2021 Barolo Part Two: Restless Energy

BY ANTONIO GALLONI | SEPTEMBER 30, 2025

I was once again deeply impressed with the 2021 Barolos. My summer tastings focused on late releases and other wines I missed earlier in the year, along with a few 2021s I had a chance to revisit. Those tastings confirmed that 2021 is an exceptional year in terms of both quality and consistency. As I have written before, savvy Piedmont fans should note that it will be some time before another vintage of this caliber enters the market.

In Short…

Two thousand twenty-one is a gorgeous vintage all around, starting with the entry-level Barolos, sometimes known as Barolo normale or Barolo classico, both terms I feel do a disservice to the wines. Moving into the single-vineyard bottlings, 2021 has so much to offer. The wines are highly expressive of site. Moreover, so many 2021s are easy to taste and enjoy young. Readers may want to consult my article 2021 Barolo: Changing Times, Changing Wines for more context on the growing season and wines. In that report, I wrote that “the 2021s are marked by good color, open aromatics, pliant fruit and finessed, ripe tannins. At the very pinnacle of excellence, the finest 2021s are compelling and profoundly expressive of place. They are richer than the generally austere 2019s but more vibrant than the open-knit 2020s, making 2021 the most harmonious and consistent of the group. In the final analysis, 2021 is a vintage marked by high average quality. The only thing missing is perhaps the stratospheric peaks of the most exceptional years.” My second round of tastings confirmed those initial impressions.

A striking sunset in Annunziata, in the heart of La Morra.

Restless Energy

I have been tasting Barolo (and Barbaresco) for about 30 years now. The first young vintage I have a clear memory of was 1990. The wines were so opulent and showy. I first visited Piedmont in 1997 and have returned several times a year since then. I have never seen more positive change and energy than what I see today. It’s such an exciting time in Piedmont. This report is a bit smaller than usual, only because we have shifted reviews for many wines to the larger article that we publish at the beginning of the year. And yet this supplemental report shows just how dynamic Piedmont is right now.

I think of Gianpaolo Pira, who has made gorgeous wines for more than two decades. His 2021 Barolos show a newfound level of finesse that was absent in the early days. The 2021s here are superb. Just down the road, Guido Porro turned out a striking set of 2021s as well. In the past, I have found the wines often a bit diffuse and lacking focus. Not the 2021s, they are superb. Matteo Ascheri has been in the game for many years now. Here, too, I found wines of far greater finesse than in the past. Ratti is another historic winery that has found a new level of quality—wines of greater elegance than the days when maximum extraction was the goal. At Prunotto, the story is one of continual and gradual improvement over a long period of time.

I was blown away by the new releases from Mauro Mascarello, especially the 2020 Barolo Monprivato, his best wine since the epic 1989. It’s no secret this family winery has been through some ups and downs in recent years. Hopefully, things are back on track.

Brandini is a young estate to watch. Sisters Giovanna and Serena Bagnasco are making gorgeous, super-refined Barolos. Also in La Morra, Giulia Negri is turning out wonderfully classy Barolos. Both estates embody the spirit and energy of the new generation in Barolo. Readers will find more context in the producer commentaries that accompany the respective reviews.

Foundational Wines

This report also includes a smattering of Dolcettos, Barberas and other wines most critics/publications barely pay attention to anymore. I consider these to be foundational wines in that they are the wines most consumers can afford to drink on a regular basis. For younger wine lovers, these bottles are a gateway to Barolo, Barbaresco and Piedmont’s other top reds and deserve to be appreciated as such.

The State of the Market

It's no secret that the wine industry is facing some headwinds. A post-pandemic cooling of bubble-like prices was inevitable. Unfortunately, continued uncertainty about the broader state of the world, tariffs and changes in consumption patterns are creating considerable stress in the industry. In practical terms, this means importers are either delaying picking up orders or cutting back on purchases, creating a bottleneck of excess supply that will strain a system sure to be further challenged by vintages of far less consistent quality that lie on the horizon. For the savvy consumer, or for anyone looking to buy wine, this is a great time to be in the market.

© 2025, Vinous. No portion of this article may be copied, shared or redistributed without prior consent from Vinous. Doing so is not only a violation of our copyright but also threatens the survival of independent wine criticism.

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