Barbaresco 2013: A retrospective of one of the top vintages in the last decade

The fate of a wine writer is tasting dozens of wines soon upon – or even prior to – release in order to assess a vintage and predict ageability. Far less often are we privileged to sweeping overviews once the wines are sold and tucked away in cellars.

Scroll down to see the top wines from the Barbaresco 2013 retrospective tasting

While I have been visiting Barbaresco regularly since 2004, the first anteprima, or press preview, I attended was in May 2016, when over 100 Barbaresco from the 2013 vintage were presented. Contrary to the latest releases from 2020, which are already accessible, 2013 was patently austere. Even at subsequent estate visits, the 2013s contradicted conventional drinking guidance that Barbaresco should be approachable by the age of five.

A turning point

Nevertheless, 2013 has earned a reputation as one of Barbaresco’s top vintages in the last decade or so, along with 2010 and 2016. Furthermore, when 2019 was released in 2022, the wines were compared to 2013, and as they are approaching 10 years old, I was curious to check in with them.

The 2013 vintage has often struck me as a turning point for the denomination, as it started to usher in a young generation and new labels. Furthermore, with 2013, Gaja returned to the Barbaresco fold with the estate’s cru wines, and Bruno Giacosa began producing a Rabajà bottling again.

With approximately 200 wineries producing fewer than 4.7 million bottles from 729 hectares (2013 statistics), Barbaresco is a small, contained denomination. As such, staging a retrospective tasting was relatively uncomplicated. Above all, the excellent Enoteca Regionale del Barbaresco was an enormous help. This wine shop in the centre of the village works with most of the region’s producers, and the team swiftly assembled 60 wines and coordinated a blind tasting in the town hall.

I supplemented this with visits to a handful of prominent estates who were not able to send samples – namely Gaja, Bruno Giacosa, Ca’ del Baio, Bruno Rocca, Cantina del Pino and La Ca’ Nova – rounding it out to an even 70 wines. I have included notes for all wines tried apart from a small handful that were noticeably flawed.

The 2013 growing season

Looking back to the 2013 growing season, it bucks the general trend of recent vintages. After a long, cold, snowy winter, bud break was two weeks late. Early spring saw low temperatures and abundant rainfall. Warm, dry conditions finally arrived in June, enabling flowering mid-month.

Temperatures continued to increase in July, but crucially there were no heat spikes in summer and cool temperatures returned in August. Improvements mid-September brought sunny days with above-average temperatures countered by cold nights.

As the vines were unable to compensate for the early-season delay, harvest was correspondingly late, starting 15 days later than the previous 10 years, according to the grower’s consortium. Picking began firmly in October and continued through to the beginning of November.

‘2013 was one of our latest picks, on October 20th,’ says Jeff Chilcott at Marchesi di Grésy. Similarly, Luisa Rocca recalls surveying the vineyards and estimating harvesting seven to 10 days later. ‘When we returned a week later, the grapes were still barely ripe,’ she recounts.

Speaking with producers today, there is much enthusiasm for the vintage. ‘2016 may be considered the vintage of the decade, but 2013 is just so classic,’ raves Produttori del Barbaresco’s Aldo Vacca. ‘It is like 2019 but with more structure.’

Others, such as Bruna Giacosa were less impressed. ‘I liked the wines we made but it isn’t a vintage that made me say “wow!”’ she admits. Federica Grasso at Ca’ del Baio is pragmatic. ‘It was a great vintage, but not in all the vineyards,’ she asserts, stating that the tannins in the estate’s Asili were slightly green.

Notes from the tasting

As demanding as it was to taste 2013 upon release, the virtues of the vintage were perceptible in the better wines: aromatic complexity from long ripening, reasonable alcohol levels, and ageworthy structure. Six to seven years later, it was rewarding to revisit, and particularly gratifying to find wines that achieved their early promise.

Those that demonstrate balance today were balanced from the start and are now revealing more of their charms. While an innate austerity persists, they boast beautiful fragrances and stately tannins with depth of fruit to match.

Conversely, time has not corrected imbalances such as underripe, overripe and/or oxidised fruit, excessively hard tannins or ungainly oak.

Most wines are entering their drinking window – but in some cases only just. For the most successful wines, this is not a vintage you need to hurry to open. Those ageing less gracefully provide a challenge of when to drink, as fully developed flavours may be met with wiry tannins.

The majority of wines submitted bore a Menzioni Geografiche Aggiuntive (MGA), meaning they hailed from one of Barbaresco’s 66 official geographic sub-units. This provided an opportunity to consider the personality and quality of specific zones, particularly when there was more than one example: Serraboella showed its signature muscular tannins; Roncaglie its steely, mineral drive; and Nervo its tension.

There were triumphs in each of Barbaresco’s three major townships. Neive’s Albesani MGA lived up to its esteemed reputation, and Gallina charmed with its fine-boned graciousness. In Treiso, the northern sector where the ridges slope west was particularly noteworthy with Bernadot, Nervo and Rizzi, as well as Pajorè.

The sweet spot was the western slopes of Barbaresco; think Secondine, Pora, Faset, Rabajà, Martinenga and Roncaglie. That said, one of my top wines – Albino Rocca’s gorgeous Ronchi – is located on the village’s eastern flank.

Surprisingly variable was the illustrious Asili MGA. Both Michele Chiarlo and Ceretto’s showed much potential upon release, but the latter in particular seems to be going through an awkward phase. Conversely, Produttori del Barbaresco’s bottling was a stunning demonstration.

Ultimately, quality came down to the combination of site and deft winemaking. The best estates read the vintage well, finding optimal picking time, preserving aromas and freshness, and carefully managing tannins.

In general, top producers such as Gaja, Bruno Giacosa, Produttori del Barbaresco, Albino Rocca and Bruno Rocca measured up to their high standing, while Rizzi’s Boito and Castello di Neive’s Vigna Santo Stefano stood shoulder to shoulder with these wines. It was also encouraging to see less fêted estates like Piazzo, Marco e Vittorio Adriano, San Biagio, Ca’ Rome’ and Cascina Luisin in the upper echelons.

An old-school vintage, 2013 will satisfy classicists and may even challenge Barbaresco stereotypes. It is also a vintage that heralds an upward trajectory as Barbaresco continues to gain a critical mass of high-quality wines.

See the score table featuring all 65 Barbaresco 2013 wines here

Michaela’s top Barbaresco 2013 wines from the retrospective tasting

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