The last three vintages of Barbaresco -2021, 2020, and 2019- are a trio that will have wine pundits, wine lovers, and wine professionals talking for some time. The wines of these three vintages are some of the best in recent memory and all three years have given us excellent wines:  in some instances, truly spectacular wines. For example, I can’t remember ever tasting as large a volume of outstanding Barbarescos (at a similar stage of development) as those of 2021, a vintage of truly fantastic wines that in my opinion will shape up to be even better in Barbaresco than in Barolo (but to be clear, 2021 is a great vintage there too).

When speaking to the locals in the two weeks I spent this past September in the Langhe, I found that Barbaresco’s wine producers (Barolo’s too, for that matter), were comparing the 2021, 2020, and 2019 vintages to two other past trios of vintages that have become famous in time for stellar wines: the 1988, 1989, and 1990 trifecta and the almost as impressive ensemble of 1999, 2000 and 2001. To help you understand, many believe the wines of 2021 to be like those of 2001 and 1989; the wines of 2020 to echo those of 2000 and 1990; and those of 2019 to be reminiscent of the famous Barbarescos of 1999 and 1988. With a few caveats, I can agree with these viewpoints, as the thinking behind such analogies is generally valid and easy enough to agree with: the wines of 1988 and 1999 were powerful and classic wines that required time to develop and expand fully; and the wines of 2000 and 1990, like those of 2020, left tasters with the impressions that they were readier (or would be readier) to drink sooner than the wines from other two vintages in their respective trio. As mentioned, those comparisons are not picture-perfect: for example, I for one don’t think that 1990 and 2000 had that much in common save for a generalized, vague, early approachability deriving from what were very hot growing seasons (for the record, I will add that, with a few notable exceptions, I never cared for much at all the Barolos and Barbarescos of 2000, and never once thought, and still don’t, that it was a year of memorable wines). But, once again, there are enough analogies and similarities along general lines between the wines of each trio of vintages to allow for such broad generalizations.

But as mentioned at the start of this article, when all is said and done, what really matters to all us wine lovers is that the 2021, 2020 and 2019 vintages have delivered many truly spectacular wines, and are characterized by, give or take, mostly excellence across the board. To me, one of those vintages is the standout (2021); another is loaded with a litany of potentially outstanding wines that will worry collectors and wine lovers only from the perspective of a potential failure in developing or upkeeping their fruit (2019); and even the weakest of the three (2020) still offers many delicious, excellent wines, provided one picks and chooses with a little care. To put all that in simpler, more immediate words, I can also tell you that the 2021 wines are all violet and dried red cherry; the wines of 2019 more herbal and less fruity (at least not in the forefront); and those of 2020 are especially marked by notes of blood orange and dried herbs, confirming it to be a vintage of somewhat more “Mediterranean” wines.

That was the synopsis of my take on the vintage. And what do the producers say? According to Bruna Giacosa…