Oddero Barolo 2018

*Orders will begin shipping late next week. 

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.

But in 2018 – Oddero made a costly mistake (for them) and one of the best wines ever for us. 2017 was a very rough year for Barolo, so moving into 2018 they were a little reluctant to believe the level of quality.

They decided to skip making each of their grand cru Barolos which sell for hundreds of dollars a piece and instead blended them all together into a declassified regular Barolo bottling.

Here’s Vinous full 93 point review that explains a bit of what is going on:

The 2018 Barolo is terrific. In 2018, the Odderos were not completely convinced of the results across all their sites. Ultimately, they blended all of their vineyard designates into the straight Barolo, with the exception of the Brunate and a Riserva from Vigna Rionda. In the glass, their 2018 is captivating. Exotic aromatics, bright red berry fruit and vibrant acids give the 2018 its considerable allure. Vineyard sites are: Fiasco, Bricco Chiesa, Capalot, Bussia, Villero, Rocche di Castiglione and Monvigliero. Look for this to be one of the under the radar gems of the vintage. I loved it. In fact, the Oddero Barolo is one of the few 2018s readers should not miss. It is a very strong ‘buy’ in my book.