tasting / laying down / 2020 Barolo
2020 BAROLO: MORE THAN COMFORTABLE?
The benign growing season conditions have yielded a vintage of accessible, affable, aromatically delightful wines. But do they have the necessary depth and power to age over the long haul? Andrew Jefford introduces a tasting shared with Susan Hulme MW and Michael Palij MW
t was a year of acute discomfort among human beings—with Italy the first European nation to ask its citizens, on March 9, 2020, to stay home in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile a season of relative serenity unfolded in the vineyards of the Langhe. Nature’s salve, perhaps? There were setbacks: a little frost in April, a pulse of downy mildew in late spring, extended flowering, then a localized clatter of hail between Verduno and La Morra in mid-July. Nothing too worrying, though; for the vines, it was a long and almost stressless season. As you will see from the scores and conclusions, our three tasters calibrate the grandeur of the vintage differently, but discomfort was there none: 2020 has produced Barolo that is both comfortable and comforting. And maybe more. Winter 2020 was relatively warm, with sparse snow to recharge water tables; since 2019 had ended damply, no one was overly concerned. More worrying was the very early budbreak on March 20, around two weeks ahead of the long-term schedule, during a bright and sunny month. Many growers remembered a beautiful early-spring season of gently increasing warmth under cloudless and contrail-free skies. Astonishingly, less rain fell in the three months of January, February, and March than in any subsequent single month during the rest of the growing season. The season began to shift gear from April onward, which was warmer than usual though still drier than long-term averages. From then on, summer was warm and lusciously moist: May, June, August, and eventually October were all significantly wetter than both the
I 196 | THE WORLD OF FINE WINE | ISSUE 87 | 2025
OUR THREE TASTERS CALIBRATE THE GRANDEUR OF THE VINTAGE DIFFERENTLY, BUT DISCOMFORT WAS THERE NONE: 2020 HAS PRODUCED BAROLO THAT IS COMFORTABLE AND COMFORTING
2006–2017 average and the longer term 1929–2012 average (according to rainfall tables for the vintage that are given on Alessandro Masnaghetti’s BaroloMGA360 website). June aside, which was the coolest since 2006, the warmth rose steadily before easing back somewhat with the return of high pressure in September. The ninth month was also drier than the norm. Humidity levels had been high throughout the summer, so growers had plenty to do keeping mildew at bay in the vines, as well as reining back vegetative growth. Slow, accretive ripening was never
checked during this summer of tropical luxuriance, and picking began to get underway at the end of September. Then came the one true metereological mishap of the season: between 90 and 100mm (3.5–3.9 inches) of rain on October 2–3. A few growers with notably early-ripening sites had completed their harvest by then, but most then paused, resuming a few days later and picking on at a relaxed pace until the final third of the month; some picked via a series of different passes
through the vines. Bearing in mind the early budburst, late-October picking meant an unusually long growing season, with ample hang time: an auspicious sign. The grapes were healthy—if large, with thinner skins than usual in these globally warmed times, and a generous pulp-to-skin ratio. In the light of this, some growers experimented with a proportion of whole-bunch fruit or ran extended submerged-cap macerations in order to stiffen the constitution of their wines. Contrariwise (and sensibly), many growers were chary of over-wooding their wines in 2020.
Perceptions and performance With what results? Michael Palij MW sees 2020 as offering much more than comfort. It’s an “utterly alluring, perfumed vintage … just lip-smackingly delicious examples of the world’s most exasperating grape.” Michael’s remarkable scores (12 wines scored at 97 or 98 points, signifying “a wine of spellbinding beauty and resonance, leaving the drinker with a sense of wonder,” with a further nine scores
MICHAEL PALIJ MW SEES 2020 AS OFFERING MORE THAN COMFORT. AN “ALLURING, PERFUMED VINTAGE … JUST LIP-SMACKINGLY DELICIOUS EXAMPLES OF THE WORLD’S MOST EXASPERATING GRAPE”
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