Piedmont new releases: Full report

Stephen Brook provides individual reports on the latest releases from Barolo, Barbaresco and Roero, with tasting notes and scores for more than 170 wines...

The great Nebbiolo wines of this Italian region have an avid following, so the release of new Piedmont vintages always generates some excitement – and occasionally some disappointment.

The starting gun is triggered at an event in Alba now known as Nebbiolo Prima. It’s not an official launch, but is the first opportunity for the press and sommeliers to taste the new releases of Barolo, Barbaresco and Roero at a leisurely pace.

 Scroll down to see Stephen’s Piedmont reports

Go straight to the reports published so far: 

• Barbaresco 2015 & Riserva 2013: Latest releases

• Barolo 2014 vintage report and tasting notes

Quick link: View Stephen’s tasting notes & scores for all 172 wines included in the report

Nebbiolo Prima is a blind tasting, and its sole drawback is the sheer number of wines to be tasted, varying from 70 to 90 each day, amounting to a total of over 300 bottles. With very few exceptions, the wines will have been bottled only a few months previously.

Since there’s no official launch, importers, merchants and the estates themselves are free to release the wines commercially whenever they choose – thus, in the tasting report that follows, the majority of wines will have been tasted at Nebbiolo Prima in May 2018, but others will have been sampled at the producer’s estate or at importers’ tastings earlier in the year.

Like any tasting report, this doesn’t claim to be definitive. There were instances of some bottle variation, so wines were retasted when possible to give them the benefit of the doubt. Nor do all producers participate in Nebbiolo Prima, which has its own terms and conditions that some wineries decline to sign up to. Nevertheless, this report does offer a generous cross-section of wines from across the region.

Piedmont new release reports:

Barolo 2014 vintage report and tasting notes 

 Barbaresco 2015 & Riserva 2013: Latest releases

Barolo 2012 Riserva: Top rated wines 

Roero 2015 & Riserva 2014: Latest releases

Coming soon:

Barolo Riserva 2012 

Roero 2015 & Riserva 2014

Other articles you might enjoy:

The cru-isation of Barolo

Barolo 2013: Top wines and vintage review

Brunello di Montalcino 2013: Report and top wines

See our Piedmont vintage guide here: Updated in 2018