2008 is a classic vintage in Piedmont with a winter of three snowstorms followed by a rainy spring with April temperatures way below average, a warm May and a pretty cold and wet first half of June. The beginning of summer offered much warmer, but still quite wet weather that remained all through July. This was followed by average summer temperatures in August and September was very dry.
The harvest for this wine started on October 4th and in line with classic years such as 2004, 1999, except for in general some more minerals and just a little higher acidity. The climate was ideal here and the harvest lasted for a full two weeks without issues. The sugar level in the grapes are not as high as the previous vintage 2007 and the tannins are much more high-quality and complex thanks to the slow ripening this year that is so favourable to nebbiolo. The fruit is intense, and the acidity not shy… a great vintage for Nebbiolo especially in Barbaresco!
2008 Montefico, Produttori di Barbaresco Riserva
Amazingly, when considering the classic characteristics of this vintage, this wine puts me with a very young, sexy, flirty and lovely, but sophisticated, girl on very sunny summers evening at the grill in a garden of fresh herbs and roses. Impressively fresh and enchanting, young lovely perfumes really stand out and she offers tons of crowd-pleasing ripe fruit and personality. Her love is immediate and irresistible. Truly an already very approachable, very aromatic wine with perfect tannins and with loads of characteristic tar and smoke as well as herbs, seductive perfumes and blossoming flowers. Open in 2016 just to let the acidity integrate just a little more and don’t forget to serve at about 17 degrees Celsius after four hours of decanting. Costs about €40 which is remarkably price-worthy for this quality and probably impossible to beat.
95p/100