Barolo, Riva del Bric, Paolo Conterno 2018

Last year’s vintage, 2023, proved complicated, good in the north but in central and southern regions, more tricky resulting in one of the smallest vintages of recent years. A dry winter followed by a hot summer has certainly affected yields in 2022, but the quality looks excellent across the country. Small but perfectly formed seems to sum up the 2021 vintage here. Across most of the country the 2020 vintage is looking very good indeed with ripe fruit and lovely aromatics. A classic if not straight forward vintage 2019 has delivered some excellent wines but in smaller quantity. Overall, the results are very good in 2018, though a warm wet early summer led to disease pressures in many parts of the country. The Northeast, home to Prosecco amongst others did particularly well; so too did Tuscany and Piedmont but yields were a little down in some estates. 2017 saw a small crop of excellent wines; spring frosts and a later heatwave nicknamed ‘Lucifer’ reduced yields, but you’ll find good results on the whole with excellent results in Piedmont. Yields were down in 2016 but quality is high, Piedmont and Tuscany at least as good as 2015. 2015 is generally an excellent vintage across Italy, perhaps reds having the edge over whites.