Oddero Barolo 2019

“This is another stellar set of wines from Mariacristina and Isabella Oddero. The 2019s spent about 25 days on the skins, with natural fermentations. Aging was 24-26 months in cask, followed by a period in cement or steel before bottling. These precise, classically built Barolos continue to impress. Moreover, prices remain exceptionally fair.” -Antonio Galloni, Vinous

Oddero has been a consistent pioneer in the Barolo space, beginning over 144 years ago when they were the first to choose to not sell their wine in bulk but instead bottle it and put the winery name on it starting with the 1878 vintage.

In the 1920s they took quality to the next level, creating the first ‘cru’s – small parcels farmed for individual character much like the great vineyards of Burgundy. Many much larger wineries have since followed the Oddero playbook.

Their wines – made in tiny amounts are feverishly collected by Barolo fans, but they are imported in tiny amounts since there is such a small amount to go around. We’ve been one of the few to consistently get our hands on their bottlings but the amounts are so small, I usually just hand sell them to a few of our biggest Nebbiolo buyers. This year, we got slightly more than that – but don’t expect these to be in-house for too long.

The 2019 vintage was spectacular in Barolo and in news that should surprise nobody, Oddero’s baseline Barolo is one of the very best made. Decanter gave the vintage a perfect 5/5 and talked about how it was a much less diluted vintage its predecessor. They also rained down a 93-point score on the Oddero which they called, “a very stylish Barolo”.