DECANTER - Barolo 2022: Our guide to the ‘against-all odds’ vintage
Between extensive blind tastings and visits to over 50 wineries, Michaela Morris selects 140 wines to recommend from Nebbiolo's heartland of Barolo DOCG.
When I visited Barolo in early May of 2022, scrawny plants on dusty, arid soil were barely noticeable amid the equally scraggly cover crop.
By the end of the season, many vines hadn’t even reached the top of the trellis, which is almost inconceivable for the notoriously vigorous Nebbiolo.
Drought reached hyperbolic levels and the summer heat was relentless. For a region that is well versed in dealing with rain, the severe lack of it was disconcerting.
‘It forced me to rethink my farming,’ recalls Gianluca Colombo, who abandoned the region’s traditional viticultural practices and adopted the farming approaches of more southern, Mediterranean climes.
‘2022 was an exception in the worst possible way,’ says Carlotta Rinaldi. Yet the vines’ resilience was astounding: ‘From the beginning, they tried to preserve energy and limit production’, she continues.
