Produttori del Barbaresco - Barbaresco Montestefano Riserva 2017 (750ml)
Price: $69.00
| Producer | Produttori del Barbaresco |
| Country | Italy |
| Region | Piedmont |
| Varietal | Nebbiolo |
| Vintage | 2017 |
| Sku | 1557289 |
| Size | 750ml |
Wine Advocate: 96 Points
The 2017 Barbaresco Riserva Montestefano is darkly concentrated and among the richest wines in this series of single-vineyard Riservas. Montestefano is angular textured and bold with dark fruit aromas dried blackberry toasted almond and cured tobacco. With this vintage you get an age-worthy wine that offers brawn and power for drinking in the medium term but it will become increasingly silky and slender with time. Dusty tannins and crushed stone appear on the long finish. There were 14486 bottles produced. Produttori del Barbaresco has been hitting it out of the ballpark these past years with a string of excellent vintages that resulted in the production of their entire line of Riservas. However that good momentum comes to an end because the Riservas were not made in 2018. That vintage saw all the fruit blended into one non-MGA Barbaresco. And with the 2017 Riservas reviewed here you might find these bottles hard to find. Production was 30% lower in this growing season because of a very careful fruit selection process. In fact Aldo Vacca calls 2017 a "roller coaster vintage with frost then hail then a summer drought."
Wine Enthusiast: 95 Points
New leather camphor cedar and dark spice aromas form the subtle but compelling nose. On the firmly structured palate tightly knit noble tannins support fleshy Morello cherry crushed raspberry star anise and baking spice. Drink through 2029. KERIN O?KEEFE
Wine Spectator: 93 Points
Dense and rich if on the austere side now courtesy of burly tannins with black cherry plum tar and mineral serving as the main flavor themes. Reveals terrific energy and length with a chalky feel on the finish. Best from 2027 through 2045. ?B.S.
Vinous: 93+ Points
The 2017 Barbaresco Riserva Montestefano is a potent savory wine. Today the fruit is very much in the background. A brooding backward Barbaresco the Montestefano clearly needs time it is a somber imposing Barbaresco. Dark plum earthiness cloves menthol and licorice infuse the finish with notable gravitas. There's plenty of Montestefano breadth and resonance. - By Antonio Galloni on September 2021 Aldo Vacca and his team at the Produttori del Barbaresco cooperative continue to turn out gorgeous wines that deliver a remarkable combination of quality and value. This year's releases include the 2017 Riservas and the 2018 Barbaresco. "Frost and drought were challenges in 2017 but not excessively so" Vacca told me. "It was an early harvest but conditions at the end of the season were quite favorable. We were more worried about drought than heat. In the end we found the requisites to make our Riservas but production for all the wines is lower than normal. Two thousand eighteen is another story. Disease pressure was high throughout the year. There were some diurnal shifts at the end of the season then a week where temperatures warmed before cooling again. The wines lacked color and depth relative to stronger vintages." In tasting the 2017 Riservas are certainly very good wines. As often happens in warm years the differences between vineyard sites are less marked than they are in cooler vintages like 2014 and 2016. The tannins are also less polished. Time will help to some degree but the wines will always show the personality of the vintage. Time on the skins was four weeks (as opposed to five for the 2016s) with submerged cap maceration at the end. Aging was done entirely in cask.
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