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Elio Altare, Barolo Vigneto Arborina, 1986

Red Wine from Piedmont, Italy
by Elio Altare
$129.99
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A 40-year-old museum piece from the man who rewrote Barolo. In 1983 Elio Altare took a chainsaw to his father's old Slavonian botti — the founding gesture of the Barolo Boys movement, and the moment that split the appellation into modernist and traditionalist camps. Arborina was his cuvée — among the very first single-vineyard Barolos ever bottled, from his family's La Morra parcel. The 1986 was a difficult, low-yielding vintage marked by spring hail, but in the early-modernist Altare hands it produced a wine of real elegance — and four decades on, it has shed its youthful frame entirely. Now run by daughter Silvia, the estate remains an icon. A bottle this old is about texture, mature aromatics, and presence — not primary fruit.

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Antonio Galloni

94 points

"I can't say I am surprised to see how well Altare's 1986s show given that the 1986 Larigi was one of the stand outs in a complete vertical of that wine several years ago. Dark red cherries, smoke, tobacco, licorice, menthol and leather open up in the 1986 Barolo Vigneto Arborina. A wine of surprising depth and density for its age, the 1986 has more than enough depth to drink well for another decade or so. This is a striking example of contemporary Barolo. The 1986 is the first vintage in which Altare used French oak alongside casks for his Barolo. Altare would go on to make much more radical wines, but tasting the 1986 today, one can clearly see what a difference even relatively small changes had on the wines. Was the revolution that followed really necessary? Probably yes, because that is human nature. But tasting the wine now, I am not so sure." —Antonio Galloni

More about Elio Altare

Wine Details

  • Grape Variety

    Nebbiolo

  • Vintage

    1986

  • Size

    750ml

  • Farming Practice

    Traditional

  • Sweetness

    Dry

  • Body

    Full Bodied

Flatiron's Take

From the Importer

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Tasting Notes & Food Pairings

Perfect Pairings

Aged wines like this want quiet food: simple roast capon, agnolotti in brodo, an aged Castelmagno, or a slow-cooked guinea hen. Don't fight it — frame it.

Tasting Profile

Garnet through and through. Rose petal, dried cherry, tobacco leaf, leather, sweet tea, forest floor. Silky, ethereal frame, tannins long resolved. Whispers more than speaks. Drink soon, with reverence.

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