Lorenzo Accomasso Barolo Annunziata 2011 750ml Riserva

When Lorenzo Accomasso phoned his Japanese importer about this 2011 Riserva, the message came with a warning: still interested in my wine? Next time the price goes up.

The cellar sits in Annunziata, a hamlet of La Morra, and the importer's profile of the estate, reproduced by the Tokyo retailer Tuscany, gives its shape in a few numbers: around 12,000 bottles a year across Barolo, Dolcetto and a little Barbera from vines over 80 years old. Every lot gets a long maceration, more than 50 days for Nebbiolo in some years, and the Barolo then rests in large casks for so long that each release runs a year behind the neighbours. Most of it went to Swiss and German regulars of ten or twenty years' standing, so the wine was hard to find even in Italy.

This bottling reached Japan in August 2019, when Hisato Ota of Vinaiota reported that Accomasso had telephoned to say the Riserva was bottled, that demand was strong enough to sell the lot to private customers calling at the cellar, but that he ought to share some. Ota wrote that the price was, as promised, steep; that rumours of a famous producer buying the wines and vineyards after his death had given way to a young distant relative intending to take over; and that the wine was, in his words, the Accomasso style at full throttle.

A year earlier the same importer had half given up on another shipment. After his sister Elena died, following years in which Lorenzo had been her carer, nearly everything he bottled went to visiting private buyers and Italian restaurants, and the 2009 never reached Japan. There is no fax or computer at the estate; invoices arrive with the shipping company's container papers and the laboratory emails the analysis. Vinaiota's January 2013 note records a Barolo 2000 still unbottled, sold to a négociant because he was not satisfied with it, and a 2003 still in cask. That is the patience behind a Riserva released eight years after harvest.

In the glass

No critic note for this exact bottling was opened; the description rests on the importer. Vinaiota calls the 2011 Riserva the Accomasso style at full throttle, and its estate profile defines that style as classical: very long skin maceration and long ageing in large casks. Berry Bros. & Rudd lists the 2011 as a dry, full-bodied red at 15% alcohol.

When to open

Berry Bros. & Rudd rates the 2011 as ready but youthful, with a drinking window of 2018 to 2044. Our suggestion: decant an hour ahead and serve at 16 to 18°C.

At the table

Our suggestion: brasato al Barolo, roast game birds, or aged Castelmagno.

Quick facts

Provenance

Sourced from the Japanese importer.

Sources: Vinaiota (Japanese importer, new-arrival notes 2013/2018/2019/2022/2023 and online shop); Tuscany (Japanese retailer); Berry Bros. & Rudd; Cambusa; Wine-Searcher; SommPicks