Even the most famous wines over the years undergo many changes due to climatic changes, new plantings in the vineyard, stylistic choices in the cellar, and technical evolution. Following the different evolutions of wines also involves being able to recognize (and in case reward) the constancy of quality behind the changes.
While Vinitaly is underway, to try to talk about something else with all the clouds gathering over the wine world, I try to make a general reflection. A reflection on the evolution that many labels have undergone in recent decades.
It starts from the fact that it is claimed from many quarters that “the guides,” the critics in general, always reward the same wines every year. I find this to be a trivia. First, because stating such a thing does not take into account the fact that in the meantime those wines are not the same as they were ten or twenty years ago. Would technical evolution, climate change, stylistic choices in the cellar, new plantings in the vineyard for some people would count for nothing?
Do they realize how wines of great tradition have changed? Like Barolo Monfortino, Gaja’s Barbaresco, Biondi Santi’s Brunello or Bertani’s Amarone? The same could be observed for the ” champions of modernity“. That they were and were many years ago. And I think of the Barolo Boys, to then fall largely within different canons. I think of the wines of Elio Grasso, of the Dal Fornos, of Giacomo Neri.
Is it possible that few people realize how they have changed and that they they are no longer what they used to be Despite having the same labels? This is not just an Italian phenomenon. In France, in Burgundy in particular, a similar thing is happening, and you only have to taste Rousseau’s wines to understand it very clearly.
This means that while rewarding the same producers, it is done by following their evolution and the different interpretation they are giving to their wines. For the reasons mentioned earlier, technical, stylistic and related to different soil and climate situations.
I believe that the role of the writer of these is just that, as well as to discover new protagonists, who are in any case present in all publications that deal with wine, in Italy and beyond.
The vignette used for the opening is by Giacomo Cardelli, “From Day to Night,” from the Spirito di Vino (eno)satire contest, 2009 edition, organized by the Movimento Turismo del Vino Friuli Venezia Giulia.
