Vintage wines
| Year | Rating | Drinkability | Style |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 |  |
keep | Copious yields, so green-harvesting essential. Excellent quality and staying power. |
| 2009 | |
keep | A very hot summer and an early harvest gave rich, opulent and hedonistic wines |
| 2008 | |
keep | Another 2008 vintage saved by an Indian summer. Expect intense flavours but a more elegant structure than last year. Low yielding harvest. |
| 2007 | |
keep | Lengthy ripening season produced well-structured, aromatic wines with plentiful butripe, velvety tannins. |
| 2006 | |
keep | For growers who worked judiciously in the vineyards, the vintage is expected to show a classic, good structure, nice restraint on the fruit but a certain element of power as well. |
| 2005 | |
keep | Climate conditions have been erratic with many producers saying it’s been a tough and difficult vintage. |
| 2004 | |
keep | Well balanced wines with ripe fruit. |
| 2003 | |
keep | Deep, bold reds with high levels of alcohol and in the best cases balanced with ripe fruit. |
| 2002 | |
drink now | An average year, the best of which will be a relatively elegant style of Barolo. |
| 2001 | |
keep | Lovely, ripe with good concentration and with excellent aging potential—chewy, concentrated, and phenolic. |
| 2000 | |
keep | Quality is good to very good in all the major Barolo areas. |
| 1999 | |
keep | A decent vintage with a good late ripening season, quality depends on the individual grower. |
| 1998 | |
keep | The third great vintage in a row. |
| 1997 | |
drink now | An outstanding vintage which produced superbly ripe wines for mid-term ageing. |
| 1996 | |
drink now | A troublesome vintage, though the top growers still managed to produce some excellent wines. |
| 1995 | |
drink now | An over-hyped vintage at the time, the wines now seem lacking in fruit. |
| 1994 | |
drink now | Prolonged rain caused serious problems although a few producers still made good wines. |
| 1993 | |
drink now | A variable vintage of irregular quality. Some good Barolo. |
| 1992 | |
drink now | Cold and wet weather at harvest time produced thin, light wines. |
| 1991 | |
drink now | A better vintage than first thought, but not up to the standard of the previous three. |
| 1990 | |
keep | A superb vintage all round with Barolo and set for a long life. |
| 1989 | |
drink now | An excellent vintage, free of the rains which plagued the rest of Italy. |
| 1988 | |
drink now | October rains were a problem but the wines from this vintage finally turned out well. |
| 1987 | |
drink now | Uneven quality overall. |
| 1986 | |
drink now | Serious hail problems in many Barolo communes. Some good wines were still made. |
| 1985 | |
drink now | A superb vintage with rich, perfumed wines destined for long ageing. |
| 1984 | |
drink now | A sub-standard Piedmont vintage. |
| 1983 | |
drink now | A weak vintage producing lightweight, early-maturing wines. |
| 1982 | |
drink now | A tremendous vintage for big, rich and fruity Barolo. |
| 1981 | |
drink now | An unexceptional year of only average quality. |
| 1980 | |
drink now | A sound, rather than exciting, vintage. |
| 1979 | |
drink now | A good year of above average quality. |
| 1978 | |
drink now | An excellent vintage which produced well-structured, long-lived wines. |
| 1977 | |
drink now | Wines were adequate at best. |
| 1976 | |
drink now | An unremarkable vintage producing few wines suitable for long-term ageing. |
| 1975 | |
drink now | A vintage now best forgotten. |
| 1974 | |
drink now | A good vintage after two disappointing years. |
| 1973 | |
drink now | An indifferent year with few wines of note. |
| 1972 | |
drink now | A uniformly dreadful vintage. |
| 1971 | |
drink now | The second great year in a row, with very fine Barolo. |