Ever since the 1st century AD, historians like Pliny the Elder have noted the excellent Nebbiolo grapes in the region near Barolo. But the story of this wine really starts in the mid-19th century, when Camille Benso, mayor of the town of Grinzane Cavour, invited French winemaker Louis Oudart to the Barolo region. Oudart brought improved cellar hygiene and other new techniques that allowed the nebbiolo to ferment while completely dry. This drier red wine became a huge success among Turin’s ruling House of Savoy, so much so that Barolo became known as the “king of wines and wine of kings.”
Up until the 1950s, most Barolo was made by large scale winemakers who blended grapes purchased from across the region. In the 1960s, individual estates began bottling and producing wines with grapes that came from a single vineyard, which led to an effort to establish a Cru classification (explained in the next article). Starting in the 1970s, global trends began favoring fruitier and less tannic wines that could be consumed without significant aging. In response, Barolo makers such as Elio Altare, Ceretto, and Paolo Cordero di Montezemolo began creating Barolo with shorter periods of maceration (the time spent softening and breaking down the skin of the grapes) and fermentation, on the order of days instead of weeks.They also aged Barolo for less time in oak barrels while bottle aging it for a longer duration, favored French oak barrels rather than the traditional Slavonian oak, and used modern technologies such as specialized tanks which maximized the color extracted and minimized tannins. This led to vehement disagreement from more traditional winemakers, resulting in the so-called “Barolo Wars” between the traditionalists and the modernists that lasted through the 1980s. Barolo Boys is, an excellent documentary on this exciting and dynamic period in the history of Barolo. These days, the “Barolo Wars” have ended with a compromise of sorts: most producers of Barolo stake a middle ground between the traditionalist and modernist techniques to craft the uniquely delicious wine now enjoyed all over the world.
