KLWM Day 2: Eric Asimov’s Favorite Barbaresco?
If you’ve been watching the steady climb of Piedmont pricing as I have over the past decade, you already know how rare it is to find true Barbaresco that still feels like a value. The 2021 Silvio Giamello Barbaresco is an absolute inflation buster that delivers serious pedigree without the usual barrier to entry.
Imported by Kermit Lynch Wine Merchants, this is the kind of wine that reminds you why traditional Barbaresco captured the imagination of collectors in the first place. Kermit Lynch has long had a knack for uncovering growers who stay true to their roots, and Silvio Giamello is a perfect example. With just 2 hectares under vine, this is as small and focused as it gets with old-school farming, long macerations, and a commitment to letting Nebbiolo speak with elegance.
Aromatically, it leans into classic notes of rose petal, tar, and red cherry, with that unmistakable savory edge that only Nebbiolo can deliver. On the palate, it’s structured but not austere with fine tannins, bright acidity, and a core of fruit that feels both pure and restrained. The magical 2021 vintage, so classic in style, is perfect for classic wine making, showing the true soul of Nebbiolo This is traditional Barbaresco through and through, with no shortcuts taken.
Back in 2010, Eric Asimov selected this wine as the standout in his Wine School, a testament to just how clearly it expresses its place and grape. Fast forward to today, and the 2021 vintage is being hailed as one of the best of the generation in Piedmont, combining power, balance, and age-worthy structure. You have a benchmark vintage, a deeply traditional producer farming just a handful of hectares, and an importer in Kermit Lynch Wine Merchants who has brought it stateside with remarkable value intact. It drinks beautifully now with a decant, but more importantly, it’s a wine built to evolve for decades.
Barbaresco like this, at this price, simply doesn’t come around often. It’s the kind of bottle that works just as well on a weeknight as it does when pulled from the cellar ten or fifteen years from now. This is not a hard sell, but there are only 4+ cases available of this.
Tom Wolf, Kermit Lynch
That Silvio Giamello’s exquisite Barbaresco costs the same now as what Eric Asimov and his New York Times “Wine School” panel paid for it in 2010 speaks to the incredible value you can still find in Piedmont. They named that wine—the 2005 vintage—their favorite Barbaresco of the bunch, judging that “its structure was evident, yet so was its delicacy.” The same is true in 2021. This bottling is a master class in how to produce Nebbiolo that is simultaneously lithe and full of character.