Now this is interesting. I encountered it at the Oslo tasting I’ve been at for the last couple of days.
It’s a naturally made Barolo from Giovanni Canonica. He makes very little – around 5000 bottles – which all sell out very quickly. Much of the production is sold in Japan.
Canonica farms 1.5 hectares in the Paiagallo vineyard on the hill above Barolo, and makes his wine very naturally in the cellars below the small agriturismo he runs.
The wine has 40 days maceration in fiberglass fermenting vessels, and then goes to large Slavonian oak botti, until it is bottled. It’s not the most typical Barolo, but it is delicious.
Giovanni Canonica Barolo Paiagallo 2007
15% alcohol. Sweet, aromatic, spicy nose with lifted cherry fruit and notes of herbs. The palate is elegant, rounded and spicy with some earthy notes adding a savoury dimension. Very sweet cherry fruit, with grainy tannins and a distinctively dry finish. Strangely compelling. 94/100
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3 Comments on A remarkable natural Barolo
Jamie, out of interest, how naturally is he making the wines? Are we talking zero SO2? That’s a good long maceration and the effect on the tannins at that alcohol level.
Gianni’s Barolo gets a small amount of sulphur just before bottling, to arrive at total levels under 35-40 mg/litre (including that which is produced in fermentation, in his case usually app. 15 mg/litre). No sulphur is added during vinification.
Natural in this case means a vineyard where only sulphur and copper is used, and in extremely low quantities. The wine obviously ferments without the addition of yeasts, phosphates and (not to mention) enzymes, and there is no clarification except static decantation, and no filtering.