Renato Ratti, Barolo (Piedmont, Italy) 2011

Some vintages of Ratti’s Conca can seem impenetrably hard and oaky, but the wine is terrific in 2011, and one won’t need to hope for the best for 15 years before being rewarded.  There’s plenty of toast and vanilla up top, as usual, but the sheer sweetness of the fruit derived from this vintage over-rides the oak notes and tames the tannins as well.  Still, there’s loads of coiled power in this wine, which shows very dark-toned fruit.  It may well firm up at some point in its development, but it is already a great wine.  Pietro Ratti turned in a sensational performance in 2011, and I had his (always striking) bottling from Rocche dell’ Annunziata also scored at 95.  The Conca got the write-up here because it rarely attains the level of excellence of the Rocche, but the real star of the year may be the “Marcenasco” bottling, which is blended from several different sites in La Morra.  Ratti makes much more of it, with a lot less fancy oak, but it has been superb in 2010 as well as 2011 (94 was my blind score), and is a terrific value at the top level of quality.