Description
Cavallotto, Barolo “Bricco Boschis”
There are lots of Dogecoin-type wines out there these days—lots of flash and no substance—but what we have here is the exact opposite: An old-fashioned blue-chip stock to take a “long” position on. This is Cavallotto, one of the all-time greats of Barolo, whose “Bricco Boschis” vineyard is a Grand Cru-level site in the village of Castiglione Falletto. How it remains below three figures is truly baffling to me, given the Cavallotto family track record, but again, look around at the world we’re living in: Things of real, measurable value are undervalued, and vice-versa.
The focus, tension, and aromatic complexity of this 2017 is exactly what I look for in the elite wines of Barolo, and Cavallotto is as elite as it gets, right up there with the likes of Conterno, Giacosa, Rinaldi, and Mascarello. Having tasted many exceptional back-vintage wines from this estate (one of the few in Barolo to maintain any kind of “library” in their cellar), I expect today’s 2017 to age gracefully for 20+ years, not by being a tannic brute in its youth but because of its precision and vivid, life-giving acidity. Once again, new-generation vintner Alfio Cavallotto has crafted a modern classic and given us a generous allocation to share with all of you—take up to six bottles today and squirrel them away for some epic Nebbiolo-fueled evenings in the near (and distant) future!
The heart and soul of the Cavallotto operation is “Bricco Boschis,” which fans out beneath the winery in a southwest-facing amphitheater and reaches to 340 meters in elevation. The estate is right in the heart of Castiglione Falletto, which itself is right in the heart of the Barolo DOCG—right at a midpoint, of sorts, among the key villages of the zone, where the more clay-rich marls of Barolo and La Morra give way to more sandstone-influenced soils of Serralunga and Monforte. In the end, “Bricco Boschis” has more in common with the cru vineyards of Serralunga and Monforte in terms of aspect (southwest) and soil content—and it shows in this wine. It is brooding, mineral and focused, instantly announcing itself as a long-term wine.
And yet, as is the Cavallotto way, the wine’s power is not expressed through heft and heavy oak influence. It’s about persistence of flavor and aroma delivered via bright acid and firm—not forbidding—tannins. Nebbiolo, as lovers of the variety know, is a “this goes to eleven” kind of grape: high acid, high tannin, high alcohol. The acid is critical in balancing/taming the other two, and in this wine, it’s the driving force (as it is in the best red Burgundies). In a way, this wine is kind of stealth in the way it presents itself: it feels lifted, even refreshing, even as it’s unleashing a torrent on your palate.
Cavallotto’s house style is resolutely ‘traditional’: the wine undergoes a long maceration on its skins (about a month) during its first fermentation, and is aged for a little over three years in large, used Slavonian oak vats of varying sizes. That’s a relatively long oak aging regimen even by Barolo standards, and yet the oak is never intrusive in new-release Cavallotto wines. On the contrary, it is at most a background note in a wine that has been given the chance to knit together and begin to mature before it has even left the dark depths of the cellar.
Although tightly coiled and powerful, as is to be expected, there’s a fine-grained quality to the tannins rather than rough, forbidding edges. In the glass, it’s a medium ruby leading to garnet and a touch of orange at the rim. The nose is an absolute cacophony of wild strawberry, black plum, Morello cherry, pipe tobacco, black tea, clove, licorice, and so much more. On the palate, it vibrates with energy but needs a good hour in a decanter to shed some of its grip and allow the fruit to show through. It is readily evident that this is going to be an epic, long-lived wine. Whenever the occasion arises for you to open a bottle, decant it about an hour before serving at 60-65 in Burgundy stems, ideally sometime this winter when some long-braised beef or lamb is ready to hit the table, maybe with a comforting dollop of soft, buttery polenta underneath. Bricco Boschis will cut through it like a glinting, perfectly sharp knife and you will be celebrating the stretching of your wine dollar to its absolute limit. Enjoy!
