty foods.
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2012 Comm. G.B. Burlotto Langhe Nebbiolo 90 Points
Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Langhe DOC
Quite rich on the nose, and very smooth and pretty, with lovely strawberry notes. Soft texture with an elegance to it. Very pretty palate entry, with a soft, smooth texture and a strong tart impression. Nice rich, smooth acid on the finish, but overall the impression is of a restrained richness. After a few seconds it does leave you puckering.
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