Luigi Pira Barolo del Commune di Serralunga 2019

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

The cluster of famous crus owned by the Pira family are the premier vineyards around Serralunga village: Margheria and Marenca, which are only just separated from the great Vigna Rionda. Barolo ‘Serralunga’ is the Pira normale, an assemblage of the three crus.

About Azienda Agricola Luigi Pira

The story of the Pira family is the story of Barolo, one told about people of great warmth and integrity. Always seeking quality and improvement, the Pira family are workers of the land, using the grape Nebbiolo (and Barbera and Dolcetto) as the medium through which their particular terroir can speak. Like many Langhe families, they started as growers and eventually released their own wines under the family name.

Luigi Pira was the first to bottle the family’s wines, prompted by stories from the outside world of the interest in Barolo, and encouraged by sons Giampaolo and Romolo, and later Claudio, who were confident of the eventual demand for Serralunga and the importance of their vineyard plots. Giampaolo later took the reins in the winery and was one of the original and probably the lowest-key of the ‘Barolo Boys’.

In the Vineyard

Seeing compost in vineyards is always a good sign. Health dirt, better water retention, a greater volume of soil accessible to the vines, slow release of nutrients all positive.

In the Winery

Up until recent years, the use of roto-fermenters with quick ferments and a decent amount of new oak resulted in somewhat ‘Parker-ised’ wines, but due to the very strong Serralunga imprint – stock, smoke, graphite and darkest cherry – the wines and their personalities always overtook the oak. These days, ferments have been significantly slowed down to allow for a gentler process. The barrels are fewer, larger and older, and commentary on the presence of oak has disappeared over the last few years.

Today, a Luigi Pira Barolo is regarded as a benchmark for wines that show classic Serralunga characters of darkness and power, allied with numerous complexities and an up-tempo style. Vineyard management has been essentially sustainable for decades, too, and Pira are long-time practitioners of cover-cropping, natural insecticides and minimal sulphur use. One testimonial to this combination of attention to detail in both the winery and vineyard is to the distinctly individual characteristics in the ‘Margheria’ and ‘Marenca’ Baroli, even though the crus are adjacent.

The 2019 Vintage

What of 2019? Well from what I’ve seen to date, the best producers have used their experience to grow and make classically styles wines with good acidity, physiological ripeness, energy with on balance moderate alcohols for Nebbiolo. There is much more consistency across the board compared to 2018. The year has proven strong for Barbaresco and Barolo.

I’ve always said commentary on vintages is fraught with danger. It should always be considered a generalisation, it simply can’t account for the subtlety of site, viticultural circumstances & practices, and the wisdom of the hands making the vino.

The significant changes to climate and the adaption in the vineyard and winery over the last 2-3 decades make comparison of vintages beyond recent times problematic at best.

Taste enough with wise wine peeps and you’ll soon come to the conclusion that you must play what’s in the glass first, the maker and grower next and the vintage last.

There were some cracking wines made in 2017 & 2018 you just had to work harder to find them with much less consistency than 2015 & 2016.

Galloni talks of 5 key criteria to assess a Barolo growing season. These are similar to the commentary Masneghetti makes.

In summary, Galloni looks for the following conditions to be met:

1. Longer growing season, leads to later harvesting and better typically good physiological ripeness (tannins and flavours).

2. The longer season pushes the final ripening phase into a colour period with greater diurnal shifts. Warm days with cool nights. This helps with the retention of acid and allows for even ripening of sugars, flavours and tannins.

3. Absence of shock weather events frosts, hail, badly timed heavy rains, prolonged hot weather can result in inconsistent yields and rippening, disease pressure, vine shut down, sun burn and beyond.

4. Stable weather during the last month of ripening. As the crop nears ripeness the skins soften and the fruit has the capacity to take on more water from rainfall and is therefore more susceptible to dilution and disease with heavy rains in addition to shrivel or sun burn with heat and direct exposure to sunlight.

5. A late harvest to a degree this one is incorporated in condition 1 & 2. It is likely that if they are met this one will be too.

While these are a good start and do provide an indicator of favourable conditions for decent wines to be made, there are a great many vineyard and winery factors to consider.

Soil management to provide a stable, healthy, balanced environment with sufficient water holding capacity to see the vines through the growing season, canopy management to manage light and air flow keeping vines disease free and fruit protect from excessive direct exposure to the sun, techniques that lengthen the ripening phase to achieve phenological ripeness, with acid retention and that’s just a few consideration in a vineyard.

In the winery, understanding acid management and having the wisdom to use intuition, experience and science to manage tannins.

“… The 2019s are potent, tightly wound wines that will thrill readers who appreciate the nuance, subtlety and structure of Nebbiolo. Today, the 2019s show elements of youthful austerity that, at times, recall vintages such as 2016, 2005 and 1999 …”

Galloni

Vintage reports from others

Alessandro Masneghetti’s 2019 Barolo Vintage Report. Subscription required.

Where in the World is Luigi Pira?

Luigi has an incredible cluster of 3 Cru’s in Serralunga with: Margheria, the adjacent Marenca, and, the nearby Vigna Rionda.