A vintage eclipsed

In the last week, millions of people across the UK and Northern Scandinavia were lucky enough to witness one of the great cosmic phenomena that our planet can offer us: a total solar eclipse. Occurring when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun, thus obscuring our vision of the latter, a total eclipse is rare event which many of us might only experience two or three times in a whole lifetime. With the previous couple occurring in 1961 and 1999, and the next not due until 2090, eclipses are truly remarkable events which remind us of the sheer enormity of our solar system, and the true majesty of our natural world.

Although (thankfully) not as rare, superb wine vintages are also indicative of the invisible hand of Mother Nature: ideal growing conditions and dedicated winemakers working in tandem to produce wines of sheer delight and infinite superlatives. I'm talking here about the really great vintages: 1963 Port, 1996 Champagne, 2009 Bordeaux and the like. A recent vintage which has aroused great excitement in the wine world is the 2010 Barolos. Known as 'Il Re dei Vini' (The King of Wines), Barolo is considered by many to be Italy's greatest vinous offering, producing pure Nebbiolo-based wines which combine power, elegance and ultimately unrivalled satisfaction. So when those in the know begin to murmur of stellar vintages, the rest of us should sit up and take notice. In Decanter's recent panel tasting of 2010 Barolos, Michael Garner commented on the "tremendous" wines, saying that he considered the high praise garnered by the vintage to be justified. Garner's fellow taster and Italian wine expert Emily O'Hare also extolled the vintage's virtues:

"If ever there was a vintage to draw in new fans to Nebbiolo [...], then 2010 is the year: these Barolos are transparent and bright in colour, with complex aromas that are floral, exuberantly fruity and exotically spicy, with base notes of fresh meat".

Perhaps most tellingly, renowned wine expert Robert Parker scored the vintage an 'Extraordinary' 98 points in August 2014. Parker's high marks are hard won (for context, the fabulous 2011 Ports only merited 95) so things really do look promising for the 2010s that are starting to hit the shelves.

So it is this context in which I tried the Tesco Finest Barolo 2010 - the supermarket's own brand flagship Barolo (and reasonably priced at a discounted £12.37 - RRP £14.99). Previous vintages fared well with the critics: of the 2005, David Williams remarked: "It's powerful and full of dark fruit but it also has a hint of the haunting floral notes that make Barolo so special" (http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/aug/15/supermarket-own-brand-wine). Olly Smith heaped similar praise on the 2008, calling it "a great intro to Barolo with aromas of truffle and rosé" (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-2236824/OLLY-SMITH-Time-roll-Barolo.html). Of the current 2010 bottle, the Sunday Times' Damian Barr remarked that the wine was "pleasingly spicy", whilst author of 'The Best Wines in the Supermarkets' Ned Halley noted the "exotic spirity-sappy nose [and] lashings of typical sleek fruit".

Like the critics mentioned above, I also found Tesco's Barolo to be a great introduction to both the Barolo style and the Nebbiolo grape. Even in its infancy, the 2010 shows signs of age: its translucent garnet hue just going tawny at the rim. On the nose are those typical aromas of ripe cherry, hints of blackcurrant and a suggestion of oakiness from the time the wine spent in the barrel. The red cherries on the nose are carried through to the palate, where they are joined by savoury notes of nutskin. The structure of the wine is exemplary: good weight and texture, with eager tannins and customary bitterness and acidity. Overall, I found the Finest Barolo to be a refined wine, which would be a great starting point for newcomers to the style. Yes, the fruits are a little one dimensional, but the suggested four year storage period in the bottle should see more complex flavours start to evolve.

So, a good mainstream effort from Tesco in what looks like it could be one of the vintages of the century. In fact, the only danger to the King of Wine's crown is that other 2010 wines could prove to eclipse it: Bordeaux, Burgundy, Chianti Classico and Rioja all had superb growing seasons. In the meantime, let us rejoice in the promise and excellence that the 2010 Barolos represent. Hopefully we'll be treated to a few more like it before 2090 too.