On the Top Langhe Wine Group, This Producer Is the Talk of the Town
– Changed Voerzio to Start Making Classic Wines
– His Barolo Top Crus Go for $400+
– Started His Own Micro Estate on the Side
– Top, Top, Top Tier in the Langhe
– This Will Be the Reference Point Barbera Once the Word Gets Out
Please Read This E-Mail
– Cesare Bussolo Is Reinventing How Grapes Are Grown
– He’s Hacking the Race Condition
– The Potential Ramifications Are Quite Important
We Got a Small Allocation Out of 600 Bottles Made
– This Is Our Next Fauterie Cuvee H, Brisset Echezeaux, Molitor ZH Auslese*** (White Capsule)
– Is Beloved and Allocated Beyond Belief
– Among THE Best Wines Made From Barbera Bar None
Cesare Bussolo
– The Logical Conclusion of Modern Vineyard Management
– “Hacking the Race Condition”
– Crazy Low Yields
– 5 Times the Labor per Bottle
– He Doesn’t Have #1 in Italy in His Sights, He Has Domaine Leroy
2021 Cesare Bussolo Barbera d’Alba Roscaleto
– The Greatest Barbera Currently Being Made in Italy
– I Only Have 28 Bottles
– Same Style as Voerzio’s $400 a Bottle Magnum Pozzo dell’Anunziata
– Nose: Deep and Crazy Complex
– Blackberry, Black Cherry, Blackberry Liqueur
– Intense Minerality,
– Leather, Incense
– Mocha, Licorice, Cloves and Lavender
– Some Gamey Meats
– A Wine You Can Taste All Night and Never Get Bored
– Palate: Super Concentrated but Light as Feather
– Unreal Fruit
– Maybe the Most Elegant and Balanced Barbera I’ve Ever Had
– So Elegant, Pure and Concentrated
– So Explosive
– Lipstick-Like Tiny Berry Fruit Intensity
– Blackberry and Black Cherry
– One of the Purest Wines I’ve Ever Had
The titles on this E-Mail are bold statements. Perhaps the boldest we’ve made in our history. But I hope that you will indulge us as we walk you through this. It’s quite important to understand why the wines taste like they do and why they are so special. Even unique.
Please indulge us as we, in true Talmudic fashion, lead you to our conclusions.
What Is a Race Condition and Why Does It Matter?
– A race condition occurs when you have a system performing two or more things at once and if one of those things doesn’t work out, you have a disaster.
– Growing grapes is essentially a race condition.
. On the one hand, you have the grapes achieving “phenolic ripeness.” This means that the flavors that you want are expressed properly. Fruit, secondary characteristics,etc.|
. As the grapes mature, you also get more sugar which, when the grapes are fermented, turns into alcohol. More sugar, more alcohol. Higher levels of alcohol can obviously cause wines to taste hot.
. If grapes hang on the vines too long, you can also lose acidity and freshness.
– Now the problem is that if the particular combination of weather and terroir slows phenolic ripeness, you have 2 choices. Either pick early and have green tasting wine or pick late, risking hot and potentially not fresh wine.
Why Are Wines from Old Vines Better?
We all love old vines. But why? The answer is pretty easy. Older wines produce less fruit and the small amount of fruit that they make is better because the plant devotes all of the energy it gets from the sun, and nutrients it gets from from the soil, to making a smaller number of grapes great.
Why Do Winemakers do Green Harvest?
Green harvests, or the removal of unripe grapes during the summer, are done to approximate the effects of old vines. Winemakers remove some of the bunches to reduce the number of grapes and allow the vines to concentrate all resources on a smaller number of grapes.
So What Does Cesare Bussolo Do?
Cesare has taken the green harvest approach to a logical conclusion. His approach allows young vines to act like old vines. He has basically hacked the race condition.
1.He plants high density. This may seem counterintuitive but when combined with the rest of his program, it makes complete sense.
2.He removes unripe grapes three times per year instead of once. The obvious benefit is to concentrate the vines’ energies on a smaller number of grapes throughout the growing
season. The downside is that he uses 5 times the amount of labor per bottle as a normal winemaker.
3.He chops off half or more of the grapes on each bunch.
4.The number of grapes per vine is dramatically lower. But each and every one of those grapes is perfect.
How Does This Impact the Wine?
1.He gets perfect fruit. Perfect. It’s not really the high levels of fruitiness of the fruit (e.g. cherry, raspberry), but the secondary and tertiary flavors. It’s the balance. Each grape is getting an optimal amount of energy and nutrition because of Cesare’s extreme regimen.
2.He harvests earlier – like August earlier. Because each vine is focusing the energy it receives on a smaller number of grapes, those grapes ripen earlier.
3.Difficult vintages don’t really matter to him. His grapes are like LeBron James dunking on5 foot basket. It doesn’t really matter if there is a bit of wind. When other winemakers are worrying about rain in September, Cesare is drinking a beer with his buddies and watching his wines mature. He avoids all of the worries about crappy fall weather by inducing his grapes to ripen so that he can harvest in the summer before it gets wet. He’s not worried about that last bit of sunshine ripening his grapes. It’s all done.
WhatWill Happen to Ceare’s Wines in the Future?
1.Going forward, Cesare is going to be even more severe – yields will drop an additional 50% off of an already low base.
2.He’s not trying to be the best winemaker in Italy – he’s trying to be the best winemaker in the world.
3.Prices will double over the next 10 years (because yields will fall by 50%). And before you get into any discussion of supply and demand, trust me he will be able to sell out. Listening to this guy is like hearing the Sermon on the Mount live in person. 2 hours with him and you’d bet your entire fortune on an allocation of his wines.
Today I’ve got the greatest Barbera currently being made in Italy.
The 2021 Cesare Bussolo Barbera d’Alba Roscaleto is $129.99 a bottle on a 3-pack. I only have 27 bottles. This wine is Barbera in its highest most elite form. It can age and needs age as it was much better on day 2. This is the same style wine that Cesare makes for Roberto Voerzio only in Magnum which goes for $245-$399, The Pozzo dell’Anunziata. The Roscaleto is a freak show and unlike any wine we sell. It is so decadent, juicy and complex you could drink this at a party Caligula would throw. It’s that type of wine. It’s beyond amazing.
Nose is deep and complex with incense, blackberry, intense minerality, leather, smoke first base glove (new), just insane aromas. Black cherry, mocha, licorice, cloves and lavender develop with air. Its aromas are so vivid and so complex they smell better than the real thing. They are so vivid and well defined it’s really like nothing else. You get major left field aromas like blackberry liqueur, some gamey meats, and a granitic/ limestone minerality. And even some dark cherries, orange skin and balsamic herbs. A wine you can taste all night and never get bored or complain that you haven’t tasted it yet.
Palate is super concentrated but light as feather and has unreal fruit. Maybe the most elegant and balanced Barbera I’ve ever had. Remarkable. So elegant, pure and concentrated with just absolutely thrilling fruit. Ripe but such tiny berry intensity. The silliness of the palate is just beyond. So profound.
OK this needed mega air as today (Day 2) it is insane. Bonkers sweet fruit that is so velvety and has top 1% finesse. Holy moly this is good. This is the DRC RC of Barbera. It is so rich and so deep with such an amazing red violet color but also has peppery notes that remind me of Cornas. For a wine to be this rich, but also this silky and elegant is quite an achievement. It’s finish last forever and builds and builds. So explosive with such lipstick-like tiny berry fruit intensity. Blackberry and black cherry all the way. Maybe one of the purest wines I’ve ever had. Essence of the vine pure here. I would age this for 5-6 years to see what happens and decant for 24 hours of being drunk today. A thrilling wine unlike anything we have ever sold .
Please call Cheryl at 949 378 5251 after emailing with your firstorder if you are a first time customer (we prefer not to receive credit card numbers over E-Mail).
OFFICE HOURS 4-7 PM
I love drinking and selecting wines – but my passion for teaching people about wine is almost as big. I’m happy to announce a block of time each day where people can call me just to chat about wine in general. These blocks are NOT intended to sell wine (I do that all day). This is to talk to me about wine pairings or great producers or how long to age wines or styles of wine making or the latest wine controversy. My goal is to help people learn more about wine and enjoy it more. Call me at 917-912-4355 from 4-7EST Monday – Friday.
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