2012 M. Marengo Barolo Bricco delle Viole 750 ml

Marco Marengo’s 2 Acres of Bricco delle Viole — “Stunning” 96-point Barolo

In the early 1980s, we were waiting tables in a French restaurant in Midtown. Every other week, we and eight other restaurant workers each dropped $10 into a jar, and one of us was charged with purchasing a flight of wines for a Tuesday night tasting. A gallon of gas was less than a buck. A 350-square-foot studio could be had for less than $500/month. But thinking back, the wines we discovered at the Tuesday night tasting table were the greatest bargains of all.

One winter evening, we assembled NINE — count 'em — bottles of 1971 Barolo, at the time deemed to be one of the greatest vintages in the history of the appellation. All the big names were in attendance, including Marcarini, Einaudi, Prunotto, Mascarello, and Conterno. The average bottle price was exactly $10.99! That blustery night signaled the beginning of our love affair with Barolo, and a wine route that’s responsible for many of the most complex and intellectual red wines in the world.

Like all ardent students of Barolo, we soon developed an obsessive fascination with both these wildly aromatic Nebbiolos and the often fanatical winegrowers who made them. We came to understand that on a veritable geological bowl, the composition of soils changed radically every four or five kilometers, ranging from deep clay, sand, limestone, and granite. We began scheduling annual trips to Piedmont, if only to gain an insider’s perspective on the vagaries of the last growing season — in a place where entire vintages are subject to Nature’s caprice, whether a midsummer heat wave, the violence of a late-season storm, or a 45-minute hail storm in July.

Over the last decade, the winegrowers of Barolo have been treated to a number of extraordinary vintages, including the finely delineated 2001, the classically structured 2006 and 2008, and the sumptuous 2010. But if we had to choose one vintage that offered up the juiciest, most pliant and plush Barolos since the dawn of the new millennium — Barolos that more than any vintage in memory take a page out of a seductive Burgundian script — it would be 2012.

You read it here first: If you’re a Pinot Noir enthusiast or even a serious Côte de Nuits collector, the top 2012 Barolos are a MUST-buy. When priced as Marengo’s Bricco delle Viole is priced on today’s Direct Import, pile them into your cellar by the case. You’ll be thanking us well into the LATE 2020s! Here’s why.

As Marco Marengo would explain, there was nothing “facile” about 2012. The year began with the harshest of winters, with plenty of rain and snow. Spring was “up-and-down,” with rain and cool weather beginning in April, followed by a very unusual light dusting of snow. May continued where April left off, making for an irregular fruit set. Clearly, 2012 wouldn’t be to the liking of Marco’s accountants. The sun began to shine in June, ushering in a month and one-half of fine weather, accelerating the maturation cycle. Then, in July, disaster struck La Morra.

The first of two hailstorms took large bites out of wooden pickets. Curiously, in speaking to a number of growers in the area, we learned not all estates suffered the same plight. A few sites were severely damaged, but not Marengo’s tiny 2-acre parcel of Bricco delle Viole. In a scene right out of a Grand Cru Burgundy script, the family swarmed all over this prized hillside. By hand, row by row, plant by plant, each shattered berry was plucked, leaving the rest intact. When the call to harvest was made in mid-October, Marco would harvest less than 2.5 tons of Nebbiolo per acre, one of the smallest harvests of the last two decades.

The most respected Barolo expert in the world, Antonio Galloni, has been covering the region for nearly 15 years. Galloni called Marco Marengo’s 2012 Barolo “Bricco delle Viole” “stunning,” describing a phenomenal Barolo of “effortless grace and totally seductive personality.”

Galloni’s 94-point rating would be the highest the critic would accord any under-$50 Barolo of the year … albeit two points behind former Wine Spectator Italian wine guru James Suckling, who came in at a scintillating 96!

$60 on release. Just $40 on this WineAccess Direct Import, the best price in America. Shipping included on 4. 480 bottles. Sorry … in advance.