2020 Barbaresco, Asili, Luigi Giordano, Piedmont, Italy

2020 Barbaresco, Asili, Luigi Giordano, Piedmont, Italy

Product: 20208052645
Prices start from £85.00 per magnum (150cl). Buying options
2020 Barbaresco, Asili, Luigi Giordano, Piedmont, Italy

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Description

A vineyard which needs no introduction, Luigi Giordano’s primetime plot sits in one block. The site is blessed with total south-eastern exposure, sitting on ancient limestone and sedimentary soils, which gives it exceptional complexity and expression. A 30-day maceration infuses the wine with a complex nose of herbs, cold strawberries and tobacco smoke. 

The palate has layers of elegance and richness: cherry and peppery plum fruit melt into fine yet demanding tannins. Although a firmer wine, there is also more elegance and balance. Intensity meets complexity, which only the greatest Nebbiolo sites can achieve.

Drink 2024 - 2040

Davy Żyw, Senior Buyer, Berry Bros. & Rudd

wine at a glance

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Critics reviews

Decanter94/100

Extremely pale as Asili often is. Restrained, with cinnamon, pomegranate if not redcurrant and other light red fruits. Notes of smoky woodland, a balsamic touch and liquorice are soaked with this elegant redcurrant fruit. The acidity is delicate while the tannins almost silky and to the fore. Savoury and smoky on the finish, with great, elegant length. Amazing wine. From half-hectare in Asili, one of the most elegant MGAs for Barbaresco. The wine is aged for two years in large 30-hectolitre Slavonian oak.

Drink 2023 - 2040

Aldo Fiordelli, Decanter.com (January 2023)

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About this WINE

Luigi Giordano

Luigi Giordano

The winery was founded by Giovanni Giordano in the 1930s, when Barbaresco was all but unknown. After a period of growing and selling grapes, Giovanni’s son Luigi made the bold decision to vinify and bottle his own grapes in 1958. He was one of the few visionary producers confident in the quality of his wine and potential of his terroir. This a brave move helped Barbaresco move forward on a path of quality winemaking, and Luigi’s decision paved the way for many Barbaresco producers.

Today, Luigi Giordano lies a stone’s throw from Barbaresco’s small village centre, run by Luigi’s grandson Matteo Rocca. Young, talented, and ambitious, he respectfully continues the winery’s elegant and staunchly traditional style, with long macerations on skins and maturation in large oak botti. Since joining in 2011, he has invested maximum time in the vineyard. Every year, the wines gain greater definition and detail, better articulating their impressive sites.

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Barbaresco

Barbaresco

The Piedmontese DOCG zone of Barbaresco is responsible for producing some of Italy’s finest wines. It occupies the same region and uses the same grape (Nebbiolo) as its bigger brother Barolo, but is a third of the size (only 640 hectares versus Barolo’s 1,700 hectares). It is also 50 years younger than Barolo, having produced wine labelled Barbaresco since 1890.

Barbaresco earned its DOCG after Barolo in 1980, largely thanks to the efforts of Angelo Gaja. The soils are lighter here than in Barolo – both in colour and weight – and more calcareous. The slopes are also less favourably situated and (relatively speaking) yield earlier-maturing yet extremely elegant wines that require less oak ageing (normally one year in oak plus six months in bottle). The appellation’s key districts are Barbaresco, Treiso, Neive and Alba.

Recommended producers: Cigliuti, Gaja, Marchesi di Gresy

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Nebbiolo

Nebbiolo

Nebbiolo is the grape behind the Barolo and Barbaresco wines and is hardly ever seen outside the confines of Piedmont. It takes its name from "nebbia" which is Italian for fog, a frequent phenomenon in the region.

A notoriously pernickety grape, it requires sheltered south-facing sites and performs best on the well-drained calcareous marls to the north and south of Alba in the DOCG zones of Barbaresco and Barolo.

Langhe Nebbiolo is effectively the ‘second wine’ of Piedmont’s great Barolo & Barbarescos. This DOC is the only way Langhe producers can declassify their Barolo or Barbaresco fruit or wines to make an early-drinking style. Unlike Nebbiolo d’Alba, Langhe Nebbiolo can be cut with 15% other red indigenous varieties, such as Barbera or Dolcetto.

Nebbiolo flowers early and ripens late, so a long hang time, producing high levels of sugar, acidity and tannins; the challenge being to harvest the fruit with these three elements ripe and in balance. The best Barolos and Barbarescos are perfumed with aromas of tar, rose, mint, chocolate, liquorice and truffles. They age brilliantly and the very best need ten years to show at their best.

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